Sportsbook Website – One Number Shows Why Cleveland is Bad. One of the worst teams in the NBA this season both straight up and against the NBA odds at the sportsbook website is the Cleveland Cavaliers. While not many people thought Cleveland would be good this season without LeBron James, few expected them to be this bad. There is a big statistic that tells the whole story as to why the Cavaliers are terrible vs. the sportsbook odds and it is three-point defense.
Horrible Three-Point Defense
The Cavaliers are not just bad against the three-point shot they are historically bad. They are on pace to be the worst team ever in defending the three-point shot and that is saying something. Cleveland’s opponents have hit 42.4 percent of their threes and that is by far the highest in the league and it is the highest in NBA history. The NBA brought the three-point line into existence in 1979-80 and since that time only one team has allowed opponents to shoot better than 40 percent from long distance and that was the 2008-2009 Sacramento Kings.
The Kings were bad as they allowed opponents to shoot 40.6 percent from three-point range but the Cavaliers are even worse. And the numbers are even worse when you take into consideration that Cleveland allows teams to shoot over 21 three-pointers per game. So not only does Cleveland play rotten three-point defense they let teams shoot at will.
Injuries a Problem
Not only is Cleveland playing rotten defense they are not at full strength. Anderson Varejao is out for the season. Daniel Gibson won’t be back until late January at the earliest and Leon Powe is out until February. The Cavaliers are counting on Antawn Jamison, J.J. Hickson and Mo Williams to carry the load and none of the three are that great on defense. The Cavaliers don’t have the perimeter players who can play defense and Cleveland doesn’t score enough points to make up for their lack of defense. The Cavaliers are underdogs on almost a nightly basis at Sbgglobal and there is not much reason to believe they are going to get any better. They are tough team to make a case for in NBA odds at the sportsbook website and it might not get better anytime soon.