The new Cavaliers have some of the same problems as the old Cavaliers

The Cavaliers aren’t fixed just yet. They failed to keep their two game winning streak alive after a loss against the Wizards on Thursday night. LeBron James wasn’t quite spectacular enough despite putting up 32 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.

They had a hot start and built a 12 point lead in the first quarter, but then allowed the Wizards to score 35 points in the second quarter and take a three point lead into halftime. They went back and forth until the fourth quarter when the Wizards went on a 13-4 run.

Some of the problems the Cavaliers had before the trade deadline reared their head once again. The Cavaliers defense regressed back to what it was before but their problems compiled once their offense got too predictable.

The Wizards might be without their All-Star point guard, but their offense isn’t any less of a problem. Since John Wall had knee surgery, the Wizards are 7-2 with a 109.2 offensive rating — the 11th best mark in the league in that span. So they have players you still have to guard.

But the Cavaliers didn’t. They allowed the Wizards to easily dribble into shots on the pick and roll.

Their transition defense was also terrible. They allowed the Wizards to dribble deep into the paint and didn’t stop the ball. Look at how Bradley Beal is able to easily get into the paint and hit a turnaround jumper.

The Cavaliers also allowed the Wizards to go 12-30 from deep and didn’t defend the three point line well. A great start from the Cavaliers didn’t matter by the end of the game because of how poor their defense was.

Having a chain of command is essential for a basketball team. Players have to know their roles and where they stand before a team can ever be good. That’s part of the reason why the Cavaliers struggled before the trade deadline — they had too many players trying to do too much.

Now that Isaiah Thomas and Dwyane Wade are gone, everyone knows the exclusive ball handler on the Cavaliers is James. We know where the ball is going in the crucial moments of the game and, often, James is so good there’s nothing you can do about it.

But still, over the last three games James’ usage is at 37 percent. It’s hard to sustain good offense through one player — even if he is one of the best of all time. That will be less of a problem when Kevin Love comes back and the team gets to know one another, but until then the Cavs will have to work through their issues.

We’ve only got a two game sample of this new squad and the Cavaliers were flat out dominant against the Celtics who’ve held the first seed in the Eastern Conference almost all season long. They can be a good team and might still be the best in the East.

They even showed flashes against the Wizards — they pulled out to a 12 point lead early and were stellar defensively in the first quarter. But they just have to figure out how to sustain that. Until they do, we have to hold off on calling them the best team in the East.

But the point is that they can be. And even if they aren’t, they’ve still got LeBron James. He’s 33 years old, but his presence and impact on the team still matters a lot. They may have run into a snag tonight, but the stretch run is far from over for them.