Cleveland Cavaliers’ lack of attention to detail haunts them way too often

With the Cleveland Cavaliers being less talented their opponents, little things turn into big problems frequently.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are not going to be having many more near-wire-to-wire victories, as they had this past Sunday night over the Los Angeles Lakers. With them often not being close to as talented as other teams they are playing, they have a chance to be competitive if they do the little things consistently. The problem is, with the Cavs’ injury issues and constant revolving door of a rotation, they can’t have the necessary attention to detail to stay in games a considerable amount of the time.

Cleveland was able to dictate on both ends the majority of the time against the Lakers, as they were patient in getting their mismatches on the offensive end, and making it tough for L.A.’s sharpshooters. In many other games, Cleveland has not had that be the case, and last night against the Portland Trail Blazers was another example of that.

The Cleveland Cavaliers conceded 16 three-pointers to the Blazers on 29 attempts, and it wasn’t just the percentage that killed them. It was the kinds of threes Portland was getting, especially at inopportune times in the game, which buried the momentum the Cavs were building on occasion.

It’s one thing to give up 33 points on 11-of-19 shooting to Damian Lillard, who is an elite point guard, and nightmarish matchup for anybody on Cleveland’s roster. However, conceding uncontested three-point field goals and backdoor dunks to players such as Al-Farouq Aminu and Jake Layman from Portland to the tune of those two combining to go 14-25 (including four-of-5 from deep, per ESPN) is inexcusable.

These closeouts against the Blazers were nothing close to what they were like against the Lakers the other night, and with how Portland operates on the season, I’m not sure why Cleveland did not have their hands up earlier on these possessions.

The Blazers are a team that is going to score based on the star power of Lillard and CJ McCollum, and the ancillary pieces will greatly benefit from Portland’s screen actions. They are third in the league in screen assists per game and fourth in screen assist points (per NBA.com), and Jusuf Nurkic is a huge reason for that.

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He killed the Cavs all night in a variety of ways (with his first career triple-double), and with how horrendous the Cleveland Cavaliers are in their pick-and-roll coverages, players such as Nurkic and Clint Capela from the Houston Rockets present so many problems with the attention they draw near the rim eventually opening up shooters on the perimeter due to Cleveland’s way-too-often lack of communication.

They need to find a way to establish some better effectiveness against ball screens at minimum, because right now, their drop coverages are not working.

Either double the ball-handler more often and force ball-swings and then make rotations, or tell primary perimeter defenders to ice harder and force offensive players to go to one area to prevent penetration, because the same problems are rearing their ugly head.

Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, Ante Zizic and many other young pieces will make their mistakes on both ends, but Cleveland needs to at least be more knowledgeable of the scouting reports. Layman was living back door for numerous dunks, and that just cannot happen so often.

This. Just…yikes.

When the nearest Cavs’ defender was ball-watching and conceding buckets backdoor as easy as they were in the last game, a struggling Cleveland roster will have no chance at being in games late.

I don’t expect the Cavs to be competitive in a number of games, but at minimum, they shouldn’t be consistently making non-talent mistakes. Giving up such easy baskets through lackluster off-ball defense is because of lack of talent.

A positive, though, is Cleveland’s constant effort, regardless of what the scoreboard is saying. Jaron Blossomgame having 10 rebounds and two blocks off the bench (per ESPN) was huge against Portland, and his toughness and leaping ability continues to stand out.

The bench in general seems to consistently make things happen with their minutes, and with a veteran presence such as Matthew Dellavedova running the offense, there seems to be much more ball movement, and more overall flow, even if Sexton is getting a good handle on things with the starters.

Nonetheless, as we keep harping on here at KJG, as the Cleveland Cavaliers keep progressing in their rebuild, it’s about growing through the pains. With that mindset, the attention to detail should be applied more often, but it will take a ton of experience, obviously. The better NBA teams do the little things well, and attention to detail can be learned.