3 reasons Cleveland Cavaliers will make playoffs in this 2022-23 season

Reason No. 2: Better defense

That defense that the Cavs keep touting this season has improved from a year ago. It’s especially improved in late-game situations. It’s still been a bad habit of the Wine and Gold to get off to slow starts in many games. However, they’ve been bailed out by their defensive efforts in the second half of games.

It’s easy to not be as focused as you must early in games but it’s a combination of things. The players are at fault but so is the coaching staff for not preparing them better. Regardless, that defense has gotten better. In their last four wins this month they’ve only allowed 22, 19, 24, and four points in the last period of play. The four points was given up in the overtime win from the game Donovan Mitchell scored 71 points.

In terms of overall defensive play, the Cavs are ranked second in the league in points allowed per game by only giving up 109.3 just behind the Memphis Grizzlies at 109.0. They are also second with recovering 74% of defensive rebounds per game. One area that is surprising for the team on defense is they are ranked 26th in blocked shots per game. With Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen protecting the rim it’s very odd.

But, where the team is excellent in is in the number of points they give up to opponents on second chance opportunities by only allowing 11.4 points a game. That’s tops in the NBA right now, plus they are ranked third in only giving up 45.9 points in the paint per game. So there’s a lot to suggest here to say that defense is the team’s calling card and that’s not going to disappear as the season goes on.