Numbers Watch XI: Cleveland's Mature Defense
Pre-rotating, helping the helper, limiting fouls - The young Cavs are a defensive juggernaut.
The Cleveland Cavaliers put the Brooklyn Nets to bed last night with a pick six from second-year wing Isaac Okoro.
Watch Okoro’s ball denial in that clip; he covers Kyrie Irving’s feint towards the basket and then uses his 6’8” wingspan to bait James Harden into overthrowing the pass. Okoro hounded Kyrie to 4 points on 2/7 shooting in the fourth quarter after Kyrie torched the Cavs for 14 points in the third.
Okoro continues to develop as a tenacious perimeter defender. He is able to keep up with crafty guards like Kyrie and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Okoro presents a nice perimeter complement to the Cavs’ twin towers Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. Allen and Mobley have established a no-fly zone in the paint: opponents shoot just 57.6% at the rim against Cleveland, the best mark in the league per Cleaning the Glass by a big margin. The gap between the Cavs and second best Memphis is the same as the gap between Memphis and fifteenth-best Miami. Halfway through the season, opponents are still adjusting; only six teams allow a bigger proportion of opponent shots at the rim than the Cavs. In Saturday’s Thunder-Cavaliers matchup, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander missed eight layups. At some point opponents will stop challenging Allen and Mobley quite so much at the rim, at which point Cleveland’s defense will likely benefit from forcing more midrange shots.
When that happens, Cleveland’s third-in-the-league 105.9 defensive mark might improve even further. With the league-best defense missing Draymond Green for an extended period, it isn’t inconceivable that the Cavs could have the league’s top defensive mark by the end of the season. Nothing about Cleveland’s defense seems unsustainable; opponents have shot poorly on open threes, but Cleveland doesn’t give up too many of those looks anyway.
The Cavs aren’t blowing the league away with traditional box score defensive numbers like steals and blocks. It is their commitment to the little things that has been most impressive. They aren’t foul happy, with the lowest opponent free throw rate in the league per Cleaning the Glass.
Or take this possession: Evan Mobley’s head is on a swivel, one eye on the action at the top of the key and the other on his man Kessler Edwards in the corner. As soon as Kyrie splits the defense, Mobley rotates over early enough to get in a vertical contest and force a miss.
Mobley is long and capable of racking up blocks, but he isn’t greedy. That keeps him from putting in late contests.
Coach J. B. Bickerstaff has the whole team bought in; even Lauri Markannen is rotating early. Okoro sticks with Kyrie here, but Markannen’s rotation is critical to deterring the initial drive. With the threat neutralized, Markannen is alert to boxing out his man LaMarcus Aldridge even as Okoro forces a tough turnaround from Kyrie.
Watching the Cavs defense is to watch a team on a string. A couple of possessions after the play above, James Harden had Markannen isolated on a switch. Okoro puts in a timely stunt as soon as Harden gets by Markannen, Mobley rotates over early and does enough to deter a Harden lob or floater. Remember Mobley not getting greedy with blocks? That also puts him in position to recover back out to Edwards in the corner and put in a long contest.
The cherry on top there is Markannen running to help the helper by boxing out Jarrett Allen’s man, LaMarcus Aldridge (Nets 21) on the rebound. Even Darius Garland has a weather eye on Patty Mills lurking on the perimeter at all times.
This is a level of team-wide commitment that belies the Cavs’ youth. Markannen is 24, Allen is 23, Garland is 21, Mobley and Okoro are 20. Things can only get better from here.