It’s been a rough stretch for the Cleveland Cavaliers as of late. Losing six out of their last 10 games, the Cavs are in danger of giving up the Eastern Conference’s third seed to the New York Knicks. To add to their woes, Sunday’s outing against the Denver Nuggets was a brutal one. The Cavs were trounced by 29 points, with the final score being 130-1o1 in favor of the defending champions. Following the loss, Donovan Mitchell decided he’d had enough.
The five-time All-Star sounded off on his team’s performance, citing a need to “be better” with April just around the corner.
“We can all point to s***,” Mitchell said, per clevelanddotcom’s Chris Fedor. “It’s April. It’s f***** April. We’ve got to figure it out. Gotta be better.”
The Nuggets clinch a playoff berth at the expense of the Cavs
Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
The game was tied at 45 all until with 4:33 left in the second quarter. Denver then outscored the Cavs 20-11 to take a nine-point lead entering the half. Their surge would not stop there, however. Led by Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets put up a total of 36 team points in the third quarter as opposed to Cleveland’s 21. They would continue the thrashing until the final buzzer.
The Cavs gave up 21 three-pointers to the Nuggets, who shot an efficient 63.6% from downtown. Cleveland, on the other hand, only converted eight threes out of their 25 attempts (32%). The disparity in rebounding numbers also adds to Sunday’s horror tale. As a team, the Cavs only hauled down 28 rebounds as opposed to the Nuggets’ 51 boards. All but one player for the Cavs finished with a negative plus-minus rating, giving the team a -29 average for the night.
Big men Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen led the way for Cleveland with 23 and 19 points, respectively. Mitchell finished with 13 points and six assists.
As for the victors, Jokic garnered a triple-double of 26 points, 18 rebounds and 16 assists to spearhead a Denver offense that was without Jamal Murray. The win would eventually give the Nuggets a playoff berth.
Donovan Mitchell and the Cavs as of late
Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
It was just back in January when Cleveland started a run that saw them win 17 out of 18 games. Since then, it’s been an up-and-down road for the Ohio-based squad. Cleveland has not tasted two consecutive wins since late February. It seems like for every night of triumph, there would be a loss or two that follows. Which begs the question: What’s wrong with the Cavs?
Could it be that injuries have broken their momentum? Cleveland has played a considerable amount of games this season without the services of Mitchell, Mobley and Max Strus. All three have just returned from injury, so that’s probably one culprit. Mitchell, in particular, missed 13 games in the month of March. Looking at those games alone, the Cavs won just five outings. There’s no need to detail how losing a 26.8 PPG scorer causes struggles offensively.
In addition, the Cavs could use a bit more fight on the boards, particularly on the offensive end. This season, Cleveland’s 43.5 team rebounds per game ranks in the bottom half (17th) of the league. While they may be the ninth-best team in securing defensive boards (33.7 DRPG), the Cavs lack presence in crashing the offensive glass, as seen in their 22nd-overall ranking (9.9 ORPG).
One could speculate that Evan Mobley’s absence could play a part in all of this, but even with him back, only he and Jarrett Allen consistently crash the boards. Yes, that’s their role as big men, but looking at the stat sheet, 6-foot-3 Donovan Mitchell’s 5.2 rebounds per game is the third-highest on the roster. Cleveland’s issue on the boards is usually seen when they play bigger, more physical teams. Tristan Thompson could be a possible solution, but his minutes per game are severely limited. With all that being said, it would help the Cavs if their forwards and wings look to rebound the ball more heading into the playoffs.
Seven games remain, so there’s still a chance for the team to finish strong and create some momentum before April’s slugfest begins.
