From the Fedor/Allen podcast after the loss to the Hawks:
The thing that I think stands out to me the most is the point of attack defense is just not good enough. There are guys that are beating defenders off the dribble, forcing the defense into help situations, forcing the defense into rotations.
And then once the point of attack breaks down, it’s a scramble mode and everybody is over helping. And I think that’s part of the reason why they’re giving up so many threes. - Fedor
I completely agree - it all starts with a guy getting beat off the dribble or a ballhandler coming around a screen unchecked. Then somebody else has to switch off on the ball and we usually end up with an uncontested corner 3, which is the best shot in basketball other than a dunk.
Part of this is the Cavs don’t have Caris LaVert. They don’t have Dean Wade. Both guys are out at the same time and it’s forcing other guys to play extended minutes that aren’t as good at the point of attack...
Yeah, Niang and Merrill don't give you the same bang for the buck on the defensive end, although I think they're both better than last year.
But to me, it all starts at the point of attack...they are horrendous against point guards. If you’re betting...pick a point guard against the Cavs and pick the over for whatever it is. Damien Lillard, Trey Young, whoever it is. Point guards against the Cavs are feasting and that’s because the Cavs are just not good enough. They’re not sturdy enough at the point of attack and these guys are just breaking the paint a little bit too easy right now. - Fedor
We talk about the Boston Celtics game when you talk about the over help. That was the first time we really mentioned that and how many threes they got up. That was the similar thing tonight against the Atlanta Hawks. - Sands
[Last night] was the most three pointers that the Cavs have taken in a season. and that led to long rebounds that led to fast break opportunities and those kinds of things, especially with an Atlanta Hawks team. - Sands
The Hawks play with the second fastest pace in the NBA which means that if you miss a lot of 3's they're going to burn you, and the Cavs missed a lot of 3's. They took 48 - well over their average, and missed 33. They played right into the Hawks' hands, IMO.
I think the way to phrase it is that the Cavs have gotten comfortable. I don’t think complacent, but I think they’ve gotten comfortable in certain kinds of situations and with certain things that haven’t gone as well.
Because they found a way to win those games. And in a weird way, Ethan, I feel like the Cavs needed this. I feel like they needed a game that they were going to lose, that they didn’t give their best effort, that they didn’t play their best, and they actually lost that game. So they couldn’t just lean on the fact of, yeah, we brought our C game and still won. Yeah, we brought our D game and we still found a way to win, right? - Fedor
I agree - this game may be a wake-up call so the Cavs understand they can't always get away with just showing up and scoring 124 points. They need the defensive component to be there as well.
We can’t just rely on our offense to bail us out because it’s just that good. We can’t just play around with the game for three quarters and then just crank it up in the fourth quarter against lesser opponents, something that they have done in the past, right? They did that against Chicago. They did that against the Brooklyn Nets. - Fedor
I think Kenny Atkinson said it perfectly after the game, Ethan. We kind of got what was coming to us. And they did. They’ve been playing with fire a lot during the last two weeks. And they’ve been getting away with it. - Fedor
The overfouling is more so what I was talking about when it comes to when teams would get into the lane against the Cavs' smaller guards and instead of putting their hands back and just contesting, they would reach their hands in. - Sands
I just think the Cavs have to get back to some of the basics and some of the fundamentals...The things that J.B. Bickerstaff stressed every single day in practice that the guys didn’t always love during the J.B. Bickerstaff era because they’re so rudimentary. Like, why are we going over these things?
I think Jarrett has been trying to say this for the last week or so. And he said, like, we have a tendency to get a little bit too comfortable and believe that we’re such a great defense that it’s just going to all come together and we’re going to figure it out and we’re going to lock in on the defensive end. That mentality needs to go away because the truth is 74 points for the Hawks in the second half and 37 in the fourth quarter like that can’t keep happening...they just need to get back to doing the little things that make them a great defense.
I just wonder if the shot over expected stat that he continues to point to, the one that he often points out at halftime, is actually a good thing to let the players know because some of the guys are starting to say, well, you know, they just shot out of their minds. They just made shots. Like that guy’s not that good of a shooter and he did that. - Fedor
That's a good point because Atlanta came in making 34% of their 3's and last night they hit 47.6%. The Hawks average 12.2 made 3's per game and they hit 20 against us, so they scored 24 more points on 3's than normal. They definitely shot "over expected" and so did Boston in our other loss - they were 22-for-41. But if you tell the players at halftime, "Don't worry, they just made shots they normally miss, we're fine", that's probably not the right message.
