Isaiah Thomas Called out the Cavs' Effort After Getting Worked Over on Defense

Last night, in the post game interview, Isaiah Thomas had this to say about the Cavaliers’ defensive struggles and what he perceived to be the “problem” with their current play.

Isaiah Thomas questioned the Cavs' effort after the game: "I don't know the last time we got on the floor for a loose ball. I know that teams I've been on, defense is determined on deflections, steals, loose balls, who's the hardest working team." #Cavs pic.twitter.com/3eR9uAhuGs

— clevelanddotcom Cavs (@PDcavsinsider) February 4, 2018

It’s, of course, easy to be frustrated after such an embarrassing loss, one that saw the Rockets put up an easy 120 points in a game that was basically over at halftime. What’s funny about Thomas’s reaction is how it glosses over one of the key defensive issues with the Cavs: Isaiah Thomas.

It’s well known and documented that Thomas struggles on the defensive end, thanks in large part to being critically undersized. This is all well and good (kind of) when he’s dominating on the offensive end. But that’s been far from the case in the short term. Over his last five games he’s shooting a cool 15% from three and 31% from the field. He’s been awful.

On the defensive end, he’s a massive liability, one the Rockets exploited as much as possible in Saturday night’s game. Now, he’s not the only issue. Cleveland's general effort was nearly non-existent. And it's hard to dive for loose balls when the other team is just putting on a clinic against you. Just look at this shot chart for the Rockets from last night:

It was basically a Rocket layup/dunk or relatively uncontested three-pointer. And honestly, things could have been worse for the Cavs. A few of those X's around the rim were easy misses early in the game.

And then there's Thomas. Here are a couple of examples of the Cavs’ “D” with their new point guard.

Houston Transition off a Basket

This is completely unacceptable. Off a Thomas layup, the Rockets get an uncontested layup in transition. In Thomas’s defense, he’s the only one sprinting back, but it’s also his man as Cleveland worked to hide Thomas on Mbah a Moute (and later Gerald Green) as much as possible. Sure, no one on Cleveland is working all that hard, but Thomas has to be engaged right after the basket. He isn’t and his man gets an easy two points.

Harden to the rim

Thomas finds himself in the unfortunate spot of having been switched on to Harden. This is a tough assignment for anyone, so you can’t fault Thomas too much. But Harden blows by him with relative ease. He doesn’t even have to ball fake in order to get Thomas off balance. It’s just a simple catch and power to the rim.

Chris Paul for three

And finally, here the Cavs are basically dead before things even get started. Thomas and Smith are stuck at the top of the key with Harden and Paul. The plan here for the Rockets is obvious: screen and whoever Thomas lands on gets the ball. It’s Paul and Thomas allows way, way, way too much space for the three. Again, he’d just been blown by one possession earlier which could still be in his mind. But this is just too easy a shot considering the build up.

These examples were just from the first six minutes of the game. Things didn’t get any better and the examples are nearly endless.

Now again, I think Thomas has something of a point. The Cavaliers’ defensive effort as a whole was atrocious. They rotated poorly, got caught in mismatches and just generally loafed at times. But for Thomas to call out the whole team after getting worked early and often is a bit much.