GT #62 Hornets @ Cavaliers, 2 March 2022, 7:00 PM ET

[ducler]

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[LivingLegend]

Oh look another 35+pt quarter from the opponent

[Mind_Odyssey]

Our defense has been struggling really badly since the Philly loss

[toooskies]

Mobley has quietly been pretty mediocre for the past month.

[JonFromVA]

There was some statistical hints that our 3pt defense was better than it should be based on the shot type we were giving up and we may be running in to teams who are no longer flustered by our big lineup and are doing a better job knocking 3's against us.

I had singled out LeVert for a mistake he seemed to make when he was trying to guard 2 guys on the weak side, but others are guilty too. Basically teams are making us pay when we help protect the paint.

Last night the play I remember had Evan come over over to help protect the paint, and Lauri who moved in to the paint to stay close to Evan's man and basically had no chance to get back out to his man on the 3pt line.

I get wanting to shutdown scoring in the paint, but perhaps we're trying too hard? Or perhaps we should adjust our P&R defense so we're less exposed?

I can understand if it's our strategy to over-help if Love is involved in a P&R as he doesn't have much of a shot at disrupting a lob back to the roll man and even contesting the ball handler is iffy for him too; but we should probably avoid over-committing when it's other defenders involved the play.

Offensive and defensive success came very quickly to the team this season, as opponents scouting reports fill out and they ratchet up their effort for a playoff run - we may need to do more than just get our injured players healthy and back up to speed - we may very well need to evolve our systems.

If part of that is because Evan Mobley is no longer the huge difference maker on defense he was early in the season (for any number of reasons), then it really is on the team to pick up the slack.