The second-half struggles of the Cleveland Cavaliers defense have been well documented, but for the most part they have not punctured the defending champions’ status as a title contender and the favorite to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals. Try as they might, teams like the Boston Celtics, Washington Wizards, and Toronto Raptors simply cannot match the Cavs’ track record as a playoff juggernaut. Those squads are behind Cleveland in the postseason power rankings no matter where they end up in the standings.

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Yet the Cavaliers seem to be doing everything possible to test the assumption that they’re not in crisis just 16 days before the end of the regular season. One game after a comfortable loss to John Wall and the Wizards on Saturday, the Cavs lost another contest to a clinched playoff team when they traveled south to face the San Antonio Spurs. This one never even pretended to be close — the Spurs led by 10 after one quarter, by 24 at the half, and by as many as 32 in the fourth before locking up a 103-74 blowout win. Cleveland has now lost three of its last four and finds itself a half-game behind Boston for first place in the East. It’s the first time they’ve been out of the conference’s top spot since early in the 2015-16 campaign.

To add injury to the insult of such a thorough defeat, the Cavs received an injury scare late when David Lee elbowed LeBron James in the back in the final minute of the third period:

LeBron eventually headed into the locker room, but he said after the game that he’ll be fine to play in Cleveland’s next game. (Perhaps all that time on the court helped.) He also took some time to talk about his team’s recent struggles and where they go from here:

Kyrie Irving took a different path, opting to put up some practice shots after matching his season low with eight points on 4-of-13 shooting:

At least Cleveland’s offensive struggles will take the heat off their defense for a few days. Irving’s poor performance was emblematic of a terrible night for the Cavs’ elite attack, which went just 4-of-26 from three-point range and shot 37.3 percent from the field as a whole. Add in 16 turnovers, and it’s not difficult to see why Cleveland managed to score at least 20 points in just one quarter.

Although, you know, the defense was pretty bad, too. The Spurs put up 64 points in the first half before easing off in the second half. A 36-point second quarter included seven buckets within a few feet of the basket (out of 11 total conversions), and San Antonio appeared capable of dictating the terms of every offensive possession until the result was in hand.

The final stats don’t look so amazing — the Spurs shot 47.7 percent, and Kawhi Leonard (25 points) was the only player to score more than 14 points — but the performance itself was more than fine.

The win is an important one for San Antonio, which now sits two games behind the Golden State Warriors for homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs with nine left to play for each side. Their next contest is the biggest remaining in that race — the Spurs will host the Warriors on Wednesday night. Golden State can essentially end that fight with a win, but a San Antonio victory would at least force the pro-rest Warriors to make some decisions in the final weeks of the season.

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The good news for the Cavs is that their fall out of the No. 1 seed could easily be a momentary problem. They now get two days off before Thursday’s trip to the Chicago Bulls, which ends a very tough stretch of road games (and two very quick trips home) that dates back to March 1. After that one, Cleveland gets a much-needed three-game homestand against the Philadelphia 76ers (tanking), Indiana Pacers (a middling playoff team), and Orlando Magic (tanking) before one last visit to the Celtics. It’s entirely possible that they will enter that big game at TD Garden back in the top spot.

If they’re not, don’t expect the Cavs to panic. However, any more games like Monday’s blowout are likely to challenge the impression the Cavs will be invincible before the NBA Finals. At the very least, they look more vulnerable than they have in some time.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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