Cleveland Cavaliers: The Last Defense

Funny, isn’t it?

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We look back at the start of the season and what did we think about the Cleveland Cavaliers? Or even after the trades? That they would be a high-level offensive team able to blow opponents out of the water in a matter of minutes, but that their defense wouldn’t be very strong at all.

And now, the tables have turned completely. The Cavs are playing very much improved defense in the playoffs, but especially The Finals. They’re grinding, laboring and doing everything in their power to make things uncomfortable for the high-octane Golden State Warriors.

The strangest part is, it’s been working. But their offense has suffered mightily with the losses of their big guns. Now the Cavs run everything through LeBron James, and either let him go to work in isolation or set up pick and rolls to try and shake things up a little.

Even so, their offense is extremely predictable. The only part that makes you raise an eyebrow is when LeBron makes one of his masterful passes or head-spinning moves to the bucket.

The Warriors haven’t been having too much of an issue with the Cavs’ offense, though. In the waning minutes of Game 2, for example, after James nailed a triple to put Cleveland up 11, he went on to miss his next seven shots.

Usually, that would mean a victory for Golden State, right?

Not this time. Despite LeBron’s misses, he still made every other basket the Cavs got possible by doing some sort of important action.

To go along with that, the Warriors just couldn’t close things out. They made mistake after mistake, thanks in large part to the grittiness of the Cavaliers’ defense. Matthew Dellavedova, for example, played a huge role in stopping the MVP.

With Delly guarding Stephen Curry, the shooting anomaly went 0-for-8 from the field with four turnovers.

Not only that, but the Cavs’ defense also worked other various wonders. The Dubs made three terrible turnovers to end overtime, all thanks to the hustle of the Cavs’ defense and tone they set with it to begin the game.

That may be the most overlooked part of these games, and the thing that should give Cleveland fans the most hope of winning the title: through the first two games, the Cavs have done an excellent job of setting the tone and forcing the game to be played the way they want to play it.

Even Game 1 was played just like they planned. Once it hit overtime, everything was lost, but prior to that, the Cavs had multiple chances to win the game and take a 1-0 lead. That’s everything you could ask for.

In Game 2, they did the same thing again: they turned the game into a mess. Nothing was easy, screens were all over the place, bodies were flying, contact was constant. The pace was slowed down, and things like constant drives to the basket that resulted in fouls also helped.

Suddenly, the flow to the Warriors’ game was gone. They never got a chance to get into their rhythm. They love to play fast and push the pace, and more than anything want to force opponents back onto their heels.

Cleveland never allowed that to happen. Every single time the Dubs would start to get something rolling, someone (usually LeBron) would walk the ball up the floor, wait out part of the clock, then attack (or pass to someone who would attack), draw a foul and create a stoppage in play.

It sure worked on Curry. He was never able to establish a rhythm in the game. Yes, Delly did a fantastic job guarding him, but there were several times where the MVP broke free and managed to get a good look at the rim. But he still missed.

That can be partially attributed to the feel of the game. He was never able to get up a couple shots in a row, never able to get comfortable. So he put up a stinker and the Cavs continued to grind, squeeze and throttle, and on the back of LeBron James they made it out alive.

The only problem? The Cavs are going to have to do this three more times if they want to win the series. And it’s next-to-impossible to believe that Curry will shoot 5-23 from the field again in this series.

Everything went perfectly in this game for Cleveland, just like in Game 1 (save the Kyrie Irving injury). Can they reproduce this performance thrice more?

Is it even realistic to assume that LeBron can keep playing Atlas and consistently hoist his team onto his shoulders without ever having an off game? If he does have one bad game, Golden State gets a gimme. It’s that simple.

Look at what James has already had to do in the first two games:

Game 1: 44 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists
Game 2: 39 points, 16 rebounds, 11 assists

And his team lost Game 1!

There are so many things that have to go right for Cleveland and wrong for Golden State for the Cavs to have a real fighting chance at winning this championship. Almost none of those things will be consistently accessible, except for defense.

That’s what the Cavs have. It’s now their greatest weapon (save The King, of course), which arouses a strange “How did we get here?” type of feeling. It’s like watching Adam West’s Batman and then subsequently Christian Bale’s Batman.

We’ve gone from lighthearted, offensively explosive to gritty, filthy defensive-minded basketball. This shift in identity is undeniably necessary, but still a shocking transformation when you step back and take a look at all that’s transpired.

I feel like I don’t have to defend the Cavs in any way any longer. They’re doing just fine defending themselves.

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