The Cleveland Cavaliers are at the most important part of their season, and they have hit a wall of frustration and have lost three straight games; the latest was a bad loss to the Chicago Bulls 98-94 on the Cavs home court on Saturday night. The team now stands at 41-33 and slipped to the seven seed in the Eastern Conference standings. If the regular season were to end today, they’d have to first play in the play-in tournament against the surging Brooklyn Nets.
It’s now a test of the teams’ will and effort if they want to stay in the mix, otherwise, the season that started so well will end with plenty of frustration. There have been numerous obstacles, including injuries that have affected this group, but today is the worst time to be on a losing streak and looking like a squad that has run out of gas.
If Cleveland had beaten Chicago, they would have climbed to the fifth spot in the conference, but with the loss and having the Toronto Raptors demolish the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night, they are stuck in the seven spot.
Saturday, for the Cavs, was just a bad game from the start. They were down 28-16 at the end of the first quarter. They threw up bricks from the three-point line and went 1-of-18 from beyond the three-point arc in the first half. They went down 53-35 at the break.
The Wine and Gold squad tried getting it closer in the second half, and they did close it to 85-82 by the 4th quarter, but continued to make mistakes, turned the ball over, and just didn’t work together as a team. All ingredients to a team falling apart.
Let’s first look at a Cavaliers player that gave it his all and was one bright spot on the team in their loss and then we’ll look at the one dud that has to be better if this team is going to have any chance in the future.
Cavs Stud: Lamar Stevens
Lamar Stevens will never be considered the Cavs best player and he certainly made his share of mistakes in the game against the Bulls. He had a few turnovers and couldn’t hit a few easy shots around the rim. But, his efforts all night were welcomed.
He finished the evening going for 13 points on 5-for-9 from the floor. He made the one three-pointer he attempted and grabbed four boards and made both of his free throws.
He was attacking the rim all evening as he does on a nightly basis. He’s now scored in double figures the last four games. He’s shooting the ball in those games very well going for a nice 60 % by going 24-for-40 from the floor. He’s hitting his three-point shots when he’s attempted those. But it’s his defense and aggressive nature offensively that has earned him this stud shoutout.
The Cavaliers are struggling to find offense in this latest streak of losses. Stevens has certainly helped but other starters like their big men Evan Mobley and Lauri Markkanen need to step up more or these types of outcomes will be more inevitable.
Stevens’s minutes have increased of late, and his presence and efforts will need to continue. It’s just unfortunate at this time of the season, that his efforts aren’t rubbing off on the rest of his team.
There seems to be a disconnect at the moment and that has to do with our dud for the game which we’ll talk about next.
Cavs Dud: Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff
I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve probably been more critical of Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff than most over this season. I don’t know why the Cavs signed Bickerstaff to such a lengthy contract when he’s had a track record of being a very mediocre coach.
Yes, the Cavs got off to a great start this season and I’ll give Bickerstaff some credit, sure. But the number of mystery decisions for playing certain rotations and certain players coming off the bench and his ability to coach in situational moments that require making shifts in personnel on the court still have me very concerned for this team long term.
The players win and lose the games but the actions of the head coach and his staff certainly have an impact on his team and in this latest loss to the Bulls, he didn’t have his team prepared to do battle. There seems to be a void in communicating the urgency of the moment as his team continues to sputter along in these last several games.
On your homecourt against a Bulls team that is not playing their best basketball of the season either, your team can’t get down by 18 points and try firing up 18 shots from the three-point line and only making one in the first half. For some reason, Bickerstaff’s message to his team doesn’t seem to be registering. The body language of the players on and off the court also seems to be strained at the moment.
The usually enthusiastic Kevin Love hasn’t been rushing onto the court to congratulate his teammates. Cedi Osman has been placed back on the bench pretty much permanently again by the coach. What is happening behind closed doors is anyone’s guess, but there certainly appears to be a problem with the message from the coach.
This has been my fear with this coach and this young team. I certainly hope they can all get along again, and maybe it’s just the injuries have taken their toll, and the team is still mostly young.
We can say that it seems like the coach is beloved by his players but there’s always a side to the story that we don’t know and that side seems to be winning out at the moment, however. And Bickerstaff’s recent decision-making has not helped this team.