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Dissecting the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 2021-22 season

By Quinn Minnich

Cleveland Cavaliers big Evan Mobley greets teammates before a game. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
Cleveland Cavaliers big Evan Mobley greets teammates before a game. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) /
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Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers and Jarrett Allen, Cleveland Cavaliers. Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images /

For most of the regular season, the Cleveland Cavaliers did surprisingly well. For the past few seasons, the Cavaliers were known as a bottom-feeding team in the Eastern Conference, betting their season on lottery pick ping-pong balls, not wins and losses. Cleveland had a record of 35-23 right before the All-Star break, making them 12 games above .500. However, the Cavaliers ended the season out 44-38, only 6 games above .500. In this article, I will go through every month and highlight a few important games to show how the Cavaliers played that month.

October

The Cavaliers only had 7 games to show off in October, so the sample size is not much. The Cavaliers had two losses in a row to start off the year, then got hot and won 3 games in a row against 2021 playoff teams in the Atlanta Hawks, Denver Nuggets, and LA Clippers, each by at least more than 10 points. The next game was a loss against a then-solid Los Angeles Lakers team, where Anthony Davis, LeBron James, and Russell Westbrook were heavily involved. Evan Mobley dropped 23 points and 6 rebounds against Los Angeles that night.

November

During the month of November, the Cavaliers had another solid month, as in this month the Cavaliers went 8-6. During one of the first games in November, the Cavs were up 3 against the Portland Trail Blazers with the shot clock winding down. Jarrett Allen switches on to Damian Lillard, one of the NBA’s most clutch performers. However, Allen held his own, moving his feet fast enough to keep Damian Lillard from taking an easy shot, making him take a step-back 3-pointer that missed, making the Cavaliers win the game.

One of the next games, unfortunately, the Cavaliers hit a road bump. On Nov. 7 against the New York Knicks, Collin Sexton tore his meniscus in his left knee, forcing him to miss the entire rest of the regular season. This was a real hit for the Cavaliers, as Sexton at the time was averaging 16 points per game, to go with 3.3 rebounds, and 2.1 assists. The Cavs ended up winning the game with ease, as new Cavalier Ricky Rubio had a double-double, with 37 points, 10 assists, and also shooting 8-of-9 on 3-pointers.

From Nov. 15-Nov. 24, the Cavaliers lost 5 games in a row, with none of the 5 games ending as a single-possession game. But, Cleveland won back-to-back games after this, one of them being against a strong Dallas Mavericks team, even though Luka Doncic dropped a triple-double against the Cavs.