<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">When the Cleveland Cavaliers lured Danny Ferry away from his job as assistant general manager of the Spurs to be their general manager, he joined former Spurs assistant coach Mike Brown, then hired Spurs director of player personnel Lance Blanks to be his assistant GM. It was the summer of 2005, after the Spurs had won their third title, and the Cavs soon came to be called "Spurs East." Of late, the Cavs may be playing more like the 2005 champion Spurs than the Spurs. Before Tuesday's loss at Charlotte, Cleveland had an eight-game winning streak, and they sit within three losses of the Detroit Pistons for the best record in the East. It is not so much the number of games the Cavaliers have won lately that makes them seem so Spurs-like. It is how they have been winning: with lock-down defense that keeps them in games when they aren't shooting well and turns games into blowouts when they are making their shots. It has taken Brown most of two seasons to do it, but he finally has the Cavaliers approaching defense the way the Spurs have during most of Gregg Popovich's tenure. Heading into Tuesday's loss, they ranked third in the league in field-goal defense (44.3 percent) and fifth in points allowed (93.04). The Spurs lead the league in fewest points allowed (89.75) and rank fourth in field-goal defense (44.4 percent). What has changed most for the Cavs of late has been their ability to score, and Brown deserves a lot of the credit for the improvement. When starting point guard Daniel Gibson, the rookie from Texas, was injured in the Cavs' 95-92 loss at Dallas on March 1, Brown moved starting big guard Larry Hughes to the point, then plugged 23-year-old Sasha Pavlovic into Hughes' spot at big guard. The effect has been three-fold: Hughes began to attack defenses from the point, Pavlovic's offensive skills blossomed, and LeBron James discovered how much easier it was to dominate games when opposing defenses had to pay more attention to the Cavs' guards. James now is less point-forward than small forward but remains the focal point of the team's attack. </div> Source
