Cavs: Three takeaways from 113-108 win at Wizards on Friday
By Corey Casey
Takeaway #2: The Cavs’ overall defense is, of course, still a major issue
This isn’t earth-shattering news when someone says the Cavs’ defense is a major problem.
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After Cleveland’s historically bad home loss to the LA Clippers, I highlighted how Andre Drummond helps the Cavs more on the interior, but he won’t fix a team that is still terrible 1-4 and doesn’t have a single guy that can guard premier guards or wings effectively.
That’s a huge problem in a league that has gone away from the big man and is dominated by wings and guards.
That being said, the Cavaliers’ effort on the defensive end was much better than it has been in a while. The way the Cavs are constructed it’s going to be a major struggle on the defensive end when you have two 6-foot-1 guards in the backcourt playing so much, Cedi Osman having physical limitations and Love isn’t known as a good defender, either.
The Wizards started the game off fast, scoring those aforementioned 41 points in the first quarter, but cooled off after that. For the contest, the Wizards only shot 38.7 percent overall and 24.3 percent from three-point land.
However, to the Cavs’ credit, they played really hard on defense in this game, and that played some into Washington’s struggles. The Cavaliers were scrappy and fought in this game, but again, they are at a such a major personnel mismatch so often.
Drummond and Thompson blocked a lot of shots in the paint, but the Wizards generally got what they wanted; they really just missed a ton of open shots.
The Cavs desperately need wings and if I’m the Wine and Gold, I would take a hard look at Isaac Okoro out of Auburn in the 2020 NBA Draft if he’s available at their selection. He won’t solve the Cavs’ issues, but he could help defensively on the wing right away, and give Cleveland a formidable presence on the perimeter they desperately need.