Well, that’s certainly a game that this team would want to forget. Heading into their game against the Atlanta Hawks, the Cleveland Cavaliers were one of the top defenses in the league. That lockdown D was nowhere to be seen on Friday night, however. Trae Young and co. dismantled the Cavs en route to a dominating victory at home. After the game, Donovan Mitchell emphasized the need for the team to pick up the slack during rough stretches like this, per Cleveland.com.
“I’m not going to go out and make any excuses,” four-time All-Star Donovan Mitchell said following the Cavs loss. “Everybody can go out and say we played last night, but I’m not hearing it… We all have to take that. We have to find a way to do it. It’s time. It’s that time I was telling you about at the beginning of the year. It’s time to pick it up. We’ve dropped these two. Now we have to go and respond.”
The Cavs have not dealt with a lot of serious adversity throughout their campaign. Now, this team has lost three straight games to playoff contenders (the Sixers, the Nuggets, and the Hawks). The mark of a great team is how they respond to struggles like this. As Mitchell said, it’s time for the team to pick it up.
Their first order of business is to not allow any other team to score nearly 140 points on them in regulation. That’s simply not a good strategy for them, especially considering their talent level on defense. We’ll see how Mitchell and co. bounce back from this brutal loss.