Cavaliers and Clippers Share Same Fatal Flaw for NBA Title Hopefuls
The Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Clippers have a lot in common as fringe title contenders: star power, potent scoring attacks and, unfortunately, defenses that are mucking everything else up.
Put plainly, neither team plays defense like a champ. Not even close. And that's a problem because we know it takes two-way performance to be serious about chasing rings.
Neil Paine laid out the basics for Basketball-Reference.com years ago and Andres Alvarez of Wages of Wins Journal reinforced the truth in 2012. The basic rule: You need both a top-10 offense and a top-10 defense to be a serious title threat.
Since the 1999-2000 season, we've had 15 NBA champs. All but three of them ranked in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency.
Enough history. Let's talk about what's going on now, starting with the Cavs, whose problems appear to be more profound than the Clippers'.
Cleveland: Add Size and Pray
Cleveland ranks 26th in the league in defensive efficiency, allowing a horrid 106.3 points per 100 possessions. If you've actually watched this team play for any prolonged stretch, you might be surprised its defense only ranks fifth from the bottom.
It's been that bad—especially recently.
Over their past 10 games, the Cavaliers have allowed 109.5 points per 100 possessions, which ranks them 29th in the league. Only the New York Knicks have been worse in that span.
LeBron James has missed time, which hasn't helped, but he's hardly been a cure-all when on the court. In his 1,125 minutes this season, the Cavs have posted a defensive rating of 104.1—better, sure, but only good for 19th in the league overall. That's nowhere near good enough.
The main issue is rim protection, which everybody saw coming months ago.
On the year, Cleveland is allowing opponents to shoot 64.1 percent in the restricted area, a rate that ranks 28th in the league.
Recently acquired Timofey Mozgov is supposed to help, and he can if he's used correctly.
Bleacher Report's Dylan Murphy explains how head coach David Blatt plans to utilize the Russian center:
"Schematically, it appears Cavs head coach David Blatt has slotted Mozgov into his most natural pick-and-roll defensive role: dropping deep into the paint.
What Mozgov provides in pure size he inversely concedes in foot speed. He's simply not quick enough to stick with guards for multiple seconds and gets blown by if he's confronting ball-handlers above the free-throw line.
The drop, which has Mozgov retreating to defend the rim once the screen is set, hopes to offset this issue.
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Dropping Mozgov is clearly the way to go. But even if used optimally, it's hard to know if the improvement he'll represent is significant enough to make a real difference. After all, Cleveland's problems on defense are tied to its larger, team-wide issues.
The Cavs have to play with urgency. They have to genuinely care about helping each other out and making an effort. So far, there hasn't been much to suggest they're capable of doing those things.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports contends James is responsible for setting an example in those areas and hasn't this season:
"When the Cavaliers needed his old MVP self – hard-playing, smart and relentless – they found him taking off plays and jogging back on defense and undermining his coach in ways big and small. James hadn't offered the leadership he promised to reconstruct the franchise, only his presence.
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That's all fair. At the same time, Cleveland needs a scheme worth believing in and buy-ins from Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving, both of whom have long track records of not mustering gusto on the defensive end.
Until the Cavaliers' three most talented players act as though defense matters to them, we shouldn't expect the rest of the supporting cast to fall in line.
Despite all those those formidable obstacles, the Cavaliers may still have an easier time overcoming their defensive issues than the Clippers.
Clippers: Is Better Good Enough?
The reason is simple: L.A. is stuck playing in the torturously, inhumanely competitive West.
DeAndre Jordan is an imposing figure in the lane, though he's still more of a highlight-generating block-hunter than a stable anchor in the mold of Marc Gasol, Tim Duncan or Andrew Bogut. Too often this year, he's been baited out of position or slightly slow to rotate.
He's not a great defender. He's merely good and deserves a lot of credit for L.A.'s No. 8 ranking in defensive efficiency last year.
On balance, though, the Clippers still don't defend the rim well. Backup bigs Spencer Hawes and Glen Davis are non-factors inside, and Blake Griffin simply lacks the size (6'10", 251 lbs) and length to pose a defensive threat in the lane.
The Clippers aren't as bad as the Cavaliers at defending close-range looks, but they're close: sixth-worst in the league at 62 percent.
It's not fair to say the Clippers share the same troubling lack of urgency as the Cavs, but there's a similarly casual approach that creeps into their defensive play at times.
Los Angeles is a far better team thanks in no small part to its stability, built on the presence of head coach Doc Rivers, who we could never imagine a superstar dismissively herding—also known as shoving—to the sidelines.
The core has been together for years now, and unlike the Cavaliers, the Clips have past success to turn to for reference if they're in need of pointers.
The only problem is the conference.
L.A.'s defense is objectively better than Cleveland's. It's in the middle of the pack right now. But in the West, middling may not be enough to survive the early rounds—especially with the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Blazers and San Antonio Spurs all ranking in the league's top six in defensive efficiency.
So, This Is Pretty Much It
Cleveland has made its moves, and the Clips are hard-capped to the point where meaningful roster additions are basically out of the question. So if there's any chance for improvement on "D" for either team, it'll almost certainly have to come from within.
If you subscribe to the notion that things like continuity, leadership and a simple willingness to try matter as much as scheme and personnel, you've got to give the Clips the best chance to sort things out on defense.
I guess that means this counts as another gloom-and-doom forecast for the Cavs.
Add it to the pile.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics courtesy of NBA.com.
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