Cleveland Cavaliers: Mike Brown
Mike Brown isn't happy with the Cavaliers' defense of late, and is troubled by how his team has responded in four losses in their last five games.
(John Kuntz / The Plain Dealer)
CLEVELAND, Ohio – For the duration of the Cavaliers' training camp, they had a singular focus: defense. They learned defensive rotations, defensive schemes, defensive theories.
They endured defensive drills throughout lengthy shootarounds before preseason games.
They watch film highlighting, above all else, defensive miscues and defensive mistakes after games, now.
And first-year coach Mike Brown's attention to that side of the floor has worked – on the surface. The Cavaliers currently are ranked 16th in the NBA in opponent field goal percentage, holding opponents to .452 per game.
But in the last five games, four of which were losses, somehow, none of that attention to defense has resulted in steady play on that side of the floor.
The Cavaliers are allowing opponents to shoot .476 in the last five games, while they have shot .422.
Predictably, and easily, they've been outscored.
For a defensive-minded coach like Brown, it's vexing and infuriating.
"I'm not sure why, right now, why we're playing like that defensively," he said. "All of us can see the mistakes we're making defensively. We can see it on the film, our lack of physicality. We'll go through stretches where we'll try to pick it up, like we did coming out in the third (against Detroit). But then we revert right back after making a little run. It's tough going down double-digits, especially the type of double-digit deficits we're facing, trying to fight back and then win a game.
"That's something we're going to correct. I'm going to keep moving pieces and searching until I feel like I have a group of guys who are going to consistently play at a high level defensively."
So, the search continues.
And that goes for Cavaliers players, too, who say the right things about how to improve.
"Take some pride," forward Tristan Thompson said. "And take accountability on our part. There's only so much Coach can say to us before a game, halftime, post-game. When it comes down to it, it's us as players that go out there and play and show some life."
Brown theorizes that the Cavaliers have allowed their woeful offense of late – that includes plenty of missed buckets – to deflate their energy, and, in turn, affect their defense.
"For us defensively, I think it's been that way for a while," Brown said. "Maybe because we went through a stretch of scoring and we think we can win ballgames that way. It was pretty easy when we scored.
"I'm not quite sure. But I know the physicality is not there, and the sense of urgency from us as a team is not there on the defensive end of the floor."
Players are searching for answers, too.
"We'll have to figure that out internally," Kyrie Irving said. "We'll have to figure out as a team how we want to start games and go out and execute."
Added Brown: "We haven't arrived. We've taken a couple steps backward. And we're getting hit in the mouth right now. I'm interested to see if we can respond the right way as a group."