Washington Wizards, Cracking Cleveland Cavaliers’ Code

Although the Washington Wizards fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the final minutes of Sunday’s matchup, this article will concentrate on how the Wizards can crack Cleveland’s code.

On Sunday, the Washington Wizards hosted the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Wizards were without Otto Porter, Jr. (hip injury), while John Wall was still on a minutes restriction. Cleveland plays a very structured offense and defense, like a well-oiled machine.

Whenever the Cavaliers are setting up their offense, they have four players all outside on the perimeter, right on the three-point line, and one player just inside the three-point line. Usually it’s Jae Crowder who’s on the right side inside. If Tristan Thompson is in, he’s underneath the basket.

Cleveland only has one player inside, waiting to grab the offensive rebound. They’re playing an outside game on the offense. Even when LeBron James goes inside, there’s at least three players covering the perimeter.

On the defensive end, Cleveland has at least three players close to or inside the paint. On Sunday, they were wearing their white uniforms. So it looked like a sea of white crowding the paint.

This is a bit of a scare tactic, where they think their opponent seeing the sea of white (depending on jersey color), won’t drive inside, and be forced to take an outside shot.

It almost looks like a human fortress on the inside, where they dare the opponent to penetrate. If the opponent doesn’t go inside, they are playing Cleveland’s game, and are taking outside shots.

Cleveland doesn’t want to foul at any cost early in the game, unless it’s close in the final minutes. So when they’re clustered on the inside, the Wizards should drive.

By converging inside the paint on the defensive end, Cleveland has turned the game into a shootout. They would shoot outside shots, and then force their opponents on the other end to take outside shots.

When there are three Cleveland players on the perimeter waiting to take that outside shot, that’s a conundrum. Of course, someone should stay on LeBron James at all times. But maybe the Wizards should develop Cleveland’s tactic and crowd the paint, only leaving two defenders out on the perimeter.

In short, Cleveland stays out on the perimeter on the offensive end, leaving one player inside. On the defensive end, they have at least three guys, and sometimes four crowding the paint.