Cavaliers' defense a cause for concern heading into postseason

The Cleveland Cavaliers are in trouble.

This isn't your mid-season bump in the road that a lot of teams experience, nor is it the type that calls for hitting the panic button. But it’s trouble, nonetheless.

Ignore the fact that the Cavaliers have been dethroned as the East's No. 1 seed by the Boston Celtics, while the Washington Wizards and Toronto Raptors sit in striking distance. And forget that they've lost seven of their last 12 games, including matchups with the sub-.500 Denver Nuggets and Detroit Pistons. The real concern for Cleveland is how they've lost those games, plagued by defensive shortcomings that have only gotten worse these last couple of months.

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The numbers are telling.

Since Jan. 1, the Cavs (22-19) are allowing opposing offenses to score 110.4 points per 100 possessions — numbers that are only better than Denver and the lowly Los Angeles Lakers. During this stretch, they rank 20th in opponent field goal percentage (46.5%), 24th in points allowed per game (109.3), 30th in steals (6.1 per game) and 28th in blocks (3.9 per game).

In 15 games in March, the Cavs (6-9) are allowing a league-worst 114.5 points per 100 possessions. In March of last year, they had the NBA's 11th-ranked defense (104.4 points allowed per 100 possessions) and finished the year ranked 10th overall.

Granted, the Cavs haven't fared well on the injury front, where they've seen Kevin Love, Kyle Korver, J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert all miss time, which has forced Lue to experiment with different starting lineups — 21, to be exact. They've had a fairly tough schedule, too, with 12 of this month's 17 games coming on the road.

But for the most part, this team is made up of the same core group that orchestrated the most historic comeback in NBA Finals history nine months ago. Six-time All-Defensive selection LeBron James is still the conductor on both ends of the court, and the reality is that they're still the favorites to come out of the East despite these struggles. So what gives?

According to Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue, the plan is to "hold back" until the playoffs.

"We can't show our hand early," Lue told reporters after Saturday night's 127-115 loss to Washington. "These are some good teams. We don't want them to be able to come into a series being able to adjust to what we do. We've just got to play our normal defense until we get (to the playoffs) and then we'll see what happens."

How sure is Lue that this plan will work and his team will turn things around?

"I'm not confident, but we've got to," Lue said. "We have to."

Interesting.

With nine games left and falling as low as the fourth seed in the East a worst-case scenario, Lue has entertained the idea of resting his stars for the remainder of the season, sacrificing seeding for fresh legs come playoff time. But should the Big Three of James, Love and Kyrie Irving take any time off, will the Cavs be able to flip the switch when it matters most and coast through the Eastern Conference as they did last year?

"It matters more that we're playing better basketball than where we're at," James told reporters after Cleveland's 29-point loss to San Antonio on Monday. "And if that results in us having the No. 1 seed, the No. 2 seed, three or whatever the hell it is — we need to play better basketball. That's what it comes down to. I'm not worried about anything. I feel like, when we're playing Cavaliers basketball, when we're playing the type of basketball we know we're capable of playing, we're at full strength, we can start off (without homecourt advantage)."

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