The Cleveland Cavaliers have established themselves as the top team in the NBA this season. However, their performance has not been without flaws on defense recently. After halftime, they have struggled noticeably to maintain their leads. This trend made their recent victory over the Toronto Raptors much closer than anticipated. Even more troubling was Cleveland's recent loss to the Indiana Pacers. In that game, the Cavs failed to score at least 100 points. This marked the first time the Cavs fell below that threshold in the entire season.
Despite the Cavs' offensive struggles in the second half against the Pacers, Cleveland head coach Kenny Atkinson focused on the team's defensive issues. He pointed out that the defense faltered significantly in the last 24 minutes of the game. Atkinson was particularly frustrated with their effort right after halftime. It was clear to him that defensive consistency was lacking when it mattered most.
“Just disappointed [with our] defensive mindset in that third quarter and really the whole second half,” said Atkinson following the Cavs 108-93 loss to the Pacers.
Cleveland's last five games have seen the team struggle in the third quarter, while its opponents have dominated during this time. On average, these opponents score 36.8 points each third quarter and shoot an impressive 58.9 percent from the field. This performance marks the worst defensive showing in the NBA over that span.
“Our standards have to be higher,” said Atkinson. “We tend to relax when we get these leads, and you know how the NBA is now; the snap of a finger, and all of a sudden, it's a tie score. So I just think there's a little bit of complacency when we get a lead, but that's alarming.
“We'll look at it. We'll dive deeper into it, but it seems like that's a mental kind of not ready when you come out of the locker room and a relaxed thing.”
How the Pacers amplified the Cavs worrisome trend on defense

While Cleveland is 4-1 in their last games, their loss against the Pacers cracked the code for beating the Cavs. Indiana settled in on defense and forced Cleveland to overexert themselves on offense, making it far too difficult for the Cavs to maintain or even build momentum.
In the third quarter, the Cavs committed seven turnovers, with Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland combining three of those miscues. Those turnovers resulted in six easy points for Indiana and a total of 12 points off turnovers during that quarter.
“We kind of, how do you say, deserved it,” Atkinson admitted following the 108-93 loss to the surging Indiana Pacers. “We had two days off. Two days to prepare for this game. We didn’t do a great job from a coaching standpoint.”
As a result, the Cavs' 15-point lead quickly turned into a six-point deficit by the end of the quarter, and the blame for this collapse rests solely on Cleveland's shoulders. Indiana's pressure had thrown off their offensive flow and allowed the Pacers to dictate the closing moments of the matchup.
“We didn’t play to our standards,” Garland said. “The first half was pretty good and the second half kind of got away from our principles. They dictated the second half.”
While Indiana's defensive pressure perplexed the Cavs during the game, they already know what adjustments must be made to prevent it from recurring. According to Garland, if Indiana continues to apply full-court pressure, Cleveland's bigs must set screens to peel off defenders, and secondary ball-handlers must be on standby.
While it might seem like a simple enough concept, now that the Cavs understand the Pacers' defensive pressure, it can be easier to adapt to it on the fly with their own counteraction.