Cleveland Cavaliers: Cavs have no chance if they start slow

The Cleveland Cavaliers have not gotten off to good starts in their last two games, and that’s put them in a tough spot for the rest of those outings.

The Cleveland Cavaliers had a nice win last Tuesday night, where they were shorthanded, and found a way to beat the Charlotte Hornets in their first “City Edition” night of the season. In their last two games against the Washington Wizards and Detroit Pistons, though, the Cavs haven’t had much of a chance whatsoever. They lost both games handily by a combined differential of 35 points. In the first quarters of both of those games, Cleveland conceded 41 and 38 points, which is not ideal, given how much of a disadvantage they have right now.

Cleveland is 2-13, so obviously they haven’t had a ton of leads in ball games, but given that only four teams currently have a worse offensive rating than the Cavs, they can’t afford to be down double-digits after the opening period.

Not having Kevin Love back for a while due to a reported toe injury makes it harder to space the floor for easier baskets via Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman and Rodney Hood drives, and given that, Cleveland has to find a way to be more assignment-sound defensively and physical in the early going to not enable opponents to get easy buckets, as head coach Larry Drew mentioned post-game against Detroit.

If Drew is going to keep using two-big lineups for considerable minutes with Tristan Thompson and Larry Nance Jr. usually, then Cleveland has to at least be halfway decent defensively at the outset to put less pressure on reserve bigs and perimeter players such as Ante Zizic and Jordan Clarkson.

Last night’s matchup against the Pistons was a tough one for Cleveland, though, considering Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond are simply too much for the Cavaliers, regardless of if the Cavs are at full-strength, and their presence inside opened up Reggie Bullocks‘ three-point shooting even more. Bullock had 21 points on six-of-nine shooting (including four-of-seven from deep), and he tied Ish Smith (who had 11 points) with a game-leading plus-minus of plus-22, per ESPN. Griffin and Drummond combined to have 44 points and 28 rebounds (of which eight were offensive), and the Cavs’ lack of ability to match up was hard to watch.

The Cleveland Cavaliers need to find a way to not get the breaks blown off them in the early going; if they don’t, they might as well see if Larry Drew can still run some point guard and keep playing for a high 2019 NBA Draft pick.

The Cavs are just 24th in first quarter free throw attempts (and 22nd in FTA’s per game, per NBA.com), and given their reluctance to shoot three-point shots (last in the NBA in attempts per game), getting to the line might help get them more settled into games, but then again, the opening quarter defense has really been more of the problem on a grand scale.

The bottom line is if the Cavs keep going with his ugly ball style of play with two bigs, and they get behind, good night. Granted, with Love and Sam Dekker (Love’s primary backup) sidelined, it’ll probably more of the same (though last night was one of the rare instances it’s understandable), and the floor will keep being shrunk for Sexton and company. I guess that means come out scrappy on D, Cavs.