| Getting Defensive Authored by Patrick Daher - January 28, 2008 - 3:01 pm
| Current Featured Columns | | Merry Christmas, Raptors Fans The Raptors might not be playing good basketball right now, but there are plenty of things for Toronto fans to be thankful for this holiday season.
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All great teams are notorious for creating an identity and convincing their players to buy into what is being preached by the coaching staff. The Suns under Mike D’Antoni are known for their run and gun offense, the Pistons and Spurs for their late game execution and championship experience, and the Lakers for Tex Winters’ triangle style offense.
In the fifth year of the LBJ Era, the Cavaliers might have convinced themselves of an identity: Defense. Head coach Mike Brown has preached defense since the day he arrived at the helm. Yes, scoring triple digit points is flashy and looks good on the stat sheets, but often games boil down to who can stop their opponent down the stretch. Ultimately, defense wins championships.
It is no mistake that once the Cavaliers reverted back to last year’s defensive prowess that they started to string together wins this year. In the 2006-2007 campaign, Cleveland allowed 92.9 ppg, with opponents shooting 44.8% from the field which was 5th best in the entire NBA. They allowed 101.3 points per 100 possessions, which was fourth in the NBA.
In the playoffs, they allowed 86.7 ppg, with opponents shooting a frigid 42.5%, which put them No.1 amongst all playoff teams defensively and helped catapult them to their first NBA Finals appearance in franchise history.
This year, they currently rank 14th best in defense surrendering 105.7 points per 100 possessions, yielding a field goal percentage to opponents of 46.0%. This is a considerable drop off compared to last year’s figure.
However, slowly but surely, things have begun to turn around lately. Since Christmas Day the Cavs hold a record of 12-3. In the month of January, the Cavaliers are 10-2 and have ripped off winning streaks of 4 and 5 straight. During the hot streak they have allowed 95.2 ppg and have dismantled tough teams in the Mavericks, Spurs, Raptors, and Wizards to name a few.
This number is a bit skewed considering they gave up 124 points to the Grizzlies in an overtime win and 106 points to the Bobcats in a double overtime game. So, if you take away the two overtime games, this 11 game number closely resembles the defensive statistics you saw last year from the Cavs.
Indeed, Coach Brown’s decision to go back to a long athletic starting backcourt of Larry Hughes (6’6) and Sasha Pavlovic (6’8) has led to stellar play of late, but when you take a look at this starting backcourt’s numbers, the Cavaliers better play solid defense or wins will be hard to come by. Hughes and Pavlovic combine for 16.9 ppg. In comparison, the Pistons backcourt of Billups and Hamilton total 37.1 ppg and the Warriors backcourt of Baron Davis and Monta Ellis accumulate 39.9 ppg. Even the lowly Timberwolves with Sebastian Telfair and Marko Jaric average 18.7 ppg which ranks higher than the Cavs duo.
The Cavaliers must stay to true to their identity of defense to battle with the likes of the upper echelon teams in the East like the Celtics and Pistons. With a weak backcourt, the Cavs cannot afford to try to outrun and outshoot teams. Until the Cavaliers either trade or sign a true point guard or shooter to lessen the load of LeBron’s broad shoulders, defense and more defense will remain the team’s bread and butter. After all, it is said that your best offense is you defense. |
