The Cleveland Cavaliers can’t seem to find a winning formula this year as they fell to the struggling New York Knicks 114-95 on Sunday night.
In fact, the Cavaliers are 1-4 in the last five games, with losses to the Orlando Magic, Brooklyn Nets, New Orleans Pelicans and New York Knicks.
All four of those losses coming against teams that missed the playoffs last year, and to make matters worse for LeBron James, this is the first time in his career that he’s on the oldest team in the NBA.
This year the Cavs’ average age (30.9) is over a year older than the second oldest team, the San Antonio Spurs.
One of the reasons for the losing skid is the atrocious defense Cleveland is playing right now as they are allowing 109.8 points per every 100 possessions, which ranks them 27th in the league.
Incredibly, this has all happened while the Cavs have been facing what is probably their easiest six-game stretch of the season.
An issue that is still affecting the Cavs is the lack of continuity that their starting lineup has had since the start of the season. They have started five different lineups in the first seven games and that lack of chemistry has badly affected their defensive cohesion as they are -54 in the first quarter of the last five games.
Opposing teams are taking note of Cleveland’s struggles and are using a similar recipe to upset them. They are forcing the aging roster of the Cavs to run, overwhelming them with fast-break points.
Right now, it looks like the Cavs players are in preseason mode and haven’t adjusted to the fast transition game that opposing teams are using. They look like a veteran team that can’t seem to play at a quicker pace offensively and defensively.
In the game against the Knicks, the Cavs paid dearly by playing softly against a veteran Tim Hardaway that shot the ball very well finished the game with 34 points and eight assists.
Knicks center Kristaps Porziņgis also did his part as he finished with 32 points and 12 rebounds against a Cleveland team that is not playing really hard right now.
The clearest example of that is the fact that Tristan Thompson, who’s supposed to be one of the most energetic players for the Cavaliers finished the night against the Knicks with one point, one block, zero rebounds and zero assists in 19 minutes.
