No team entered the NBA Playoffs with a worse defense than the Cleveland Cavaliers. Last year's league champions allowed 108 points per 100 possessions in 82 games, including a nauseating 111.1 after the All-Star break.This was a major concern for the Cavaliers heading into the postseason, and the jury is still out on whether Cleveland's defense has improved during the last couple of weeks. So far, it hasn't mattered. Cleveland rolled over Indiana and Toronto in the first two rounds, and they will be prohibitive favorites in the Eastern Conference Finals against the winner of the Washington-Boston series. But at some point, Cleveland figures to be tested defensively.
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There were sequences throughout their early-round sweeps against the Pacers and Raptors where the Cavs appeared to have zero interest in playing defense.Against Indiana, this played out with lazy switches onto Paul George that stretched help defenders beyond their breaking point, hesitant rotations from the weakside, and moments where a roaming LeBron James either forgot how the team was defending side pick-and-rolls or had enough confidence to know that allowing this on a consistent basis wouldn't be fatal.Indiana went from 23 three-point attempts per game in the regular season to 28.8 three-point attempts per game against Cleveland in the first round. Part of this was intentional: Cleveland was happy to swoop deep under screens to allow mediocre outside shooters like Lance Stephenson, Monta Ellis, and Jeff Teague to shoot from beyond the arc, even though all three saw their three-point rates surge in the first round.But George had a standout series despite Cleveland trying to erase his off-screen action and to force him to attack in isolation. (According to Synergy Sports, 27.2 percent of George's possessions in the playoffs were in isolation and 11.4 percent were off screens. In the regular season, those two numbers were 17.5 percent and 19 percent, respectively.) The percentage of his shots that came after at least seven dribbles jumped by 7.9 percent.Cleveland allowed 111.0 points per 100 possessions in those four games, meaning that despite the sweep, the Cavs' defense hadn't actually improved from the regular season.
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Photo by John E. Sokolowski - USA Today Sports
Against Toronto, Cleveland's execution was nearly flawless. Still, it's hard to pinpoint exactly why their defensive rating dropped to an elite 100.9. Not having to square off against the injured Kyle Lowry for two games helped a tiny bit: the Raptors scored 104.5 points per 100 possessions with Lowry on the floor, and 98.8 when he sat.In one telling sequence from the second round, Cavs coach Ty Lue instructed Channing Frye to trap DeMar DeRozan way out by the "Q" in Quicken Loans Arena. The ball was immediately reversed to Cory Joseph, who whipped it to an open Patrick Patterson in the corner.Joseph, who began his career with the same San Antonio Spurs team that defeated James' Miami Heat during the 2014 Finals, knows every second matters when trying to strafe such a risky defensive style; Frye wasn't even halfway back to a rolling Serge Ibaka by the time Patterson caught the pass. His tardiness kept Tristan Thompson velcroed to the paint half a second too long, and, voila, the Raptors had an open corner three.This is where the annoyingly accurate "make or miss league" axiom juts into the frame. Patterson's shot crashed into the front of the rim, smacked against the backboard, then rolled straight towards an airborne Iman Shumpert. (Thompson was fouled attempting a layup about 10 seconds later.) Misses like that crippled the Raptors' offense: they only made 26.2 percent of 42 corner three attempts in the series, after going 37.7 percent as a team during the regular season.
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The Cavs also kept the Raptors off the free-throw line—where Toronto loves to be—but there's a chance that Cleveland's next two most likely playoff opponents won't be super interested in getting there. The Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors hunt for layups over everything—in transition, off split cuts, you name it—and when those get taken away, they happily ferry the ball to the three-point line and gash opponents from the outside.While Indiana and Toronto finished 18th and 30th in assist percentage during the regular season, Golden State and Boston were first and second, respectively, while also ranking sixth and third in three-point rate. (The Pacers and Raptors were 26th and 22nd.) These teams were built to disembowel schemes that rely upon hyperactive big man who want to disrupt high screens 30 feet from the basket.
