CLEVELAND -- Tyronn Lue said the Cavaliers' last two opponents have tried the same basic gimmick that's given his team problem and kept the games close.

The Atlanta Hawks have the NBA's second-worst record, and the Memphis Grizzlies own the league's longest losing streak, but the Cavs had to grind out wins against both.

Lue said the Grizzlies "put bigs on smalls" in the Cavs' 116-111 win on Saturday, which "junked the game up." He said almost the same thing after Cleveland beat the Hawks 121-114 on Thursday, that the Hawks disrupted the Cavs' rhythm by putting their center on point guard Jose Calderon and also on the "3," which was likely Jae Crowder.

The Cavs are rolling, winners of 11 straight. They have the league's third-highest scoring offense (tied with the Raptors) at 111.4 points per game, and are fourth in offensive efficiency.

It was suggested to Lue Saturday that perhaps this idea of using bigs on the Cavs' smaller players was the way to slow them down, and he disagreed. He insinuated the quality of the opponent -- or lack thereof -- is behind the trick.

"You can try anything when you're trying to win," Lue said. "When you're trying to get a win, you just try different things."

The Cavs won Saturday when LeBron James scored the team's last 13 points and 15 in the fourth quarter, 34 for the game. Kevin Love scored 20 for his third consecutive game with at least 20 points.

Love said teams are using smaller players on him as a counter to Lue starting him at center. When he's guarded by the opposing center, teams must either run him out with Love on the 3-point line (and expose the lane) or leave him open to shoot 3s.

"A lot of teams are putting a smaller defender, a 4 or a 3 on me and just trying to muck up the game as much as they can," Love said. "Just trying to get me in the post, run different actions. Last game they kind of double-teamed and we had to do double floods and run guys into the post and get back-door action and spray to the 3 ball. Tonight was even a little bit different. We expected them to do something like that and they did. We just had to find a way to be effective."

How effective this strategy is against the Cavs is hard to pinpoint. For instance, Love nailed three 3s against the Grizzlies and has at least three in each of his last three games.

"That effort tonight would have beaten 90 percent of this league on their home court," said Memphis interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff. "Unfortunately, they've got a guy who is pretty (darn) good" -- referring to James.

Point guard Jose Calderon has suffered, scoring three points in the last two games and getting benched in favor of Jeff Green in the second half against Atlanta.

Crowder enjoyed a 15-point game against the Hawks, but was just 1-of-4 for five points against the Grizzlies.

"A lot of teams have been putting the 5s on Jae to stop the game and the smaller guy on Kev, knowing that Kev has been playing really well, so they're trying to put a little bit more quickness on him," James said. "So we've got to do a better job of continuing to watch the film when we get an opportunity and seeing ways we can exploit the matchups."

James said there was no reason to be disappointed by either of these close wins, regardless of what has worked against the Cavs and what hasn't.

"This is a long season," James said. "As long as we continue to rack up wins, there's always things that we could've done better. We know that, but we did a lot of great things as well, so you don't ever, you get a win in any professional game, it's already hard enough to win, so if you're able to win you take the good and the bad, obviously, but you move onto the next one. Especially in an 82 game season."