By Marc Anthony Costanza

In Saturday night’s 120-88 loss against the Houston Rockets, the Cleveland Cavaliers displayed, on national television, the defensive issues that have been haunting them since December.

The Rockets were simply embarrassing the Cavs, hitting three-pointers at will (19 to be exact), scoring in transition and seemingly always able to find a man wide open. If you were to show that Cavaliers performance to someone who has never watched a NBA game in their life and told them that team has been to the Finals the past three years, they would think you were a bigger liar than Charles Ponzi.

Cleveland’s defensive woes aren’t something that should be much of a surprise. Since its championship season in 2016, the team’s defense rating has spiraled. In 2016, the Cavaliers allowed 102.3 points per 100 possessions, ranking them 10th in defensive rating. Last season, they were 22nd, allowing 108 points per 100 possessions. This season, after being blown out by Houston, they are ranked 28th with 109.4 points allowed per 100 possessions.

Who is to blame for this? Is it head coach Tyronn Lue for not getting his team fired up and motivated to play hard off the ball? Or is it the players that seem to be extremely lazy when it comes to the defensive side of things?

I think it’s fair to pass the blame around to both.

Let’s start with Tyronn Lue. First off, is Tyronn Lue actually running the team? Or is it LeBron? This is something that has always been speculated by fans, pundits and other NBA experts. It’s not much of a secret that James isn’t shy in taking the spotlight when it comes to getting his teammates fired up or even giving orders. This was most recently seen in the Cavaliers’ 133-99 loss to the Toronto Raptors, where James was yelling at the entire team, both players and coaches, during a timeout.

James’ actions leave people wondering where Lue is in all of this controversy. As the head coach, shouldn’t he be the one taking control of the bench instead of letting one of his players essentially do his job? I believe this has been one of the reasons the Cavs have struggled defensively. Tyronn Lue hasn’t been able to take control of his players and motivate them to play hard on both sides of the ball for the full four quarters.

Now this brings me to the players. While Tyronn Lue hasn’t been ideal in inspiring the team, the players have to take the blame as well, including LeBron. That game against the Rockets exhibited how lazy the Cavs players can get. They were awful in transition. Right from the beginning of the game off a made basket by Isaiah Thomas, the Cavs were incredibly slow to get back on defense. You could see James and JR Smith nonchalantly jogging backwards, while Mbah a Moute blew right past them for a wide open layup. Allowing that to happen is just careless, and will continually cost Cleveland games going forward this season.

Even though the defensive struggles are evident, the Cleveland Cavaliers will still almost undoubtedly make the playoffs this year. However, if they have any desire to make it to the finals and win, they need to take massive steps in cleaning their game up.