Friday night saw the Cleveland Cavaliers bounce back and finally get their first victory in their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Indiana Pacers. Now down 2-1 and a Game 5 back in Cleveland guaranteed, we can see one thing exceedingly clear: The Cavs' defense leaves something to be desired when Evan Mobley is unavailable to play, and there's nothing that can be done about it until after the season is over.
If the Cavaliers fail to advance past this current round and ultimately fail to live up to the billing of their 64-win regular season, it will be hard to say that anything other than their lackluster team defensive efforts would be to blame. Cleveland ranked in the top eight in the league during the regular season in terms of team defensive efficiency, but the playoffs are simply a different animal.
A team with a lethal scoring attack like the Indiana Pacers have served to expose many of the Cavs' defensive shortcomings. Cleveland's Game 2 collapse is unquestionably the defining moment of their postseason run so far, and there is a solid chance it will remain the moment the Cavaliers lost this series unless something changes.
The injury update that came ahead of that contest was shocking, and there's no denying it played a huge part in the Cavs walking away finding themselves having lost both their two opening home games of the series. Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and De'Andre Hunter were all ruled out for Cleveland's Tuesday contest that turned into a shocking and nearly unexplainable loss.
The Cavaliers' defense is lacking without Evan Mobley
Not having Evan Mobley was arguably the biggest factor for the Cavs. Without him, Cleveland's defense simply fell apart. Which is interesting, because the Cavaliers still have some good and even some great defenders, but they lack an ideal way to replace Mobley when he's not playing.
As such, Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers' offense had a field day in the final frame of action in Tuesday's game. Indiana put up 36 in the fourth quarter, and torched Cleveland's defense for eight points in the final 47 seconds before the final buzzer to pull out the win.
Then, fast forward to Friday night where Mobley played 35 minutes, and it was a completely different story. After a second quarter where the Cavaliers held the Pacers to just 13 points, the game was blown wide open.
It's not exactly rocket science to figure out that Cleveland is going to go as Evan Mobley goes defensively. So much of Kenny Atkinson's scheme depends on him. Obviously, for the Cavs to have more flexibility defensively, they will likely want to look at adding more defensive versaility in the offseason. But for now, this is what they're working with.