INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- LeBron James said the Cavaliers are better defensively because they have "a game plan that's been consistent over the last few games and we stuck to it."

"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 said Wednesday, hours before the Cavs take their five-game winning streak into a home game against Brooklyn. "No matter if it's been going well at times or whatever the case may be, we just stuck with it. 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 Cavs are still worst in the NBA in defensive rating overall, but over the last five games they're eighth at 100.8 points per 100 possessions.

Over the past few seasons during times of struggle on defense, players have privately complained about getting away from basic defensive coverages, which usually triggers a simplification on that side of the court.

Coach Tyronn Lue was the team's defensive coordinator before he took over as head coach in January of 2016, and shortly after he hired Mike Longabardi to coordinate the defense.

James was asked Wednesday if the players asked the coaches again to scale down defensive coverages and stick with them, and he said "it's something we all figured out."

Lue says the changes were based on a revolving lineup.

When the season started Jae Crowder was the power forward and Kevin Love played center, so for all of training camp the Cavs practiced blitzing pick and rolls with Love and switching with the other four starters. Cleveland won its first two games and kept both the Celtics and Bucks under 100 points.

Derrick Rose sprained his ankle and Dwyane Wade asked to go to the bench after three games. Lue moved Crowder to small forward, Love to power forward and made Tristan Thompson the center.

With Thompson at center, the Cavs changed their coverages so Love wouldn't have to switch onto guards. Cleveland went 10 games allowing at least 110 points each time.

The switch back wasn't simultaneously successful, but, Thompson was injured Nov. 1 and hasn't played since. Love is the center and Crowder is again the power forward. The Cavs are back to blitzing and switching, and the defense is clicking.

Their coverages will be tested Wednesday by a Nets team that buried 17 3s in a 112-107 win over the Cavs on Oct. 25.