The Cleveland Cavaliers were that close to building their win streak from four to five games the other night when they played the Washington Wizards at home. However, a few mistakes by the team and bad coach managing of the bench and personnel late in the game spelled doom for the team. The Wine and Gold still sit at 7-5 on the young season and are far more competitive on a night-to-night basis compared to years past.
However, after this latest heartbreaking loss some new questions have risen again and some of them have to do with Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and his understanding of his players strengths and weaknesses.
Question #1: What is Bickerstaff thinking at times during games?
Every time I want to give Bickerstaff credit for what his team has been accomplishing on this young season, I always get disappointed in his decision-making, because quite honestly, his decisions have cost this team a game or two.
The loss to the Wizards Wednesday night was a game that the Cavs were winning most of the game, comfortably too, being up by 10 points at times. In the closing minutes, after Cleveland scored again to give them a six-point lead with only two minutes left he replaced Cavs forward Dean Wade with fellow forward Cedi Osman.
Wade had started the game, and though he doesn’t score a lot, he’s an excellent defender. Plus, right before the substitution, Wade fed Cleveland big man Jarrett Allen on a beautiful assist where Allen extended the lead with a layup. Pulling Wade out of the game, at that moment, was a bad move by Bickerstaff and likely contributed to the loss.
Bickerstaff’s track record is suspect, at best, when he’s been the head coach. Back in 2015 he became the Houston Rockets coach in November and he led them to a 37-34 record. His other head coaching experience happened when he was with the Memphis Grizzlies between 2017 and 2019. In those two seasons his team won 48 games but lost 97. That’s not very good and his years in Cleveland, prior to this season, haven’t been any better, as he was 27-56.
So starting the season at 7-5 is good but that record would have been better already if he had managed his personnel better. And that’s what has me up at night thinking because, the loss in part on Wednesday, was on the coach. Obviously the Cavaliers players didn’t execute their defense down the stretch or hit important shots or free throws, but these are the little things between being a winning team or a losing team. Bickerstaff will have to demonstrate far better coaching abilities for me to trust him when the games are on the line.
Question #2: Can the Cavs recover from this loss and start winning again?
I hope the answer is yes. All signs would point to that being the outcome but we shall see how things play out this weekend.
Darius Garland and the Cavaliers first battle the Detroit Pistons Friday. The Pistons are struggling at the moment only going 2-8 so far. Saturday, the Cavs host the Boston Celtics who are currently 5-6 on the year. The Cavs have their next seven of eight games at their beautiful home arena, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Sometimes though home isn’t all what it’s supposed to be especially with a young team, playing in front of big crowds, crowds that weren’t there a year ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pressure to play better in in front of your family and friends can be tough.
Watching last night’s game, one got a small whiff of that as the team tried to close out the game. The crowd was getting really loud cheering the Cavaliers on, but the players got a bit overwhelmed by the fanfare and choked in the final moments.
This game Friday against the Pistons will be important for the Cavs to win. If they are the team we want them to be, then they’ll win this game. But if they squander the game and lose, then we might be back at asking is this team is really a playoff team yet?
Question 3: Will the Cavs be affected by the absence of Collin Sexton?
With Cavs starting shooting guard Collin Sexton being sidelined for a while due to his recent knee injury, how will the team react and will it affect them continuing to win?
Sexton’s numbers were down this season along with his minutes because the team has been playing bench stud Ricky Rubio a whole heck of a lot, which seems to be a good formula for winning of late. But now with this extended time out, and Sexton’s scoring ability vanished from the Cavs box scores, how will Cleveland maintain its current winning path? In the game on Wednesday, wing Isaac Okoro got back from his injury and provided some nice minutes, though he didn’t score much.
Other bench players like forwards Cedi Osman and Dylan Windler can both contribute to the scoring too as they have already. Osman played 28 minutes in the loss to the Wizards but only scored nine points. He’s had more in previous games during the win streak from a week ago. The Wine and Gold will definitely need Osman to score more.
Cavs other big men like Lauri Markkanen and Kevin Love should be returning from their COVID-19 protocols pretty soon too and will definitely help out make up for Sexton’s scoring abilities. It’ll take a team effort but the Cavs seem to have a very capable group of players that can overcome obstacles.
Here’s to a speedy recovery for Sexton.