Photo by David Richard - USA Today Sports
The Celtics also canned 40.6 percent of their corner threes during the regular season, and are all the way up to 48.8 percent in the conference semifinals, partially thanks to Washington's eccentric effort to suppress the irrepressible Isaiah Thomas.In other words, Lue may need to install a different game plan if the Celtics beat the Wizards in Monday's Game 7.Despite missing just about every three he took, Thomas' True Shooting percentage was 64.4 against Cleveland in four games this season. Why? Lineups that feature no rim protection transform into All-You-Can-Eat buffets whenever he has the ball; the Cavaliers don't have any rim protectors and are particularly vulnerable with one big on the floor.
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Boston will close most games and halves with Thomas, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Marcus Smart, and Al Horford in the game, a lineup that diced Cleveland's defense up in a dozen minutes during the regular season.But in a potential showdown where every detail matters, James becomes a wild-card. He can roam off Smart, reshape his responsibilities as a back-line defender, and force Brad Stevens to continue subbing Kelly Olynyk in as the fifth man in tight games. James can also handle Horford, and switch high screens when Thomas has the ball.The Celtics will combat this with screens high on the floor that allow Thomas the time and space he needs to get downhill against a backpedaling big man. Kevin Love is too slow to corral most guards, let alone one of the shiftiest to ever play. He can't hedge and recover back to his original assignment either. So whenever Boston sets a ball screen for Thomas with Love's man, Cleveland will slide a defender from the weakside corner into the paint and force a pull-up jumper, dangerous pass, or interior collision. Multiple bodies will block his path to the basket.Thomas scored 92 points in Boston's first three games against the Cavaliers this year. He was "held" to 26 in that fourth showdown, a disorienting 23-point annihilation in which Cleveland showed how unafraid they were of Thomas' supporting cast. The Celtics have shown they can char defenses behind the three-point line all year, but Cleveland probably doubts they can do it four times over a two-week span.
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Seven Celtics and seven Cavs remain from 2015's humbling first-round sweep. Both sides are more experienced, talented, and confident than before, but while Cleveland's Simple Rating System (SRS) has fallen from 4.08 in 2015 to 2.87 two years later, Boston's has shot up from -0.40 to 2.25.Boston's players are all better shooters, cutters, and screeners now. They also have Horford, and are averaging 112.0 points per 100 possessions with him and Thomas on the floor. (Boston scored 111.9 points per 100 possessions when those two shared the court against Cleveland during the regular season.) Horford is the release valve designed to turn Cleveland's aggressive traps against them, and is currently the second player in NBA playoff history to log at least 400 minutes with a True Shooting percentage that's above .700.Take all this into consideration, and at the end of the day, the Cavaliers probably won't be able to slow Boston's offense down.And if the Cavs face the Wizards? Washington slashed through the Cleveland this year in a pair of wildly-entertaining games, but it may be a different story in a postseason meeting, considering the Wizards' bench woes, half-court struggles, and Cleveland's sudden commitment to rushing back after a missed shot.The Cavs rank second in transition defense in these playoffs, which is a slight improvement from dead last during the regular season, per Synergy Sports. According to Inpredictable, Cleveland also ranked 28th in defense in the regular season after a defensive rebound or turnover, and 12th after a made shot. That's flipped in the playoffs, where they now rank sixth (out of 16 teams) after a defensive rebound, third after a turnover, and 12th after a made shot.The Wizards rely so much on John Wall's transition game (Washington ranked 29th in passes per game this year) that the Cavs should be in good shape if they can maintain their playoffs about-face. Looking ahead to the NBA Finals, San Antonio is so banged up physically (Tony Parker is for sure out with a quadriceps injury, and Kawhi Leonard's status after re-injuring his ankle is still unknown) that the Cavs can likely beat the Spurs without a stellar defensive effort.As long as they take care of the ball and arm James with elite outside shooters, the Cavaliers have proven they can outscore just about any team in the league. In its finest iteration, this team generates some of the most unstoppable offense we've ever seen, led by the greatest player of his generation.That should be enough to reach the Finals. Is it enough to win another title? Overcoming the Warriors, or a healthy Spurs squad, will require serious execution on both sides of the ball. From all we've seen so far, the Cavaliers have yet to show they're up to the task. At some point, that's bound to matter.Want to read more stories like this from VICE Sports?Subscribe to our daily newsletter.
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