If the Cleveland Cavaliers were to defend their title, they must learn to execute actual defensive strategies on the floor. It’s elementary but frustrating for the Cavalier faithful at the same time to witness their team play this bad.
No offensive outburst will be good enough if the opponents get away with buckets easier than the Cavs produce points. Much has been said about the team’s woes on that end of the floor especially coming from the second unit, and that deficiency was magnified in their recent three-game stretch.
Those two teams are Denver and Washington who scored 73 and 71 first half points on the Cavs, respectively. Unsurprisingly, both games resulted in losses for Cleveland. With the regular season soon coming to a close, the urgency to get better on defense is of great importance.
The playoff landscape appears to be a more difficult territory to conquer for the Cavs this year with teams such as Boston, Washington, and Toronto all having improved. Miami, a possible first-round opponent, has held a better record than the Cavs since the beginning of 2017, making them a legitimate threat in case.
LeBron James does turn it up a number of notches in the playoffs, but the rest of the Cavs can’t be sitting on these laurels.