2018 NBA Playoffs Preview: Cleveland Cavaliers vs Indiana Pacers, SWOT Analysis & Prediction

Weaknesses

Cleveland Cavaliers:

Frank Ntilikina and LeBron James

The Cavs weaknesses are well documented.

They can't defend and the numbers show a pretty grim picture. They allow teams to shoot a whopping 47.4% from the field, the 3rd highest mark in the league and their Defensive Rating of 109.5 is 29th, only ahead of the lowly Phoenix Suns. Forcing turnovers has been another problem for Cleveland, ranking in the bottom 5. The question obviously is whether they will turn it up on defense come playoffs like they have in seasons past and I'm not a 100% certain about that.

Another problem is the lack of a proper secondary playmaker. All these years, LeBron has had someone who could pick up the slack as a playmaker and a shot creator, whether it be Kyrie Irving or Dwyane Wade, but this time he hasn't got one. Jordan Clarkson is inconsistent at both and Rodney Hood is better served as a spot up shooter than one who has to create his own shot. Cleveland will run into trouble whenever the King is off the floor.

Indiana Pacers:

Corey Joseph

Indiana's problems aren't that easy to spot.

While they rank in the top 10 in 3 point % (9th), they take an alarmingly low number, 5th fewest in the league. The 3-point differential by itself could kill the Pacers in this series. Bojan Bogdanovic and Darren Collison are really the only good 3 point shooters on the team. You'd think if it's not raining 3s, then the Pacers would be dominant inside, but they're not and worst of all, they hardly ever get to the foul line. They're 27th in FT's attempted and in comparison the Cavs are 9th, another potential game changer.

Also hurting the Pacers is rim protection when Turner isn't on the court, ranking 25th in Blocks. They already have nobody on the perimeter who can deter LeBron even a bit and if Turner isn't on the court, its a superhighway to the basket for the King. The lack of a consistent scoring threat apart from Oladipo is also a worry.