{"id":556798,"date":"2026-01-24T02:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T02:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/556798\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T02:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T02:18:17","slug":"kenny-atkinson-is-taking-suggestions-on-how-to-fix-cavs-three-point-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/556798\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenny Atkinson is \u2018taking suggestions\u2019 on how to fix Cavs\u2019 three-point defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND \u2014 The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> haven\u2019t found their usual consistency on the defensive end this season. When asked about why that\u2019s been the case before Friday\u2019s game against the Sacramento Kings, head coach Kenny Atkinson pointed to one thing: Three-point defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re number one in taking away [shots at] the rim in the last 15 [games]\u2026 we got two elite shot blockers,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201c[We have to] somehow bring their (three-point) percentages down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m taking suggestions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three-point defense has been one of the main problems for the Cavs. They rank last in opponent three-point percentage<\/a> this season, as teams are converting 38.2%<\/a> of their outside shots against them. Atkinson is trying to figure out what has led to this.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at all things,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cWhat\u2019s their shot quality? How can you get their shot quality down? How can we contest better? How can our jump height be better at the contest? What hand are we putting up?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Opponent three-point shooting is complicated. Good defense doesn\u2019t always get rewarded, while bad defensive possessions can be bailed out by a lucky miss. Atkinson alluded to their recent win against the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> as a situation where their opponent just missed shots<\/a>. The numbers would seem to suggest this.<\/p>\n

Charlotte went just 8-47 from three (17%). Of those 47 outside attempts, 30 of them came with no defender within six feet at the time of the shot, and they only hit five of them (16.7%), according to the NBA\u2019s tracking data<\/a>. On the season, the Hornets are connecting on 40.1%<\/a> of their wide-open three-point shots, which is good for the sixth-best percentage in the league<\/a>. Wednesday\u2019s game was an outlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of pieces to that,\u201d Kings head coach Doug Christie said when asked about what leads to a team being good at defending the three-ball. He then listed three things that could make this an issue. All are things that apply to the Cavs\u2019 current situation.<\/p>\n

First, it can be a reflection on point-of-attack defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be from getting beat off the dribble, and now you can get the ball out [for an open three],\u201d Christie said. \u201cBasketball is about creating advantages. Once the advantage is created, you want to keep that advantage, so now you swing the ball out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cleveland has struggled in this area.<\/p>\n

Isaac Okoro spent much of the last few seasons defending their opponent\u2019s best scoring guard. No one has been able to step up and take that assignment in his absence. Additionally, Darius Garland has struggled with mobility, and the effort from the remaining guards just hasn\u2019t been what it needs to be to have a good perimeter defense.<\/p>\n

Then, there\u2019s running opponents off the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could also be the ability to close out in space,\u201d Christie said. \u201cAre you running them off the line? Are you arriving late? Do they feel you? A lot of times, if you just run out at this level, guys just don\u2019t see. They\u2019re programmed to rise up, see their target, and shoot the basketball. So you have to arrive early, and that means multiple efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cavs are struggling to do this as well. Opponents are attempting more threes against them this season than they ever have in the core four era. Cleveland is giving up the 15th<\/a> most three-point attempts. Each of the last four seasons, the Cavs were allowing the eighth fewest three-point attempts or better<\/a>. Part of that is from failing to run opponents off the line and then rotating to the open man.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know we can do a better job of bringing three-point attempts down,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cThat\u2019s what you control more than the makes and misses, believe it or not. I know everybody freaks out when people say that, but that has been established.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lastly, it could be from prioritizing protecting the rim.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re trying to protect the paint, you see a downhill drive, and all of a sudden you get in the gap, and you protect the paint,\u201d Christie said. \u201cThat means you left your man. He\u2019s standing there, so someone has to stunt, and that stunt has to be hard enough that they feel you not want to shoot the basketball that allows you to get back to your man. And that\u2019s called second and third, multiple efforts. On a night-to-night basis, in our league, the really elite teams that are down about that, they give that effort up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cleveland has done an excellent job of protecting the rim this season. That, more than anything, is the most important part of having a good defense. They have the second-best opponent field-goal percentage at the rim<\/a>, but the defensive effort shouldn\u2019t stop at just preventing shots at the basket.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rim is, in our philosophy, the number one priority,\u201d Atkinson said, \u201cIn an ideal world, you\u2019re taking away the rim, and you\u2019re limiting threes. That\u2019s the perfect defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cavs are still looking for the perfect defense. They\u2019re doing some things right, but until the perimeter defense consistently does better at the point of attack, shows more effort rotating, and is clear on how the rotations should happen, they\u2019ll continue to struggle with this. Fortunately, they still have time to get these issues ironed out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re on the details, but the fact of the matter is, we\u2019re going to try and bring the percentages down,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cOur defense will get better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND \u2014 The Cleveland Cavaliers haven\u2019t found their usual consistency on the defensive end this season. When asked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,147,305,193,3846,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-556798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-cavaliers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cavaliers","10":"tag-cavs-news","11":"tag-cleveland","12":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","13":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","14":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115947681785003045","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}