Cleveland Cavaliers: Winning Masks Flaws
By Joshua Howe
The Cleveland Cavaliers are fun again and they have won their last six games, defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday in an afternoon clash which showcased LeBron James meeting up with rival Kevin Durant.
It wasn’t perhaps quite as exciting as some may have thought it would be, with the Cavs closing out the Thunder 108-98 in efficacious fashion. James dropped 34 points, seven rebounds and five assists in another strong performance; the sort that he’s been racking up since returning from injury and mental fatigue on Jan. 13.
But as it always is in the NBA, streaks (of good or bad) are magnified in extreme ways. It has been such for Cleveland this season, with their entire year consisting of runs where they’ve looked good and (mostly) runs where they’ve looked like something your three-month-old puppy left on the living room carpet.
We’re currently in the stage where “Hooray! The Cavs look fantastic! You know what? They look so great that they could probably win the Eastern Conference, just like we all thought they would before the season! I mean, who can stop them now?!” is a common sight in the comment sections of blogs and on social media sites.
And to that I say, hold up. Hang on. Don’t be so hasty.
It’s true that the Cavaliers have looked very good during the win streak and it’s also true that this is the best they’ve looked all season. But there are a lot of factors that have gone into those victories that may not be sustainable.
And even more important than that, these wins have done a solid job of hiding Cleveland’s flaws in such a manner that homers are now prepping their champagne bottles and creating their own photoshopped versions of the 2015 NBA champions banner.
So what about these potentially unsustainable factors? Why am I speaking such blasphemy about a team that admittedly does deserve a break from scrutiny? Well, while everyone else focuses on Christmas, I’ll Grinch it up.
Reasons for Cleveland’s hot streak:
J.R. Smith
The man’s been killing it. He’s been rejuvenated by getting to play for a team that actually has title aspirations. He looks happier in Cleveland than Kim Kardashian with a selfie stick.
Smith’s shooting 45.6 percent from three-point territory since James’ return and has put up nearly 18 points a night. It’s a pretty safe bet that he won’t be able to keep this up consistently, because as we all know, J.R. Smith is J.R. Smith.
His success has been instrumental in pushing this win-train out of the station.
Schedule
Newsflash: the Cavs’ schedule hasn’t been difficult. They’ve only beaten two teams of note during the win streak: the Clippers and Thunder.
Los Angeles has had a rocky season and has dropped a lot of important games. They don’t look nearly the threat they did last season at this time. OKC is the more impressive of the two by far, but it is still 100 percent a fact that they aren’t even in the West playoff race as of right now, which does say something.
Besides those two, the Cavs have beaten the Lakers, Bulls, Jazz and Hornets.
“Wait!” you say. “What about the Bulls? They’re really good!”
Well …
Luck
The Cavs got to play a Chicago club lacking Joakim Noah, who is the heart and soul of the team. Plus, the Bulls just haven’t been very good lately. They’ve lost five of their last eight games, including a head-scratcher to Orlando.
Chicago also allowed themselves to be the victims of the “Hassan Whiteside Game” when they’re supposed to boast one of the best frontcourts in the league.
Cleveland found them at the right time.
The East
Cue Kevin Garnett:
Shooting
It appears that the Cavaliers have finally turned into what we’d thought they’d be right away: a monstrous offensive force. They’re jacking up so many three-balls during the streak that even Ray Allen is raising his eyebrows from his leather “Threezus” inscribed sofa.
The crazy part is that those shots have been going down. It’s not just Smith who’s playing well, the rest of the team has been draining attempts when they’ve gotten them.
In the last game against OKC alone the Cavs took 36 three-pointers, on which they shot 44.4 percent.
The flow of the team has been smooth lately. Can this sort of thing be kept up? Perhaps, it’s not inconceivable with this amount of (shooting) talent on the team. But hey, it’s a make or miss league.
Timofey Mozgov
Out of all of the reasons for Cleveland’s hot streak, Mozzy is the one that is likely to stay consistent. He’s not doing anything out of the ordinary or spectacular, he’s just come in and done his thing. It’s just that what he does was so badly needed on this squad.
His presence alone has improved the team’s defense just by forcing opponents to take tougher shots. He hasn’t become Roy Hibbert or anything, but the Cavs haven’t needed a Hibbert to string some wins together.
Yet that thought leads us forward to the next topic, that of Cleveland’s flaws being hidden by the win streak. Mozgov is somewhat of a culprit here, though it’s not his fault. He’s making the Cavs look better, and they are better with him out there, but they’re not nearly as good as people make them out to be.
My point here is this. The Cavs have the 25th best defensive rating in the league right now, holding opponents to 108.4 points per 100 possessions.
That’s not good enough to win a title, straight up. A team ideally should be, at the very least, in the bottom half of the league in that category. If your squad is the 15th ranked defense but has a top five offense, then you’re still likely a true contender.
The Cavaliers do have a top five offense (fifth in the league), thankfully. It’s been on full display during the win streak, which has nonchalantly brushed aside the fact that Cleveland’s defensive rating has barely improved. They’re sitting at 106.7 during this stretch, still far too high of a number.
The Cavaliers are now looking like the Clippers of the last few seasons. They’re winning games with their immense talent on the offensive end while giving up tons of points at the other. They’ve picked up the pace too, just like the Clips used to do, outrunning opponents and becoming must-see television.
The Clippers haven’t won any championships recently. And neither will the Cavs if they only play this way.
The issues on the defensive end are many, but there are two that could be addressed immediately and might help the Cavaliers in their effort to transform themselves into a top-15 defensive club.
Transition Defense
Let’s start here. There are far too many times when an opponent will steal the ball or something of the like and run out on a fast break just to meet one or two Cavaliers on their way to the rim.
Russell Westbrook did this multiple times in Cleveland’s last game and frankly, it was embarrassing. Kyrie Irving alone cannot stop an athletic freak like Russ in the open court.
Other players have a tendency to stand around, arguing for calls that didn’t materialize while their matchup goes blazing down the hardwood to the cup.
The Cavs haven’t earned anything yet and they need to play like it. Get back on D.
LeBron’s Defense
I’m not sure what’s caused it, but LeBron has morphed into a wine and gold version of 2013-14 James Harden. He’s just not giving a damn on the defensive end. I mean, just look at this:
How can James expect his teammates to care on defense when he clearly doesn’t himself? This is a big issue since he’s the leader of the team. The best leaders let their play speak for itself, and while LeBron has been prodigious on offense and produced lots of stat-stuffing box scores, his game at the other end of the floor has been shockingly bad.
This is a guy we used to compare to (and rightfully so) Scottie Pippen as a defender. He was a tenacious force on the perimeter. What happened to that?
He has played a large role in allowing opposing guards and forwards to slice through the perimeter and get into the paint, where they can then simply pick and choose the next option at their leisure.
The Cavaliers are fun again. So were the 2012-13/2013-14 Clippers. Just because a team is swimming in a recent pool of golden “W’s” doesn’t mean they’ve figured everything out. Cleveland is very much still a work in progress.
But hey, if you want to grab a blow horn and announce to the world that the Cavs are ready to come gunning for the NBA title, be my guest. Ignorance is bliss, as they say.