Eastern final features father-son coaching duel

INDEPENDENCE (AP) — Mike Malone has always followed his father Brendan’s advice. A respectful son, he still calls his dad regularly for guidance on life and hoops.

Those conversations are on hold.

“Now that it’s us against them,” Mike Malone said with a smile, “I don’t plan on talking to him for a little while.”

Papa Malone won’t be dialing his son’s number either.

“We’ll probably see each other on the court, and that’s it,” Brendan Malone said.

There’s a family subplot to this season’s Eastern Conference final between Cleveland and Orlando. The Malone family is divided. Mike, tracing his father’s coaching footsteps, is in his fourth season as an assistant with the Cavaliers while Brendan, Cleveland’s interim coach for 18 games at the end of LeBron James’ second pro season, is on Stan Van Gundy’s staff in Orlando.

With the best-of-seven series set to open on Wednesday night, the younger Malone made an obvious prediction on the outcome.

“There will be a Malone in the NBA finals,” he said.

After sitting around for the second time in these playoffs, the series-sweeping Cavaliers, who broomed Detroit and Atlanta into early summer vacations, are expecting a much stiffer challenge from the Magic. Orlando won both of their matchups at home against Cleveland during the regular season, including a 116-87 thrashing on April 3 — the Cavaliers’ worst loss in 90 games.

Cleveland has lost just once since that mauling by the Magic, and that setback came in overtime in the April 15 season finale against Philadelphia, a game James, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Mo Williams sat out to get extra rest for the playoffs.

The Cavaliers don’t seem too concerned about the Magic despite last month’s lopsided loss in Florida.

“Hopefully, they’re comfortable and feeling themselves right now,” Williams said. “We’re a different team — trust me. We’re motivated to play. We’re focused.”

For the opener, Van Gundy will return rookie guard Courtney Lee to the starting lineup, replacing J.J. Redick, who started every game against the Celtics and did a nice defensive job on Ray Allen. Lee has been coming off the bench since fracturing his sinus in the Philadelphia series.

“We figured they would do that,” Cavs coach Mike Brown said.

Devising a defensive strategy to slow Howard and the Magic’s talented troop of outside shooters will fall partly on Mike Malone, Cleveland’s unofficial defensive coordinator. Since joining Brown’s staff, Malone has helped the Cavs become one of the league’s stingiest teams.

Cleveland was the top defensive unit during the regular season and is limiting opponents to 40 percent shooting (31 percent on 3s) and just 78.1 points so far in the playoffs. The Magic, averaging 96.1 points in the postseason, shot 54 percent in the April 3 win over Cleveland, making 13 of 27 3-pointers.