3 reasons Cleveland Cavaliers continue to struggle against best in the East

The Cleveland Cavaliers played the Brooklyn Nets this past Monday night down at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Unfortunately, the Cavs dropped the game 125-117 after never fully recovering from a poor first half where they were down 65-49. The game is being highlighted for Cavs guard Darius Garland who poured in 46 points, but that production wasn’t enough to get Cleveland back in the game.

There are many reasons that this young Wine and Gold squad continue to struggle against teams like the Nets and other teams in the Eastern Conference that are usually at the top of the standings. With the loss Monday, the Cavs are now 22-13, still a very respectable record, but they are now the fourth seed. So why do the Cavaliers still have trouble with the best in the East like the Milwaukee Bucks, Brooklyn Nets, and even a team like the Toronto Raptors?

No. 1 reason Cleveland Cavaliers continue to struggle: Inexperience

The Cavs are still very young and lack the experience that many of these other top Eastern Conference teams have. In the loss to the Nets, both their stars, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving,  knocked down 32 points apiece.

When your veteran stars can score more than half your points on a nightly basis, that’s usually a winning formula. While Garland did score 46 in the loss, the rest of his teammates couldn’t score much on the evening. Donovon Mitchell was next up with 15 points which was well off his 29.5 ppg average.

Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen were a bit off as well on the night. You add in that there are several players from Lamar Stevens, Cedi Osman, Isaac Okoro, and Caris LeVert who have little or no experience playing in postseason games, and you run into this ongoing problem for this squad as they move through the rest of the season.

Adding Mitchell to this roster has certainly helped this squad reach the level that they are at now, but the Cavs are going to have to learn on the run or try and bring in more veteran players to help get this team over the hump.

After the game on Monday, the Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff discussed that issue where the players will need to believe in themselves in some of these high-profile games when they are playing more experienced squads.

No. 2 reason Cleveland Cavaliers continue to struggle: Slow starts

The young Cavaliers continue to struggle most when they come out of the gates slow and lethargic and lacking that energy that’s going to help them win these big games. Some of that effort has to do with how they approach the game, and this is where I still believe that coach Bickerstaff and his staff are to blame for some of this.

In the loss to the Nets, they went down 34-22 in the first quarter. Trying to climb back into ball games can take a lot out of you to just get back to even and that was the case in this latest loss. Preparing yourself and getting ready to battle from the beginning can be a challenge but the Cavs have got to do a better job moving forward if they want to stay competitive in the East.

The Cavs have lost their last two games because in part they got off to such poor starts. In their loss to the Raptors last week, they were down 39-31 at the end of the first quarter. Giving up 39 points in a quarter also shows you that your team is not playing good defense and that has been at the root of the slow starts.

In Cleveland’s previous five-game win streak that ran up against this latest two-game skid, the team outscored their opponents in three of those five starts in the first quarter. That will be important moving forward if the Cavaliers want to stay in competition in the conference.

No. 3 reason Cleveland Cavaliers continue to struggle: Lack of a balanced attack

In the loss to the Nets Monday, Darius Garland was on fire and scored 46 points. It was his third game this season that he scored more than 40 points. While the personal accomplishment is exciting for Garland, his team has only won one of those three games. Much of that had to do with his teammates not producing much on those nights.

In the 51-point game Garland had against the Minnesota Timberwolves back in November, his counterpart Donovon Mitchell was sidelined and didn’t play. Caris LeVert had 13 points, Kevin Love had 14 points and Lamar Stevens had 15 points all part of the other starting five. Evan Mobley only had four points in that game as well. The lack of a balanced attack has hurt this team in the past and could hurt them more in the future.

In this latest loss, while Garland had 46 points, Mitchell was back but only had 15 points and players like Jarrett Allen and Mobley continued to produce very little on the offensive end of things. The best way for Cleveland to win is with that balanced scoring attack and when there are seven or eight players in double figures this team will be unstoppable.

In their most recent win against the Utah Jazz, the Cavs had seven players score in double figures, including three guys who scored more than 20 points. This is a blueprint for the Cavs to find success against the strongest of foes.