The Cleveland Cavaliers are starting to dip in the standings and have lost five of their last six games.
Though they are still in the thick of the playoff chase in the Eastern Conference, Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff knows that something has to change fast if the Cavs want to continue the success that they have enjoyed for the majority of the 2021-22 NBA season.
The team has struggled on the defensive end lately, and Bickerstaff recently explained why he believes that’s happening.
“We’re missing, one, the physicality to start with,” Bickerstaff said. “Two, there’s a lot of discipline mistakes; we’re not in the spots where we should be. And then the third piece of it is we’re not doing the extra that we were doing to this point to put ourselves in that position that made us who we were. And that’s our core. Those are the things that we’ve always done to protect one another. To do it together. To put the one more. To play with toughness. So, that’s what we have to get back to. You can’t rest on past experiences in this league, like the challenges are coming, and nobody gives a s—. So you’ve got to be prepared, and you got to solve it.”
Many of the Cavs’ recent contests have been close games. The same cannot be said for the team’s most recent loss, however. The Cavs were practically run off the court by the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday and lost 119-98.
While the Cavs are still missing Rajon Rondo and Caris LeVert, it’s reasonable to expect the squad to win games without those two. That’s especially true thanks to the return of All-Star guard Darius Garland.
Garland had missed three straight games prior to Wednesday’s loss. He dropped 33 points in the defeat to the Hornets, but it was not nearly enough for Cleveland.
The Cavs now sit in the No. 5 spot in the East with a 36-26 record on the year. They’ll need to turn things around if they want to land a solid seed going into the playoffs.
Coming up, the Cavs have some tough games on their schedule.
This month, the Cavs will play the Philadelphia 76ers and Chicago Bulls twice each. The Cavs will also have to deal with the Miami Heat. All three teams are ahead of the Cavs in the Eastern Conference standings.
