I love the things that help our defense.
1. Rebounding - Kevin Love is so fundamentally sound on boxing out his man, leaving Noah pretty ineffectual on the glass. Tristan is without saying after tonight.
2. The threat of transition. After the Love touchdown it was pretty much determined to GET BACK asap against this team which leads to more one and done opportunities.
3. Taking charges. Guys like Love, LeBron, and Kyrie are trying to protect the rim by sacrificing their bodies in the paint.
Just a few great things. One thing though is definitely the PnR defense leaves a lot to be desired, although the adjustment at the half limited some of the surgical passing of the Bulls directly inside, we gave up a lot of good looks off the catch for jumpers.
One positive though is Love isn't abandoning his man to get into rebounding position as often, he's getting out there and contesting shots. Another positive would be limiting the turnovers.
But it's early, but it is good to see the Cavs get STOPS when they needed them this time.
Hoping this really gets better and better. They actually ran some of the offense tonight and Blatt had an actual rotation this game so that's good to see the coaching synergy on the staff.