CLEVELAND: Beyond all of the 3-pointers, the increased pace and extra possessions the Cavaliers are creating for themselves, there is one clear piece of tangible evidence that indicates the team’s apparent shift in philosophy this year.
Channing Frye and Kevin Love rarely shared a court together last season. Both have a reputation for being explosive scorers, but deficient defenders. As a result, coach Tyronn Lue was hesitant to play them at the same time because of matchup issues. They appeared in just nine games together following the midseason trade to acquire Frye, totaling 38 minutes together on the court.
They have already played together in 10 of the Cavs’ first 13 games this season before Frye was excused from the team to mourn the death of his father. They’ve already totaled 64 minutes on the court together — nearly double of last season’s total in a fraction of the time.
It stands to reason that in this era of explosive scoring — the Cavs became the first team in history to make at least 20 3-pointers in consecutive games, and the Houston Rockets set a record by attempting 50 3-pointers on Friday — the Cavs are sacrificing defensive principles for more scoring.
“It’s not really dismissing [defense]. I just think there are certain games where you’ve got to outscore teams,” Lue said. “Where teams have it going and you can’t stop them, then we got to put out our best offensive lineup and they’ve got to stop us. And I think it’s hard to stop us when we have space on the floor and shooting.”
When Lue relented last season and finally paired Frye with Love, it was Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Atlanta Hawks. The Cavs began the fourth quarter trailing 91-85, but Frye and Love shot the Cavs to a victory and a commanding 3-0 lead en route to a sweep. They outscored the Hawks by 21 points when they shared the floor together and afterward Hawks players conceded they never saw it coming.
“We didn’t prepare for that,” Al Horford said after that game. “They took advantage.”
Lue seems to be getting more and more comfortable with the idea this season. He has already acknowledged punting away previous held beliefs on defense. Lue concedes the idea of holding teams to under 100 points a game is outdated now that more than half the league is averaging at least 100 possessions a game.
The Cavs are simply staying ahead of the trend, as they did Wednesday when they set an arena record with 137 points in their win against the Portland Trail Blazers. Love set a franchise record with 34 points in the first quarter, which ranks second all-time in NBA history behind only Klay Thompson’s 37-point quarter.
The Cavs’ best lineup in terms of shooting and spacing is Kyrie Irving, J.R. Smith, LeBron James, Love and Frye. That lineup is outscoring teams by 13 points, third-best the Cavs have used this season. Curiously, however, those five collectively are shooting only 29 percent on 3-pointers when playing together. Still, Lue is confident using it when he wants to outscore opponents — which has been fairly often this season.
The Cavs are among the league leaders in every significant offensive category this season. They’re third in the league in scoring and enter Friday one-tenth of a point behind the Los Angeles Clippers for second. Their 3-point assault this week allowed them to reclaim the lead as league leaders in 3-pointers per game at 13.9. They’re shooting 40 percent on 3-pointers, second only to the San Antonio Spurs (40.1), who entered Saturday with 134 fewer attempts.
James said Friday he was encouraged by the way the Cavs have defended the past couple of games, but what’s clear right now is that the league’s focus is on scoring. As to Lue’s point about some nights simply having to outscore teams, when asked if the Cavs can outscore any team in the league when necessary, he paused.
“I don’t know. We can score the basketball,” he said. “But in this game, you’ve got to get stops. … I’ll take the win over defensive numbers.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.