The Cleveland Cavaliers blew another big lead on Tuesday night to the Orlando Magic, something that has become all too familiar with this team this year.
The Cavs had a terrible third quarter letting Jonathan Simmons light them up, and in the fourth quarter when the adversity was highest, they shut down again, scoring only a total of nine points.
After the game, Isaiah Thomas was asked about facing adversity, paving the way for this interesting response, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
That has been something that has been evident all year with this Cavaliers team. Usually with LeBron James-led teams when the going gets tough, that’s when they step up to the task and really rise up.
With this team though it’s different. The Cavs do not look like a cohesive unit over the past few weeks, particularly on defense. Cleveland has allowed 114.5 points to opponents over the last 10 games — the worst in the league during that stretch.
There has been a lot of talk about the chemistry this team has, and how a lot of the players don’t really care for each other, which speaks volumes about their ongoing struggles.
Via Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com:
Rotations are awful. IT (Isaiah Thomas) is so much worse than Kyrie defensively it’s insane,” said a league source. “There is not a great feeling anywhere. They need to limp into the All-Star break and get away from each other.”
If the Cavaliers want to succeed in the playoffs, they need to find a way to handle adversity.