diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/mlt/CloudMLTQParser.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/mlt/CloudMLTQParser.java
index 0f85feb13c9..0f46725eb27 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/mlt/CloudMLTQParser.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/mlt/CloudMLTQParser.java
@@ -69,26 +69,19 @@ public class CloudMLTQParser extends QParser {
     Map<String,Float> boostFields = new HashMap<>();
     MoreLikeThis mlt = new MoreLikeThis(req.getSearcher().getIndexReader());
     
-    if(localParams.getInt("mintf") != null)
-      mlt.setMinTermFreq(localParams.getInt("mintf"));
+    mlt.setMinTermFreq(localParams.getInt("mintf", MoreLikeThis.DEFAULT_MIN_TERM_FREQ));
 
     mlt.setMinDocFreq(localParams.getInt("mindf", 0));
 
-    if(localParams.get("minwl") != null)
-      mlt.setMinWordLen(localParams.getInt("minwl"));
+    mlt.setMinWordLen(localParams.getInt("minwl", MoreLikeThis.DEFAULT_MIN_WORD_LENGTH));
 
-    if(localParams.get("maxwl") != null)
-      mlt.setMaxWordLen(localParams.getInt("maxwl"));
+    mlt.setMaxWordLen(localParams.getInt("maxwl", MoreLikeThis.DEFAULT_MAX_WORD_LENGTH));
 
-    if(localParams.get("maxqt") != null)
-      mlt.setMaxQueryTerms(localParams.getInt("maxqt"));
+    mlt.setMaxQueryTerms(localParams.getInt("maxqt", MoreLikeThis.DEFAULT_MAX_QUERY_TERMS));
 
-    if(localParams.get("maxntp") != null)
-      mlt.setMaxNumTokensParsed(localParams.getInt("maxntp"));
+    mlt.setMaxNumTokensParsed(localParams.getInt("maxntp", MoreLikeThis.DEFAULT_MAX_NUM_TOKENS_PARSED));
     
-    if(localParams.get("maxdf") != null) {
-      mlt.setMaxDocFreq(localParams.getInt("maxdf"));
-    }
+    mlt.setMaxDocFreq(localParams.getInt("maxdf", MoreLikeThis.DEFAULT_MAX_DOC_FREQ));
 
     if(localParams.get("boost") != null) {
       mlt.setBoost(localParams.getBool("boost"));