GUT CHECK: Cleveland Cavaliers UPSET By Atlanta Hawks | What MUST Improve SOON!

GUT CHECK: Cleveland Cavaliers UPSET By Atlanta Hawks | What MUST Improve SOON!

On today’s show, the Cavs lose to the Atlanta Hawks. And it might be gut check time for our Cleveland Cavaliers. We’ll talk about why I think that’s the case, what went wrong on Friday night, and so much more on this weekend edition of Locked on Cavs. You are Locked on Cavs, your daily Cleveland Cavaliers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hi everybody, my name is Danny Cunningham and I cover the Cleveland Cavaliers over at my Substack, the inside shot. And you’re listening to Locked on Cavs, a proud part of Lockdown Podcast Network, which is now the number one sports podcast network in all of America. You can find this show and any other lockdown podcast anywhere you get your podcast. That means Apple, that means Spotify, that means anywhere else as well. You can also find us on YouTube. So if you’re watching right now, do us a favor, hit that thumbs up button for us, click subscribe, and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss the latest lockdown caps content. Today’s episode brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can bet just $5. If your first $5 bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets used all across the app. Head to FanDuel.com to get started. Today, the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night 130 to123. And this was a game that I thought was going to go very different than it did. And earlier this week, I talked about how the Cavs looked like a team that was worn out. And I do think that they looked like a team that was worn out against Toronto on Monday. and they had three days off for the first time this season. And I thought on Friday we would see a rested and recharged and refocused version of the Cleveland Cavaliers. And I thought we got the opposite of that. Like I don’t think they looked tired in this game, but I didn’t think that they mentally were sharp enough. Like I thought that this was and I obviously was not in Atlanta, so I was not in the locker room. I did not ask questions. I don’t have quotes to go off of. I’m doing this based upon what I watched on TV. But I thought that this was and Donovan has at times mentioned the Cavs having these mental tests and I thought to me Friday night was a failed mental test for the Cavs and I think this is one of the most if not the most disappointing outcomes of the season that the Cavs have had and it was because they did to me some things pretty well, right? Like think about some of the things that have been issues for this team this year. Free throw shooting has cost them games at time. Well, they were 90% from the line on Friday night. Can’t really have an issue there. Offensive rebounds by opponents has been an issue at times. Well, they had a defensive rebounding rate of 85%. They did a pretty good job as far as that goes. You really can’t have too much of an issue with anything that happened in that category. Three-point shooting, they have been nowhere close to the three-point shooting team that we all expected them to be or the team that they were last year. They shot 43% on threes on Friday night. That wasn’t the issue. They did not have the mental focus. They did not keep they did not take care of the basketball and they did not get back in transition defense. That is where this game was lost. The Cavs lost this game because they played abysmal transition defense. It felt like time after time after time the Atlanta Hawks were able to beat the Cavs down the floor and get an easy bucket. The Hawks had 36 transition points on Friday night. 36. 36. They were 14 of 21 in transition. The Cavs did not get back on defense. That is where this game was lost and I also think there were some other issues defensively like they allowed 64 total points in the point to Atlanta and a lot of those are transition points. Not all of them because the Hawks did hit you know if you can do some math here 14* 2 doesn’t equal third does not equal 36. So they did get some transition points not in the paint but it felt like the Cavs point of attack defense was really really poor. It felt like that was the biggest area I think because and the transition defense stuff is an issue, but part of that can be an offensive issue. And I think when the Cavs have a night where they have not just 17 17 turnovers, but they had a lot of live ball turnovers and the Hawks scored 25 of their points off turnovers on Friday night and a lot of those are transition turnovers. So sometimes just with the the nature of a turnover like that, you’re going to get beat down the floor and that happens, right? Like it doesn’t mean that you played good transition defense, but that’s almost more on on that’s more of an offensive issue than it is a transition defense issue. That’s more of a hey, we need to take care of the basketball type thing, which the Cavs did not do a good job of on Friday. So like part of it is that, but it wasn’t just that. It was getting beat down the floor off rebounds. It was getting beat down the floor even after made baskets at times. like this was I think in that area a complete and total failure by the Cavs. That was to me the biggest issue that they had and I think that the point of attack defense they had on when even in half court sets was terrible. The Atlanta Hawks, I believe it was in the third quarter where the Hawks had a great third quarter. They were um that’s really where they took command of the game and the Cavs to their credit like they fought back and I I didn’t necessarily think that this was like a the Cavs didn’t play hard type of issue. I mean, there were times where I thought the effort should be better than it was, but I didn’t think it was necessarily like, oh, the Cavs just didn’t show up for this game because I I think Donovan Mitchell certainly did. Like, he played very well offensively. But Atlanta in the third quarter was 11 of 13 on twos. They had 22 points in the paint in the third quarter alone. I believe all 11 of those were inside the paint. And not all of those, some of them were, yes, but not all of them were fast break points. It’s a lot of guys getting beat off the dribble and Atlanta being able to get two feet in the paint. Like that is something we’ve talked about the Cavs needing to do