What can a regular season game in January teach everyone about the Cleveland Cavaliers in the grand scheme of this entire campaign? Well, it can serve as a reminder of a fact that should already be known — just widely ignored. The Cavs continue to lack in the mental department.
The Detroit Pistons, sans Jalen Duren, came into Rocket Arena on Sunday and snatched away a tight 114-110 victory at the expense of the Cavaliers. After the game was over, Kenny Atkinson highlighted the physicality of Detroit as something that Cleveland had a tough time dealing with.
"Their physicality hurt us," Atkinson told the media. "They got their hands on you. They're handsy. I felt like we had a tough time getting an advantage tonight. ... We weren't getting that thrust. They stood us up a lot."
The Cavs allowed their opponents to dictate the flow of the ball game. It quietly resembles the issues the team has had all year with allowing the circumstances around them to control them, and not the other way around.
Cleveland’s mental toughness keeps getting exposed
This idea is not a new one. Questioning the mental toughness of the team is a discussion that has been unavoidable.
The Cavaliers talked of injuries as a big reason for their collapse against the Indiana Pacers in the 2025 NBA Playoffs. The excuse was built-in — and quickly taken. Darius Garland was even bold enough to say that was the main thing that prevented Cleveland from winning a championship.
"I think we would have won it. I say that pretty confidently,” Garland told SiriusXM NBA Radio.
Skip ahead to 2025-26, and the Cavaliers were still focused on injuries. Their campaign had been riddled with them to start. Key members of the team were missing chunks of games at a time.
The problem is the Cavaliers knew it too. Their issues could be masked by the injury reports.
"When everybody's back in and we're still going through the same stuff," Garland said earlier this season of when their lack of identity becomes a real problem.
So at what point do the Cavs stop letting themselves be dictated by what's going on around them? In that same statement mentioned referred to above, Garland followed up by saying there was more than enough talent to overcome their obstacles.
That much is true. The Cavaliers still boast one of the best rosters in the NBA. However, there continues to be a glaring flaw with it.
"I had one person say it to me last night, said, ‘I don’t know that the Cavs have enough MFers’. I guess we’ll wait and see," Chris Fedor brought up near the start of the season on the Wine and Gold Talk Podcast.
That question stills looms large in January. The Cavs have lacked toughness, in several regards. If that problem persists, the team record can say whatever it may want to, the final result will ultimately be the same.