Same defensive issues plague Cavs in post-meeting loss to Pacers
The Cleveland Cavaliers didn't quite get the team meeting bump they hoped for Wednesday night.
A day after airing out some early-season frustration, in what they deemed a productive team meeting, the Cavs got slapped at home by the Indiana Pacers, 124-107, losing their fourth straight game and falling to 3-5. All of those losses have come against non-playoff teams from last season, and they've come by an average margin of 15.7 points.
Given that the Cavs' biggest issues had been their lack of fitness and defensive energy, particularly in transition, the run-and-gun Pacers - who came in ranked ninth in the NBA in pace and third in offensive efficiency - offered a good litmus test for the post-meeting outfit. The Pacers were also playing on the second night of a back-to-back, while Cleveland was coming off two days rest, which figured to mitigate at least some of the disparity in the fresh legs department. It didn't.
Cleveland lost in more or less the same fashion they'd lost their previous three games. Their defense got picked apart, allowing at least 30 points in each quarter. They got outscored 16-6 in transition. They had no answer for Victor Oladipo's manic energy. Their inattentiveness allowed Domantas Sabonis to slip screens and duck in under the hoop for easy buckets. Their inability to fight through screens allowed the Pacers to get clean look after clean look, and to can 16 of their 26 3-point attempts.
After losing Tristan Thompson in the second quarter, they had nobody to offer up an iota of resistance at the rim. If Thompson has to miss time (as it seems he might), things could get even more dire for the Cavs; with the likes of Dwyane Wade, Kyle Korver, and Derrick Rose manning the perimeter, they haven't been able to contain dribble penetration, and Kevin Love has been woefully ineffective when he's been called upon to serve as the last line of defense.
LeBron James was still LeBron James, and his singular brilliance kept Cleveland in the game until the Pacers pulled away in the fourth quarter. But in what's becoming a disconcerting trend, none of his teammates was a net positive. James said the meeting left him feeling excited about what was ahead for the Cavs, but it plainly didn't cure what ails them, at least not on Wednesday night. These may not be problems they can talk their way through.
It's still just eight games into the season, a handful of guys are still playing themselves into shape, and the Cavs are long past giving a fraction of a damn about the regular season, let alone the first two weeks of it. But, the fact is, they're flat-out old and look like they may be feeling the effects of their three straight Finals trips (even if LeBron somehow isn't showing the effects of his seven straight). How many more performances like this will it take for the front office to start dangling that Brooklyn Nets pick, and looking for a significant upgrade?