offensively, needing to get into the paint more frequently because it does create better shot quality, right? Like that is a thing the Cavs need to do better. The Hawks just absolutely destroyed the Cavs by doing that over and over and over again. It didn’t matter if it was Jaylen Johnson, sometimes it was Dyson Daniels, sometimes it was Zachary Rishet, it didn’t matter like over and over and over again. And yeah, we could say, could Evan Mobley have been better? Sure. Could Jared Allen have been better short? I don’t think that this points in the paint thing was because of the bigs. Sometimes it can be. Sometimes you need your bigs to be better. And I’m not saying that those guys are exempt from criticism because I don’t think that’s true. But to me, the points in the paint issue on Friday night was not about those two. It was not about Larry Nance. It was not about Dean Wade, although maybe a little bit of Dean Wade being on the perimeter more. It wasn’t about the bigs, if you will. It was about the guys on the perimeter and it was about the transition stuff. Like those things to me led to the Cavs just absolutely getting throttled in that area. And that’s where this game was lost. And they need to be so much better defensively. And I talked about what’s real or fake defensively. And I did think that their defensive rating was a little bit deflated, I guess, because inflated would mean high. Um was a little bit deflated, right? Like I don’t know that they were necessarily what the numbers said they were. And in this game, their defensive rating was 122. It was not good. They gave up too many easy looks and they did an okay job defending the three-point line. The the Hawks certainly had a few open ones, they had a few contested ones that that they shot and they had a few ones that, you know, Jaylen Johnson who has shot the basketball well from beyond the arc this year, but historically is a bad three-point shooter. He’s a guy that you’d probably refer to as a soft closeout. He made a few and you got to give him credit for making those shots. And like Atlanta, don’t get me wrong, for everything the Cavs did wrong, Atlanta played very well on Friday and they won this game and give them the credit, but this is not a podcast about them. This is a podcast about the Cavs. And this to me, I don’t know if this is the most concerning loss, but it feels like it’s we’re getting close to a gut check time for this CFC. I’ll talk about that coming up segment number two because I really do think that we’re setting up for that. But the Cavs need to be so much better than they were. And it’s a shame that they wasted such a good offensive performance from Donovan Mitchell. Had 42 points, shot 53% from the floor, made seven threes on the night, did have four turnovers, which was again part of the problem. Darius Garland also had five turnovers. That was a big part of the problem as well. But Donovan Mitchell played so well and he brought the Cavs back. And I think what is probably the most frustrating aspect of this game is there were little pockets of it where the Cavs looked really good, right? They had that 140 run in the second quarter. They had a 10 run in the fourth quarter. They came back and took the lead in the fourth quarter. And when that happened, I was sitting on my couch watching and thinking to myself, you know, last year’s Cavs team finds a way to win this game. when if if last year’s Cavs team finds a way to come back from being down I think they were down as many as 13. I’d have to go and look. Um yeah, they were down by as many as 13. When last year’s Cavs team found themselves in that sort of deficit and credit where it’s due, this this team fought back, too. But when they would take a lead, they’d be able to build on it. They wouldn’t let the other team back in. And this team seems to frequently allow that to happen. The Cavs only led by as many as seven, and that was very early on. They scored the first seven points of the game, but they couldn’t get over the hump and then keep going, if you will. They could get over the hump a couple of times, like they let at halftime after being down by 10 at the end of the first quarter. They let at halftime because they outscored Atlanta by 12 points in the second quarter. Had a very good second quarter, but then the third quarter starts and the Hawks go on this run. Like they could not gain momentum and then keep momentum. It felt like anytime they got the momentum and accomplished the goal of getting back in the game of taking the lead, they would then give it right back, right? Like the same exact thing happened at the end of the game where they were down, they go on a 100 run to take a lead. Evan Mobley made a couple of big plays. Donovan Mitchell made some big shots. Like there were some big moments and I do think that Evan played pretty well in the second half of this game specifically. I think the first half left some some things to be desired, but I thought he was good in the second half. But they came back and take the lead and then Atlanta finds a way. And last year it felt like the Cavs wouldn’t allow teams to find a way and this team hasn’t figured that out yet. I don’t necessarily think that it’s like time to press the panic button. I do think there are things to be concerned about, don’t get me wrong, but as I look ahead in the schedule, too, I look at right now and I just think we’re kind of getting to a point where I’m not sure the Cavs are building good habits. And that to me is the concerning thing because even in losses last year feel like you know what it it happens one and like the Cavs where they’re at record-wise right now being 12 and eight compared to where they were at through 20 games last year is so different record-wise. So I think that we have to view things differently. Like if the Cavs would have lost this game last year and they did lose this exact game last year, they played the Hawks on this exact same day in the schedule last year and lost. Um like that would just be a okay, whatever. or they lost a game, no big deal. But now it feels different because they haven’t built up that margin for error and they haven’t looked the way that we expected them to look. Like if you go through the first 20 games the Cavs have played, how frequently has this Cavs team looked like a contender, not often. And that to me is the thing to be concerned about because it’s fair to give them time I think on working guys in with injuries and they’ve not been healthy and those things matter but I also think it’s fair to expect them to look the way they’re supposed to look to play up to their standard so much more frequently than they have. And that to me is why I think we’re kind of closing in on a gut check time for the Cleveland Cavaliers. 