Cavaliers have lost their defensive identity

The Cavaliers haven’t replicated the defensive habits that made them successful the past three seasons.

“Elite teams don’t lose two in a row,” said Donovan Mitchell after the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Houston Rockets, their third in as many games. “They damn sure don’t lose three.”

The Cavs were an elite team when they defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder on Jan. 8 to improve their record to 32-4. That has changed as they’ve already exceeded their loss total from their first 36 games in the ensuing nine.

In that span, they’ve looked middling at best as they rank 17th in net rating (-0.6) and 28th in defensive rating (119) in their past nine games.

The Cavs have lost their defensive identity somewhere along the way this season. That was seen once again on Saturday as the Rockets, who have the 24th ranked half-court offense (93 offensive rating), registered a 117.1 offensive rating (94th percentile) in the halfcourt against Cleveland. This wasn’t a situation where the Rockets were running off of turnovers or beating the Cavs in transition. They were just out-executing Cleveland in an area where they’ve been one of the worst at all season.

The issue?

“You gotta keep your man in front,” Mitchell said postgame.

It sounds simple, but the Cavs haven’t been doing that. There’s reasons why this keeps happening regardless of the injuries.

This isn’t how this core played defense together the last three years. The Cavs have abandoned their previous principles of playing primarily man defense, trying to avoid switches, and funneling all action to their bigs in the paint. Instead, they’re now more willing to switch screens, have players guarding more in space, and are relying heavily on the zone.

Atkinson’s alterations have been to make the defense more “playoff-worthy.” There’s merit in what he wants. For example, Darius Garland does need to be comfortable switching defensively in the playoffs in a way he hasn’t been in the past. The zone falls into that category as well because you want different off-speed pitches to throw at your opponent in a series.

Unfortunately, they’ve completely lost their fastball in the process. This isn’t just a small sample size either. The Cavs are now the 12th-ranked defense in the league (113.3 defensive rating) on the season. This is after not finishing lower than sixth in either of the previous three years.

This team hasn’t replicated the habits that have made them successful on the defensive end. At this point, it’s fair to wonder how they get them back. There’s also the question of why things needed to change this drastically when defense wasn’t what caused them to get eliminated in the postseason the last three years.

“Our offense has been so good that I feel like we just haven’t focused as much or—I don’t know if the word is focused—but just slacked on the other end,” said Evan Mobley. “We just got to put more emphasis on the defensive side and grow that piece.”

The awful defensive performance overshadowed how amazing Cleveland’s offense was against a top-five Houston defense. The Cavs guards were sensational once again as Garland continues to prove to be one of the best point guards in the league. That was on display as he torched Houston’s defense for a casual 39 points and 9 assists on 14-22 shooting.

He and Mitchell have taken turns spearheading an offense that has devoured the best defenses in the league. The Cavs have tallied an incredible 121.9 offensive rating (first) against the top-ten defenses this season. To put that growth into context, the Cavs had a worse offensive rating last season (117.8) against bottom-ten defenses than they do now against the best this time around.

How they’re doing that is even more surprising as they have the most efficient offense in the half-court (106.6 offensive rating) after being 18th (97.8 offensive rating) last season. That is a night and day difference.

“There’s some positives throughout the game,” Garland said when asked about what he can take away from an offensive performance like this. “But the positive that we really want is a win. So just watch this film and look where we can get better.”

Atkinson joked before the game that there should be a dog on the calendar for this part of the schedule to represent being in the dog days. The Cavs aren’t the only team that presumably feels this way. This has been seen throughout the league as the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks are both 6-4 in their last ten and the Thunder have split their last four contests. These stretches happen to everyone. But it’s fair to wonder if the Cavs have the habits that those teams do to fall back on when the games really matter.

The Cavs offense remains elite no matter who they’re facing. The same can’t be said about a defense that needs to be not just considerably better than it was on Saturday, but also better than it’s been throughout the season for them to reach their goal. You can’t truly be an elite team while being as off-balanced as they are on both sides of the court. It’ll be interesting how this group responds to their first bit of bad play this season.

“We gotta be better,” Mitchell said. “We’ve had a lot of success, and not to say we’re complacent, but we haven’t really had much adversity. So this is good to have. I’d rather—you know I said this after DG missed those free throws—like I’d rather it now than in April, June. You figure out how to dig yourself out of these holes, how to cut these wins out, and figure it out on a daily basis. ... We’re not overreacting, but we’re reacting.”