After winning eight of their first nine games and looking like a scary team in the making, the Cleveland Cavaliers have experienced a correction, as they’ve dropped back-to-back games.
They lost to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday, and they fell to the Sacramento Kings, who are just 4-6 on the season, on Wednesday.
Cleveland still has an 8-3 record, but head coach J. B. Bickerstaff now has some bulletin board material to help his men improve, and these two key areas need some improvement, as they were the chief reasons for their last two losses.
1. Defense
The Cavs were looking mighty on the defensive end in their first nine contests, but in these last two games, they’ve regressed in that department.
They gave up 119 points to a Clippers team that was without Kawhi Leonard, their best player, and even worse, they surrendered 127 points to Sacramento.
Cleveland still ranks third in defensive rating, which is excellent, but there are some things to shore up.
It allowed both the Clippers and Kings to shoot over 43.5 percent from 3-point range, and its perimeter defense is iffy.
Cavaliers defense has been non-existent today
— Sports Talk Spicer (@SportsSpicer) November 6, 2022
There is no excuse for a team that has elite shot-blockers such as Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley to give up over 115 points a game.
2. Turnovers
Even though the Cavs play at one of the slowest paces in the league, they’ve been turning the ball over quite a bit.
They had 17 turnovers versus L.A. and 18 against the Kings, and eventually, this issue is going to cost Cleveland more wins unless it gets rectified.
The biggest culprit has been Darius Garland, who is averaging 4.0 turnovers a game to start the season.
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