The last month for the Cleveland Cavaliers has been a conundrum. They’ve been missing several key players, including their best, Donovan Mitchell, who has played in just five of the 17 games following the All-Star break.
Evan Mobley and Max Strus are two other starters who have not been available for the bulk of the second half schedule because of injuries.
In that time period, Cleveland has defeated the league’s best team, Boston, the third seed in the West, Minnesota, and had impressive road wins against New Orleans and Indiana.
But they’ve also lost home games to a battered Miami Heat team and Brooklyn.
There are only 12 games remaining in the regular season, and the wine and gold have a west coast trip before the season comes to a close. And they are in real danger of losing home court advantage for the first round of the playoffs, as both the Knicks and Magic are just one game behind in the loss column.
What all this means is coach J.B. Bickerstaff needs to find a winning formula and quickly. Yes, the Cavs have a very good record on the road at 21-13, but we don’t think they want to have their first-round playoff match up without the majority of the games at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
First and foremost, they need to get Mitchell healthy. He is their unquestioned leader, and when Darius Garland and Mobley were injured in December and each missed about a month, the ball was put in his hands and he thrived.
Averaging 27.4 points and 6.1 assists per night, along with five rebounds, his ability to score inside, driving to the bucket is sorely missed. And remember, he’s still shooting 37.3% from behind the arc.
Jarrett Allen has held his own, scoring 16.3 points and grabbing 10.8 boards on a nightly basis, as well as being a solid defender, and Caris LeVert has stepped up his game too.
LeVert gets criticized by many of the younger fans because he doesn’t make threes (which is really a stupid criticism) has also stepped up particularly the play making that Mitchell provided. He is dishing out 7.9 assists since the All-Star game, although his scoring and shooting is down.
To us, he has sacrificed his scoring to do what is best for the team, and perhaps that is the first step for many of the other Cavs in order to right the ship.
Cleveland did sign veteran Marcus Morris Jr. to a ten day contract, and at 6’8″, Morris provides some size in the front court and he can knock down shots.
Bickerstaff isn’t blameless either. We do believe he made the decision to have LeVert handle the playmaking duties over the turnover prone Garland, but we don’t understand his substitution patterns at times.
He went through a stretch where he ignored Sam Merrill, who despite a slump in early March where he hit just 4 of 29 threes, has knocked down 17 of his last 37 (46%). Friday night, he didn’t use Craig Porter Jr., even though Garland wasn’t playing particularly well.
And he played a sore kneed Mitchell 44 minutes in an overtime, and that’s when Mitchell went back out of the lineup.
We hate to say it, but how the Cavaliers perform from here on out and during the playoffs will likely determine if Bickerstaff returns as head coach next season.
Also, we also believe if Mitchell signs an extension with the Cavs, a roster shake up will occur, and Garland will likely be traded.
The Cavs do need toughness, but part of that starts with adding size, something outside of Allen and Mobley, the wine and gold desperately need.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 