James gang gets makeover

Cavs are still adjusting to big midseason deal

Coach Mike Brown's new starting backcourt with the Cavaliers has a familiar look to it for Boston fans: ex-Celtics Delonte West (left) and Wally Szczerbiak. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

WALTHAM - The Cleveland Cavaliers are a different team now. Some would even say they underwent an extreme makeover in February, rearranging their roster in a three-team, 11-player deal.

The changes not only bolstered the Cavs' sagging playoff hopes but left them vastly improved over last year's squad that upset the favored Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals and advanced to the NBA Finals, where they were swept in four games by the San Antonio Spurs.

"They're definitely a different team than we saw," said Paul Pierce, referring to the 1-2 record the Celtics compiled against the Cavs before Boston evened the regular-season series with a 92-87 victory over the reconfigured Cavs Feb. 27 at TD Banknorth Garden.

Instead of leaning on LeBron James to carry the team on another magical playoff run to the Finals, general manager Danny Ferry opted to get his superstar some help. With his team languishing at 30-24, Ferry pulled the trigger at the Feb. 21 trading deadline and shipped Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Cedric Simmons, and Shannon Brown to the Bulls for Joe Smith and Ben Wallace, and Ira Newble and Donyell Marshall to the Sonics for Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West, a pair of former Celtics who likely will receive a warm welcome upon their return tonight to Boston for Game 1 of this best-of-seven series.

"I think they're better," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "I think they have more skill, and LeBron is another year [wiser], acquiring more veterans and more outside shooters.

"The Spurs in that championship series were really able to sag the paint and force others to beat them. Now, others can. Wally did that in Game 6 [of the first-round series] in Washington. They kept leaving Wally Szczerbiak open and I thought he was thinking, 'Well, this is new.'

"I love what they've done. I think a lot of teams would've stayed pat. I think Danny Ferry decided, 'Listen, we got to the Finals, but we didn't win it, and it's not good enough.' It's a good message for LeBron."

The message being that the reigning Eastern Conference champs were not going down without a fight. So the fact that they were able post a 15-13 record while trying to establish some sense of cohesion on the fly was remarkable. Then again, they do have the NBA's most remarkable player in LeBron James, the league's scoring leader (30.0 points) who this season surpassed Brad Daugherty (10,389 points) as the franchise's scoring leader.

"They have better players from a year ago," Pierce said. "LeBron is a better player than he was a year ago. Their confidence factor going into this year's playoffs is a lot higher knowing what they are capable of. Definitely, a better team.

"You got LeBron James, a guy that is going to have the ball in his hands about 90 percent of the time. Our objective with him is to try to slow him down. He's a guy who has the ultimate green light. He's tough to guard.

"You want to mix it up with him. Put different defenders on him. Limit his catches. Make it difficult for him to get easy baskets and try to make some of those other guys beat you."

Problem is, some of the "other guys" the Cavs acquired and cast in supporting roles are definitely up to the task. Smith and Wallace give them more frontcourt presence and depth while Szczerbiak and West have done the same for the backcourt.

"The more success we have together, the better this team is going to be because they're talented and smart and hungry for a championship," Cavs coach Mike Brown said. "The reality of it is, if this team would've been together since training camp, they'd have a better feel than what they have now.

"For being together for as short a period as they have been, because of their intelligence, their feel is decent.

"We're getting better. Can we be better? I feel like we haven't reached our ceiling yet, so I do think we do have a ways to go and we just have to continue to understand that. More importantly, we have to believe in that."

The Cavaliers have made believers out of the Celtics.

"You can't take anything away from them, especially when you got LeBron on the team," Pierce said. "He makes so many of the other guys better. That's what he's done with this group.

"Regardless of the changes that they've made, we still look at them as the Eastern Conference champs, we still look at them as the team we're going to have to go through, and if we don't stop these guys, it's going to be a long series."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.