Byron Scott urges Cleveland Cavaliers to pick up their game in season’s second half
As the Cleveland Cavaliers reassemble this Wednesday against the Houston Rockets for the start of the unofficial second half of the season, they look at the number 26 with dread and anything but pride. The figure is bound to haunt them for years to come
as 26 is the number of games the Cavaliers have lost in the worst-losing stretches of NBA. It is also the number of games left in the season to play.
Cavaliers Coach Byron Scott is already sending warning signals to his team. Irritated by his team’s poor efforts in tightening the perimeter, his message is loud and clear: Play hard and play better defence.
Scott's biggest priority over the span of the final eight weeks of the regular season is to slash the team's defensive field-goal percentage from 48 percent to 46 percent.
The 2% slice may not sound like much but the Cavs, now languishing at the 28th slot in the league, can surge to the middle of the pack if they succeed in doing so. Defence has been one of the key sore points of the Cavaliers this season. Figuring out how
to improve on it is three fold, according to Scott.
The first onus, he says, lies on the guards. These are the ones who make the path which the rest of the team follows and they have to do a better job of fighting through screens. Next come the big boys at the centre. For them the message is very simple.
Bring more intensity in their play; defend the pick and roll better by jumping out on the dribbler in a ''hard show,'' then retreating to their man, and everyone has to do a better job at rebounding.
Although, the Wine and Gold lifted their defence in pieces throughout the season, their coach is very certain the weak point of the whole defence has been the guards. The guards have struggled to defend the way Scott wants on the perimeter, which ultimately
breaks down the entire defence.
“It all comes down to one word — effort,” Scott said. “Telling yourself from a guard standpoint, 'I know there's going to be a screen; I'm not going to get screened. I'm not going to melt on the screen; I'm going to get through it’.”
Notwithstanding their thin offense, it has been their lacklustre defending at crucial junctures of various tight games this season, which has often led to their downfall. The Cavs have struggled defending everywhere this season, but particularly on pick-and-rolls.
Scott was extremely critical of his players following their poor effort in a 115-100 loss to Washington Wizards last week, giving the Wizards their first road win of the season.
Three days later however, his team responded by putting an almost perfect defensive performance against the two-time reigning champions Los Angeles Lakers. On a dramatic night, not only did the Wine and Gold restrict Kobe Bryant from having one of his conventional
scoring outbursts, but also drove right to the throats of the Lakers, contesting their jumpers all afternoon. The results were stunning and there for all to see and relish. The Cavs stunned the Lakers 104-99 in one of the biggest upsets of the season.
The big question still hanging over the franchise’s head though, is whether the Cavs are consistent enough to do it day in and day out. As has been seen throughout the season; just when the Cavaliers pull off some heartening performances and raise the hopes
of their faithful, they suddenly snap.
The Cavs enter the second half in a precarious position. Reeling at a 10-46 record, the worst in the league till date, behind Minnesota Timberwolves, they are in danger of finishing at the bottom of the league for the first time in the franchise history.
They are many voices though, fans and officials alike, in Cleveland who want to have the best odds of securing the number one pick in next summer's draft – a liberty they can have by finishing last.
The coach and players, however, are adamant that for them, the path is singular and simple. Winning and winning again. “That just doesn't make any sense to me,” Antawn Jamison, the Cavs top-scorer this season said. “I don't understand that way of thinking.
I play to win every night.”
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