Every single time the Cleveland Cavaliers lose a basketball game, everyone already knows what to say after the fact. The effort was lacking, the controllable areas were not up to par, etc. You know the drill and so do the Cavaliers — and that's the most frustrating part.
The Cavaliers are fully self-aware of their problems. Even so, there is no execution in fixing them. It's just a timeless, repetitive cycle of Cleveland owning up to their mistakes before doing them all over again.
Granted, its not the entire team. Jaylon Tyson made that much clear when awkwardly thrust into the spotlight after Donovan Mitchell skipped out on the postgame media earlier this season. Unfortunately this is a case of a few bad apples corrupting the bigger product.
The Cavaliers were gifted a prime opportunity to recalibrate due to their lack of involvement in the NBA Cup. Two games after their mini-break, they still look like the exact same team that has talked the talk without walking the walk.
Cavaliers' mental struggles are worse than their injury report
The Cavaliers had a healthy dose of fourth quarter heroics extend an otherwise ugly affair against the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday. Cleveland outscored Charlotte 32-23 in the fourth to push the game to overtime.
All of that magic was lost in the extra frame, as the Cavaliers dropped a brutal 119-111 loss to the Hornets. Cleveland failed to score a single bucket in overtime.
So what was in the recipe that got the Cavaliers back into the game during the fourth quarter? Well, it was a lot of things that Cleveland should already know are effective. It should also be sustainable for an entire game, despite what the Cavaliers have shown during 2025-26.
"Strung together stops. Controlled the glass. It made easier plays. Got easy buckets on the offensive end," Tyson told the media after the game. "I think that's the defense turning to offense and that's when we're at our best."
Those are things that last year's Cavaliers could do. Of course, that version of the Cavs was also fairly healthy. However, even the players in Cleveland do not believe the injury report should be used to absolve all guilt.
"The guys out there are more than capable of winning basketball games and really competing at a high level," Darius Garland said. "There's no excuses for that. Just got to find the energy and the competition and the spirit all over again."
The Cavaliers can keep saying everything is fine and it is too early to panic. The validity of that sentiment is put to the test every night when Cleveland continues to fail in their execution of the principles. Only when that shift happens can the Cavaliers truly calm the ringing alarms.