The Cleveland Cavaliers are in a position where they aren’t really playing opponents anymore, they are playing themselves.
And that’s why even though the wine and gold enters the All Star break with a 38-14 record and a three game lead in the Eastern Conference, we don’t feel satisfied with what they have accomplished.
When GM David Griffin replaced David Blatt with Tyronn Lue, the new coach said he wanted to play more up tempo. The number of points the Cavs are scoring would indicate they are playing faster, as they have scored more than 110 points in seven of 12 games since Lue took over.
But in reality, the faster pace comes in spurts, and there are many times the dreaded isolation ball rears its ugly head.
Lue also wanted to get Kevin Love more involved by having the offense run through him while playing without LeBron James and Kyrie Irving on the floor.
Love was more of a factor in Lue’s first few games, but has battled a couple of injuries on the current home stand, stalling that plan.
The higher scoring has come with a downside too. The defense has severely declined, with Cleveland allowing more than 100 points in eight of Lue’s dozen games as the head man.
That won’t win in the playoffs.
We aren’t criticizing Lue by any means here. The break will allow him to have some practices to get his message across to his team, and here’s hoping everyone listens.
Particularly Irving.
Sure, fans look at his 32 points and 10 assists on Monday against the Kings, and his 35 tallies last night vs. the Lakers, and will question this criticism, and right now, he’s the primary culprit for the ball sticking.
He seems more comfortable with a slower pace, and don’t confuse his attempts to drive to the basket with faster play please. Many of these drives come as a result of him pounding the ball and waiting for an opening to drive.
It’s not coming off of the ball movement his head coach wants.
That’s why perhaps Irving should be the focal point when James and Love are on the bench, because there is no question the young man from Duke can breakdown defenders with the best of them.
Lue has stressed getting shooters off of the three point line, and the Cavs have been somewhat successful there, but there is still way too much dribble penetration, particularly since Matthew Dellavedova has missed time with a sore hamstring.
You simply must play better defense than this in the playoffs. You cannot expect to outscore opponents in the later rounds of the post-season. The Cavaliers were second in the league in preventing points, and have now dropped to fourth.
The other teams people feel are in contention for a title, the Spurs, Warriors, and Thunder, ranked 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in defensive field goal percentage on two point shots.
We are sure Lue knows this and will get this area fixed, but it may take a trade by Griffin.
They could also use another shooter. Irving is making less than 30% of his shots from beyond the arc, so the only reliable three point shooters are Dellavedova (43%), JR Smith (40%) and to a lesser extent, Love (36.8%).
For a team that shoots a lot of threes, they don’t have many guys who are consistently knocking them down.
That could be another area where Griffin explores someone in a deal.
It’s difficult to be “disappointed” with a team that is 24 games over .500 a little over halfway through the season, but we think Tyronn Lue would be the first to tell you he isn’t satisfied where his team is at.
Perhaps we will see some changes with a couple of practices before the second half of the season (and the trading deadline) picks up next Thursday.
The Cavaliers need to play better, particularly defensively, if they want to bring a title home in 2016.
JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 