Cleveland Cavaliers: Lessons from yet another loss in Hollywood

Lesson No. 3: Missing four key players isn’t a recipe for success.

The Cavs are expected to play this road trip without the help of Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, Rodney Hood, and Cedi Osman. All four are players that will be in the Cavs shortened playoff rotation.

Besides the four players out, Jeff Green and Kyle Korver are dealing with their own nagging injuries even though they decided to give it a go Sunday night.

The Cavs were forced to give meaningful minutes to guys who would be better served in Canton with the Charge. Besides that, the rotation players that were left didn’t give much offensively. Green, Smith, and Clarkson combined to go four of 23 from the field for 14 points. That’s not going to get the job done.

LeBron acknowledged this after the game saying that injuries are the biggest problem for the Cavs right now.

"“Sometimes you can’t overcome this many injuries that we have. We have pretty much five guys out of our nine or ten that are out of the rotation or not playing because of injuries. It’s next man up but sometimes you fall short.”"

The Cavs looked awful, but most of Sunday’s minutes were given to guys that won’t be in the rotation during the playoffs. There’s no point in overreacting to a game that featured as many G League players as it did expected playoff starters.

Must Read: Cedi Osman, Rodney Hood injuries will test perimeter depth

The Cavs will look to bounce back as they travel to Phoenix Tuesday night to take on the tanking Suns.