What we learned this week: Darius Garland continues to impress

Garland’s excellent play was one of the few things that went right for the Cavaliers this week.

Things aren’t going well for the Cleveland Cavaliers. They’ve lost three straight for the first time all season and have dropped five out of nine games since their statement win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Let’s get into what we’ve learned from this disappointing stretch.

Nothing is working defensively

There’s a lot of things you can blame for the poor defense. The zone is bad, the rebounding is horrid, they’ve been missing key contributors, and so on. No matter the reason, it’s safe to say this just isn’t working right now.

The Cavs have turned into last season’s Indiana Pacers in January. They’ve posted the best offensive rating (123.2) and the second-worst defensive rating (121.3) since New Year's. This has led to the very small margin of error we’ve seen this past week as the Cavs dropped their three games by just eight points.

Things like that happen when you’re constantly on a razor’s edge.

The poor rebounding is partially responsible for the drop-off. Opponents are collecting 30.8% of their misses this month (25th in the league). For comparison, they were 19th in the league from the start of the season until Jan. 1.

Additionally, opponents are just raining threes on them as they’re hitting 38.9% of their triples (23rd in the league).

The zone defense is partially responsible for the poor rebounding and three-pointers against. It’s designed to cut off paths to the basket but requires clean rotations out to the corner and wings to contest threes.

You also need to intentionally find your man to box out when you’re in a zone which is different from a man defense where you’re already close to the guy you’re guarding.

The Cavs are doing neither.

The inconsistent results will continue until things clean up on that end.

The Cavs had no interest in guarding Fred VanVleet

There isn’t a lot of one-to-one comparison between the NBA and what normal people have experienced with pick-up or rec-league basketball. There is one common thread though: When someone keeps making uncontested threes, at some point you should probably guard them.

The Cavs had no interest in covering Houston Rockets guard Fed VanVleet in their two losses this week. He combined to go 13-21 from three (61.9%) while delivering game-sealing baskets in both contests.

A closer look at the numbers shows that he did most of his damage on wide-open threes. VanVleet went 9-11 (81.8%) on threes where the closest defender was six feet or further away. When someone was simply in shouting distance he converted just 4-10. Forty percent is still good, but it’s something you can live with. You can’t live with nine wide-open makes in two games that were decided by a combined five points.

The ease with which VanVleet was able to generate these shots shows how poor Cleveland’s zone is at containing set spot-up shooters. This alone makes it not a viable option not to mention the rebounding issues that have continually cropped up.

Even though the Cavs don’t play the Rockets again this season, other teams will be able to follow the very simple formula of just drifting over to open space and hitting uncontested shots.

Something needs to change.

Darius Garland has arrived

The Cavs have been pushing for Garland to be an All-Star for quite some time now. I asked him after the win over the Charlotte Hornets earlier this month if that’s important to him.

“Yeah,” Garland said simply. “It’s a goal of mine. I want to be an All-Star. I want to get back to that level of play that I’ve been at. I’m healthy this season. I plan on being in San Francisco.”

Since then, he hasn’t just played like an All-Star, he’s played like an All-NBA selection.

Garland is averaging 25.8 points and 7.3 assists with just 2.7 turnovers per game in his last 10 outings. He’s doing this with an incredible 60.7 effective field goal percentage.

The missed late-game free-throws that cost Cleveland the game against Houston on Thursday will overshadow this week, and understandably so. But that doesn’t nullify the growth he’s continually shown.

Garland carved up Houston, one of the best defenses in the league, twice in short succession. He was the unquestioned best offensive player on the court in both contests against a wing-heavy defense that has traditionally given him problems. This included an efficient 39-point outing on Saturday where Houston had absolutely no way to stop his dribble penetration or pull-up three-point shooting.

The talent has always been there for Garand. We’d see it in glimpses and flashes since he entered the league, but it has always seemed like there was something holding him back from putting it all together for an extended stretch.

That hasn’t been the case this season, and he’s only getting better.

It’s time to start recognizing Garland as one of the very best point guards in the league.