The Cleveland Cavaliers put on a defensive clinic against Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns on Monday. The Suns finished the contest with only 92 points on 77 shots from the field. Furthermore, Phoenix turned the ball over a whopping 17 times and totaled one offensive rebound as a team.
After his Suns suffered a 26-point loss to a Cavaliers squad with the top record in the NBA at the moment, Durant spoke on how Cleveland exactly made life difficult for Phoenix on the offensive end.
“It’s a tough defense to score on if you thinking a shot is going to come open for you without you pressing the issue,” Durant said after the game of the Cavs’ stout defense. “We could’ve drove it a little bit more, but we don’t play against zone every game. We don’t have a zone package yet.”
Durant was maybe the only player for the Suns who had a standout performance scoring the ball. The four-time scoring champion led the way for Phoenix with 23 points while shooting 9-of-16 from the floor and 4-of-4 from the charity stripe.
Nobody else for the Suns scored more than 15 points on the game, and Devin Booker finished with that amount on 14 shots from the floor.
The Cavaliers weren’t just great defensively on Monday — they’ve been one of the elite teams on the less glamorous side of the ball all season, and the proof is in the numbers.
For one, Cleveland ranks ninth in the league in defensive rating at 111.0.
The Cavaliers also stand out as one of the better teams in the league at finishing off defensive possessions with a rebound. The squad is averaging 34.1 defensive rebounds per contest in the 2024-25 regular season, and only seven squads are pulling down more on a game-to-game basis.
Big men Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley have stood out as the team’s linchpins on the defensive end of the floor to this point. They are the team’s two leading rebounders and shot blockers and have consistently been in the lineup for the Cavaliers to boot. Mobley has played 38 games to this point, and Allen has yet to sit out a single game for the team.
Durant’s Suns won’t take on the Cavaliers again this season for quite a while. The two teams will do battle at Footprint Center on March 21. The Suns have been a tough out at home this season, as evidenced by their home record of 13-8 thus far.
