Cavs: This is an impressive defensive stat early on for the team

It’s still very early in the 2021-22 season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the NBA. So it’s still sample size territory for the Wine and Gold and the league itself.

Even taking that into account, with the team’s schedule early having been against teams that all either made the postseason or play-in last season, Cleveland starting the season at 5-4 has fans jumping for joy.

Prior to Lauri Markkanen being placed into the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols, Cleveland had begun the season featuring a starting lineup featuring three bigs in Markkanen, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. While unconventional, and still needing fine-tuning, it has made out well, on the defensive end, in particular, and though Cleveland has to knock down more triples game-to-game, the coaching staff does deserve credit for that big lineup.

It’s not 100 percent certain as to when Markkanen, to go with Kevin Love, will be back from protocols, but generally, the results have been promising early for the Cavaliers.

Markkanen has started out slow, and him offensively playing a de facto 3 position has been an adjustment; he was starting to find his way, though, and was beginning to utilize his size in mismatches more. His team defense deserves some love, too.

Nonetheless, it’s evident that this Cavs team’s defense is centered on the efforts of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, in fairness. And one stat highlights their abilities, and the team’s defense, and that’s helped lead to W’s for Cleveland, who currently is 11th in defensive rating.

The Cavs have had the fewest personal fouls per game so far this season at 15.8, which has been so impressive.

The defensive duo of Mobley and Allen has been invaluable for the Cavaliers to this point, as they collectively, and with Markkanen a bit as a rotator, have made it difficult for opponents at the rim.

With Allen, he’s a bonafide rim protector and shot alterer near the basket, and his presence has affected drivers throughout key stretches of games, or so it seems, with how he has done a quality job of contesting looks with verticality. But he has also done so without fouling very often.

Allen has had only 1.0 blocks per game to this point, however, his presence and length has been impactful, and him having had only 1.7 fouls per contest this season has been huge. He’s such a talented and intelligent back line defender, and Cleveland needs him in there.

From there, as we alluded to, the rookie Mobley has proven to already resemble a defensive stalwart, which, for a 20-year-old, let alone in Year 1, is truly something else.

The thin Mobley does need to add strength gradually in coming years, as we very well know, as an aside. Having said that, his shot blocking instincts, both as a rotator, and shot blocker and alterer on-ball have been instrumental for these Cavaliers; he’s only had 2.3 fouls per game thus far and has had 1.3 blocks per contest, too.

Mobley has currently led the NBA in shot contests per game, per NBA.com’s hustle data, and while his contests to three-point shooters need to improve, his contests on the interior are already outstanding for such a young player.

Opponents have hit threes at a 42.4 percent clip against Mobley as the primary defender, per NBA.com’s tracking data; those aren’t nearly as frequent thus far, though. And for what it’s worth, it is so early in Mobley’s career, and with him at times at the top of a 3-2 zone, I’m not going to grill him for the contests of primarily off-ball threes.

He’s more than capable of turning that around, and some of it has simply been inexperience or others getting mixed up, too. Plus, some of those have been in switchout situations, which for a young big, one will concede some looks early, and against opponent drives, he’s done admirably for such an inexperienced player.

In any case, as we’ve alluded to, the defensive efforts of Allen and Mobley, particularly with how they’ve made it so difficult for opponents to convert near the rim, have been invaluable for Cleveland’s team defense. Allen at times has held his own on switchouts as well, too, which shouldn’t be discounted, either.

So, although the Cavs will still concede interior looks via drives, with Darius Garland and to a lesser degree Collin Sexton still getting blown by at times, along with a few others, Cleveland’s rim protectors still have often made finishing tough overall.

The Cavaliers are 26th in opponent paint points per game, but, on the positive side of things, Cleveland has given up the fifth-lowest opponent field goal percentage in the restricted area, per NBA.com. The Cavs have typically made opponents finish from further out and over length.

Along with that, the Cavs of late have seemed to be building their chemistry in terms of rotating around the bigs to make things harder for opponents to knock down threes, as Cleveland is eighth in opponent three-point shooting hit rate.

But to drive it home, the way the Cavaliers have been able to get key stops throughout games and in crunch time, thanks in large part to the Mobley-Allen defensive duo, and with the team not really dealing with foul trouble, it’s been tremendous for the club. The newer more lenient defense regarding closeouts to shooters doesn’t hurt the team defense, either, of course.

Now, if the Cavaliers key shooters can knock down more, at least open threes game-to-game, they could definitely get rolling more, combined with the team’s buy-in and effort defensively.

Hopefully Markkanen and Love can be back soon enough for shooting, and the team doesn’t have other issues with protocols, also; the players being reportedly 100 percent vaccinated is encouraging, in that realm, though.