While the Cleveland Cavaliers are still in an enviable position in the standings, they have shown their mortality lately.
The Cavaliers have only nine losses on the season, but three of them have come this week. Cleveland is currently on a season-long three-game losing streak, with two of those losses coming to the Houston Rockets and the other coming to the Philadelphia 76ers.
In light of the Cavaliers’ third consecutive defeat, star guard Donovan Mitchell tried to put a positive spin on the team’s recent struggles. He argued that the squad is better off going through these growing pains now as opposed to when the playoffs roll around.
“We haven’t really had much adversity, so this is good to have,” Mitchell said. “Rather now than in April [and] June. So you figure out how to dig yourself out of these holes. How to gut these wins and figure it out on a daily basis. We’re not overreacting, but we’re reacting. I think the biggest thing is understanding that we have to find a way to be better.
“But at the end of the day too, it’s a long season, it’s tough to win every night, but, for us, we gotta continue to be the team we want to be every night. We have to hold ourselves accountable.”
While the Cavaliers certainly haven’t played at the top of their game of late, all of the team’s recent defeats have come by narrow margins. Every one of its last three games has been decided by four points or fewer.
Most recently, Cleveland lost to the Rockets by four on Saturday. Some lackluster defense from the Cavaliers was largely responsible for the squad’s loss, as Cleveland allowed Houston to score a whopping 135 points in the game. The Rockets shot 54.9 percent from the field and 46.4 percent from 3-point range as a team as well.
Cleveland simply hasn’t played well on the defensive end of the floor in its last couple of games. In the Cavaliers’ loss to the 76ers on Friday, Philadelphia erupted for 132 points, led by 30 from star forward Paul George.
After the Cavs used their defensive identity to help them get off to an incredible start this season, they’re now just 12th in the NBA in defensive rating, even trailing a couple of teams in that metric who are at or below .500.
Fans of the team are hoping that Cleveland will tighten up on the defensive side of the ball when it does battle against the Detroit Pistons on Monday. The Pistons have been a positive surprise in the eyes of a lot of people this season, as they hold the No. 6 seed in the East with a record of 23-22.
