Cleveland Cavaliers: “Defense wins championships” is not the Cavs slogan

The Cleveland Cavaliers have been spiraling out of control, losing five of their last seven, and their defense is to blame.

After their most recent blowout loss to Minnesota, the Cleveland Cavaliers dropped to 26-14. They are now 5.5 games out of the top spot in the East and it’s their defense that has limited them thus far.

Let’s take a quick look at how bad the Cavs have been defensively this season.

For starters, the Cavaliers are ranked 29th in defensive rating. The only team worse than them defensively has been the Sacramento Kings, who give up almost 110 points per 100 possessions. The Cavs and Kings are the only two teams with a defensive rating at or above 109.

As a team, the Cavs have held their opponents to less than 100 points 11 times. Only once have the Cavs held their opponent to less than 90 points this season, and coincidently, in that game, they dismantled the Detroit Pistons.

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On the flip side, the Cavs have scored 130 or more points twice and have yet to allow their opponents to hit 130. However, when that number dips to 110, the story becomes much different. The Cavs have given up 110 or more point 20 times. That means in exactly half of the Cavs’ games, they have given up at least 110 points.

So, as a whole, they haven’t managed to keep up with the rest of the NBA defensively. It’s not a secret that the Cavs have the All-Star Game mindset of just trying to outscore their opponent in most non-primetime games.

Although the effort isn’t always there, it is easy to pinpoint where the Cavs must improve most moving forward.

One major thing the Cavs defense must improve on is protecting the paint. They give up the league’s 23rd most point in the paint per game at 45.9. On top of poorly defending the paint, the Cavs can’t protect the rim. They averaged the 28th most blocks per game at 3.8. While they do play without a traditional center, the Cavs have not protected the paint nor the rim well.

The second major defensive aspect the Cavs must improve on is their opponents shooting. The name of the game has always been the same: outscore your opponent. Well, when the Cavs opponent average 47.1% from the field, it’s hard to outscore them on a nightly basis. Over a stretch of 40 games, shooting that well turns from luck to just bad defense.

The Cavs must improve if they want to win the Finals. Although every season Nick Saban has won a title with Alabama since 2012 has ended with LeBron James winning a NBA championship, that streak is in jeopardy if the Cavs don’t get it together defensively. Here’s how this team stacks up defensively with the most recent NBA Champs.

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Part of being a good defensive team is schemes and sets but the other half is putting in the effort every game. The Cavs have none of these factors working in their favor.

If the Cavaliers truly want to compete for a Finals this season, they will need to ramp up their defensive intensity and figure this mess out.