Pierce, Powe, and Posey... the true "Parquet Posse"

God bless Kevin Garnett, but I always thought the true NBA defensive player of the year for the 2007-08 season was his fellow Boston Celtic Paul Pierce. He had the best "Defensive Win Score" on the best Defensive Win Score team in the Association. (Of course, you could counterargue that Pierce's decidedly improved defensive performance was directly related to Kevin Garnett's arrival... and I would probably buy that.)

Anyhow, in the Cleveland series we have thus far seen a true "Parquet Posse" mount up -- Paul Pierce and his partners in defensive excellence, James Posey and Leon Powe. My understanding of a posse from my limited knowledge of Westerns is a gang put together to corral the greatest threat to the community.

And Pierce, Powe, and Posey have thus far done an astonishing job of corralling the greatest threat to CelticNation, LeBron James. James' regular season raw Offensive Win Score average was a celestial 14.7. For the playoff series thus far, James has been held by the Parquet Posse to an earthbound average of -0.2. And the Celtics (mostly Paul Pierce) have collectively locked down the small forward position in similar fashion all season long.

I would expect James to somewhat break free in Cleveland. Remember, the Celts were able to lock down Atlanta's Josh Smith in similar fashion until he got to Atlanta. Nevertheless, what the posse has done so far to limit the production of "The King" is unquestionably the story of this series.