LeBron: Defensive consistency key to Cavs winning streak

Cleveland, November 23: LeBron James said defense has been the key to the Cleveland Cavaliers' five-game winning streak in the NBA.

The Cavaliers had lost six of eight games before returning to form with victories over the Dallas Mavericks, the New York Knicks, the Charlotte Hornets, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Detroit Pistons.

"We haven't done much changing, we've stuck to our game plan and tried to execute that as close to 48 minutes as possible," James told reporters on Wednesday (November 22).

The Cavaliers are still statistically the worst team in the league in points allowed per game with 110.8 points per contest, but in their last five games they are allowing just 102.6 points.

Cavs star James said that is entirely to do with sticking to the defensive game plan.

"No matter if it's been going well at times or whatever the case may be, we just stuck with it," he said. "Understand that we have to do that, get that down until we're ready to kind of switch off to something else. I give that a lot of credit."

The Cavaliers have stuck to a consistent line-up with Kevin Love playing center and Jae Crowder at power forward during the winning streak, according to head coach Tyronn Lue.

In the first two games of the season, Love was at center and Crowder was at the four, but in the subsequent 10 games, Tristan Thompson was starting at center due to injuries.

In the first two games, the Cavaliers allowed 98 points per game. Over their next 10 with Thompson starting, they allowed 117.4.

Source: OPTA