After spitting their last 18-games and falling to third in the Eastern Conference, it seems the Cleveland Cavaliers have lost sight of their goals
The Cleveland Cavaliers entered this NBA season with questions already looming after the loss of a generational talent in Kyrie Irving. They were able to acquire an all-star in Isaiah Thomas in return, but his impact would be unknown for a majority of the beginning of the season due to injury.
The LeBron James led Cavaliers silenced the critiques momentarily ringing off 13 straight victories, after a 5-7 start, even without Thomas in the lineup. During the streak, they averaged over 100 points per game and won seven-straight on the road.
Albeit impressive that Cleveland seemingly found a rhythm, they only dominated average Eastern Conference teams and beat two subpar Western Conference teams. It was hard to measure their resiliency because they weren’t really being tested.
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Victor Oladipo and the Indiana Pacers would end the streak on December 8th, sending the Cavaliers into a spiral that I don’t think anyone saw coming.
One of the biggest problems that Cleveland faced early on was players not knowing their roles. This was not a surprise, they introduced over five new players and lost extremely core guys, identity issues tend to ensue.
With injuries to Thomas, Iman Shumpert, Tristan Thompson, and Derrick Rose the Cavaliers bench was so short they were finally able to get some consistent lineups. They finally figured out how to work Dwyane Wade into the offense, things were going great.
However, no matter the lineup there was nobody more consistent than James who averaged 28.3 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 8.7 assist during the streak. As players got healthy you would think that the team would just be better, right? Wrong.
As guys got healthy the struggle to find an offensive identity has been paramount. Since the streak ended, outside of James, the Cavaliers have only had someone else lead them in scoring on four separate occasions.
They have split their last 18-games right in half, with concerning loses against the Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics, and Golden State Warriors. The magnitude of the loses coupled with the fact that they are almost 100 percent healthy is cause to be the slightest bit concerned for Cleveland.
They rank number 28 out of 30 in defensive rating, giving up over 47 percent shooting from the field and 37 percent from 3-point range. These are abysmal numbers for a team anticipating playing for a conference championship, much less an NBA Finals.
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James has been having an MVP type of season, but that can’t be said about any of his other teammates who have been subpar at best. If the Cavaliers are going to be a threat to anybody in the playoffs they will need a new breath of life from somewhere. Whether it be a trade, a lineup change, or coaching change something will happen to light a fire under the Cleveland Cavaliers.