Golden State Warriors 118-108 Cleveland Cavaliers: 5 talking points

#3 Defense still HUGE issue for the Cavs

LeBron James and Isaiah Thomas

The Cavaliers were coming off a three-game losing streak. If there was ever a right time (game) to make a statement, this was the game but no they doubled down and instead lost the game once again because of their defense. Cleveland is currently ranked 29th in the league in defensive efficiency with a rating of 109.4.

Not only in this game but even in the 2017 NBA Finals, they were able to stay close to the Warriors up until their offense was clicking. The moment there are more than a few empty possessions over three minutes or more, then they start losing the game because they can't stop the Warriors offense (any team for that matter).

In the fourth quarter of this game, they only scored 17 points while giving up 25. What's worse is that majority of those 17 points, had come in the last six minutes of the game because the team had gone 14-of-15 on field goals during the first six minutes of the fourth quarter.