The Cleveland Cavaliers are the NBA’s oldest team and have shown it on the back end of their scheduled back-to-backs.
Don’t get me wrong here; I wholeheartedly believe the Cleveland Cavaliers are one of the top four, if not top two, teams in the entire NBA. However, the Cavs have been significantly outplayed in all but three of their back-to-back games this season.
While not a fantastic excuse, the Cavaliers being the oldest team in the NBA does pull some weight when playing back-to-back.
They are the only team in the NBA to have an average age of over 30, and while this does not directly impact their athleticism, it does impact their stamina, their on-court play, and most importantly their motivation to play through a second straight game while already being a top team in the East.
That’s one reason why we saw such a pitiful performance when the Cavaliers went to Boston to take on the Celtics. The C’s were fresh, ready to play, and an Isaiah Thomas-less Cavs just played an emotional game against Portland the night before.
Along with the NBA’s new rule on players taking games off to rest, LeBron James was not able to take a rest on the second night due to the game being nationally broadcasted.
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Although the NBA has cut down on the sheer number of back-to-backs, it’s still a struggle for older players to rejuvenate so quickly. For the Cavs as a whole, they are 3-4 in back-to-backs, which makes them 21-9 when not playing back-to-back.
They have losses against the Nets, Knicks, and Magic– all teams at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. All teams that they should normally beat. The Cavs are 2-0 against those three teams when not playing them on the second night of a back-to-back. Often times Cavs’ fans don’t understand why their team struggles so much, but they fail to realize how exhausting a full 48 minutes on two straight nights can be.
The Cavaliers have failed to hit 100 points five times this season. Three of those times were on the second night of the back-to-back while one of the other times was against the Golden State Warriors.
To add to that, LeBron James does not perform as well on the second night. The now 33-year-old superstar in his 15th season in the league has hit 30+ points 9 times this season. None of those have come on the second night. James is a -29 in those games combined, which is especially odd when he’s averaging a +2.2 per game this season.
There are an array of players like LeBron James that struggle on the second game of the back-to-back; however, the main thing to take away from this is that those struggles will disappear this postseason.
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The Celtics are a good team, but when they demolished the Cavs in IT’s return to the Garden, it was due to a tired, drained Cavs team. Playoff basketball will be without back-to-backs, so rejoice Cavs fans, old age won’t kill this team yet.