Game Night Observations: Winning with Defense, Isaac Okoro's Impact, and Rock, Paper, Scissors

The Cleveland Cavaliers are now 22-4 after beating the Washington Wizards Friday night.

The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Washington Wizards 115-105 on Friday night to move to an NBA-best 22-4.

“Defense wins championships,” Cavs forward Isaac Okoro said while standing in front of his locker on Friday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

This season, the Cavaliers haven’t always played like a team with a championship-level defense. It has appeared from time to time. It was here in October, disappeared for most of November and might just be returning.

On Friday night, that’s what the Cavs needed to beat the Washington Wizards.

Offensively, the Cavs turned in one of their worst performances of the season. It was the first game this season in which they shot under 40 percent from the floor and also posted their worst percentage from 3-point range, connecting on just 15 of the 50 attempts from deep.

So they won with defense.

I thought our guys really gave great effort. Four-day layoff and they brought it defensively,” Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “You gotta do it when you don't make shots. If we would have came out with a kind of meddling defensive effort we would have taken the loss.”

Holding Washington, the team with the worst offensive rating in the NBA, to 105 points isn’t all that impressive on the surface. It’s the 12th time this season the Wizards have scored 105 points or fewer in a game this season. They’re the team with the worst record in the NBA for a reason (several, actually!).

What’s impressive about this defensive performance needs a little bit of a deeper look.