Figured this would be a good place to ask... can somebody post the Kevin Pelton article from the day? It's about the cavs how exactly they've improved as the season has gone on...
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11998589/cleveland-cavaliers-rounding-form-nba
Rep to whoever can post that bad boy.
Cavaliers rounding into form
Riding six-game winning streak, Cleveland now looks like team we expected
Originally Published: December 8, 2014
By
Kevin Pelton | ESPN Insider
Jason Miller/Getty Images
LeBron James & Co. have stepped up their offense and defense during the recent run.
Dennis Green is not an NBA coach. If he were, the former Arizona Cardinals coach might let us know that the
Cleveland Cavaliers "are who we thought they were."
While they are still stuck in fourth in the Eastern Conference, their six-game winning streak is tied for the conference's longest this season and they've won those six games by an average of 15 points, including a 14-point road win Friday night against the East-leading
Toronto Raptors. So despite a contentious 5-7 start, Cleveland is beginning to look like the Finals favorite we expected before the season.
The groundwork for the Cavaliers' winning streak was actually laid during the four-game losing streak that preceded it. While the offense continued to struggle with defining roles during that stretch, cracking 1.0 points per possession just once in the four losses, the defense was showing signs of progress. The first seven games of the season saw the Cavaliers ranked among the league's worst defenses on a per-possession basis, but they have allowed opponents to exceed their season average for offensive rating just three times in the past 11 games.
Cleveland's season-long defensive rating has been improving for nearly a month, to the point where the Cavaliers now rank 15th during the course of the season and sixth in the league in the past 10 games, per NBA.com/Stats.
Coach David Blatt hasn't solved Cleveland's
lack of rim protection. The Cavaliers still are allowing opponents to make 65.5 percent of their attempts inside the restricted area, the NBA's second-worst mark. But Cleveland recently has been able to overcome this liability. It is doing a relatively good job of keeping opponents out of the paint. Just three other teams allow a lower percentage of shot attempts inside the restricted area.
Beyond that, the Cavaliers have forced misses from everywhere else. Opponents have made just 34.9 percent of their 2-point attempts outside the restricted area in the past 10 games, compared to 45.0 percent during the first eight, when the defense struggled. Cleveland also has been slightly better than average in terms of opponent 3-point shooting (34.6 percent).
The Cavaliers probably can't sustain a top-10 defense. During their six-game winning streak, opponents are making 33.1 percent of their 2-pointers outside the restricted area, a mark no defense has come close to achieving during a full season. (The
Phoenix Suns rank No. 1 in opponent 2-point percentage outside the restricted area at 35.4 percent.) That's a combination of a weak set of opposing offenses and random noise.
However, the 45.0 percent they gave up on 2-pointers outside the restricted area in the first eight games was equally fluky; it would be the highest percentage in the league for the full season (the
Indiana Pacers are last at 43.6 percent.) So the Cleveland defense was never quite as bad as it looked early. And a league-average defense is a realistic target for this group of players.
If the Cavaliers can combine average defense with an offense operating at full potential, they'll win a lot of games. During the winning streak, Cleveland ranks third in the NBA in offensive rating against an above-average set of opposing defenses.
The most encouraging sign for the Cavaliers' offense is how well
Kevin Love has played during the winning streak. He's averaging 19.0 points while making an even 60.0 percent of his 2-point attempts and 41.7 percent from 3-point range. Because Love isn't getting any more shot attempts in the streak, he hasn't cut into the scoring of
LeBron James (24.3 PPG) or
Kyrie Irving (22.3 PPG). No team in the league has three players averaging at least 19 PPG.
There probably will be more bumps in store for Cleveland, because the team has shown a tendency to coast at times. During this winning streak, the Cavaliers have a pair of one-possession victories over the
Milwaukee Bucks at home and the lowly
New York Knicks. But they appear to be as good as any team in the NBA.
Looks like the Cavaliers are who we thought they were.
News and notes
• Cleveland still is in search of a 7-footer to improve its rim protection, with Marc Stein reporting Sunday that
Kosta Koufos of the
Memphis Grizzlies is
the latest name on the wish list. Koufos has consistently ranked as above average in defending shots within 5 feet of the basket,
as tracked by SportVU for NBA.com/Stats. Opponents made 47.4 percent of such shots with Koufos as a primary defender last season; it's 48.8 percent this season. That's better than Cleveland's best rim defender,
Anderson Varejao (50.0 percent this season, 54.8 percent in 2013-14).
Anthony Gruppuso/USA TODAY Sports
Could Kosta Koufos be on his way to Cleveland?
As with past Cleveland center rumors, the real trick is finding a workable deal. While the Grizzlies might be willing to deal Koufos -- a free agent at season's end who is something of a luxury as a backup to All-Star
Marc Gasol -- they don't want to sacrifice their chance to make a playoff run this season. Memphis doesn't have a third true center on its roster, and the Cavaliers couldn't offer a reliable backup for Gasol, which might necessitate the addition of a third team to make a realistic fit.
• Before coach Byron Scott changed things up on Sunday, the
Los Angeles Lakers' starting lineup had been outscored by 111 points this season --
56 points more than any other five-man unit in the league, per NBA.com/Stats. Amazingly, the Lakers' starting five had played
the most minutes of any NBA lineup (337); only one other lineup that has played even 150 minutes together has been outscored at all. (That's Utah's starting five with
Enes Kanter, which is minus-4 in 232 minutes.)
So it's understandable that Scott wanted to do something different, but replacing
Jeremy Lin and
Carlos Boozer with
Ronnie Price and
Ed Davis didn't seem to help much in a 104-87 home loss to the
New Orleans Pelicans. While the starting five was outscored by just two points in 19 minutes, the Lakers' bench was ineffective without Davis and Price. The Lakers were minus-15 in Boozer's 23 minutes of action. At this point, Scott might be simply
shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.
• With time running out in overtime on Friday in Minnesota,
Houston Rockets coach
Kevin McHale called on his shooting guard. No, not that one.
James Harden had fouled out late in regulation after scoring 38 points in 37 minutes, so rookie
Nick Johnson finished the game and scored the winning layup off a
Jason Terry feed with less than a second remaining. The basket was just the seventh field goal of Johnson's NBA career, a ratio that will probably go down over time.
I can't think of a player with fewer career field goals before sinking a game winner. Sundiata Gaines famously made a game-winning 3-pointer for the
Utah Jazz just days after getting called up from the D-League, but that was his eighth made shot. If you find a player with fewer,
let me know on Twitter.
• Weekly top five: Jump ball songs:
5. "Jump" (Van Halen)
4. "Pass the Courvoisier Part II" (Busta Rhymes feat. P. Diddy and Pharrell)
3. "Jump On It" (Sir Mix-a-Lot)
2. "Jump Around" (House of Pain)
1. "Jump" (Kris Kross)