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Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for your chance at a bigger payout. We’ve got a loaded college football Saturday coming up. Told you all week about how I feel about Ohio State and Michigan, but there are some other big games in the docket. One that I like. I don’t know that I love, but I like Miami is traveling to pit. Now, I’m sure if you are a college football fan, you’ve seen a lot of the discourse involving the Miami Hurricanes about how they, you know, it’s a travesty. They’re not in the playoffs right now and they beat Notre Dame and they should be in. Well, I don’t think any of that’s going to matter because I think that Miami is going to lose on Saturday to Pit. It’s going to be like 30 degrees in Pit and Miami is not built to go up north and win a game like this. Pit played very well last week against Virginia Tech. They’re plus 205 on the money line or plus 6 and a half on the spread with FanDuel. So, check them out there. I like Pit. Maybe you like Miami. I don’t know. you like what you like. But if you’re new to FanDuel, new customers get $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So head to fanduel.com, that is fann due.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Thank you for making today’s edition of Lockdown Cavs your first listen. And thank you to those of you that make Lockdown Cavs your first listen every single day. I think we are very close to gut check time for the Cleveland Cavaliers. So they are 12-8 right now through their first 20 games of the season which I think is very fair to say is an underwhelming mark for them and they are currently deep in the Eastern Conference. Like they are nowhere near the top right now. And I I talked earlier this season before the season started about how I didn’t think it was going to be wireto wire first in the East the way that was last year. That’s fine. But the Cavs right now are sitting with Atlanta and Orlando. All three teams are 12-8 on the season. They are fifth, sixth, and seventh in the standings. And by no means is this like, oh, the Cavs are going to be fighting to stay out of the playing this year. Like, that’s not the reality of the situation. That’s not where we are right now. But I do think that’s a little low, right? Like this is a Cavs team that even without the health that they’ve had, they should be in my opinion higher than where they’re at. They have underwhelmed so far this season. And the Cavs now go into a stretch starting on Sunday against the Boston Celtics. They go into a stretch of five games in seven days. And I know what happened the last time they played five games in seven days. They ended up coming back from a game in Miami and they had a complete and total dud against the Toronto Raptors. This is a little bit different because four of these five games will be at home. They play on Sunday at home against Boston. They play in Indianapolis against the Indiana Pacers on Monday. They play at home on Wednesday against the Portland Trailblazers. And then they play Friday and Saturday at home against the San Antonio Spurs and the Golden State Warriors. So travel in this five and seven won’t be as big of a deal as it was in the last five and seven where the the final part of it was a game in Miami on Wednesday night and a game at home against Toronto on Thursday. Like they don’t have anything like that to deal with. But I do think that this is when we’re going to learn a lot about this team. I think that this is a stretch where the Cavs are either going to start to figure some things out or this year is going to maybe feel like a slog at times where this year is going to be one that we are going to be watching them in battles night after night win or lose and maybe not hitting what we have expected of this team throughout this regular season. Even if this is a group that is going to and always was going to be judged on what happens in the postseason, I think that we are coming up on a stretch, especially if they stay healthy, right? Darius Garland played in this game. Jared Allen played in this way in this game. Dean Wade played in this game. They didn’t have Craig Porter Jr. They didn’t have Sam. They still don’t have Max and they won’t have Max R during the stretch. But I don’t look at those guys and I think that those guys are important to varying degrees, but they had their full starting five intact. They’re this was the first game they lost this year where Darius Garland started and finished the game, right? And the one game that he left early against Miami, they lost. And the other four games that he’s played that he started and finished, the Cavs have won this year. So, I think that the more we get to see that, the more it’s fair to start to judge them, even if it is still a bit of a limited sample size. I will say, however, because this loss eliminated the Cavs from advancing in the NBA Cup, I think the best case scenario for the Cavs, and they won’t come out and say this, um, partially because I think like the NBA wants teams to care about the NBA Cup, and I’m just not sure that it was all that big of a deal to the Cavs. I think them not advancing is a really good thing for them. Um, I think the best thing would have been the Cavs won this game on Friday night against Atlanta and didn’t advance based on the point differential tiebreaker, which was a possibility. And had they won this game by I believe they would have needed to win by 16 or more to advance. Like let’s say they would have won this game by 14 and missed out by a couple points. I think that would have been the best case scenario because now and by the time you were listening to this, the games have probably already been announced where the Cavs are playing and who they’re playing and there are two additional games that will be added. But they will now because if you pull up the Cavs schedule, they play as I mentioned that five games and seven stretch ends December 6th. They don’t have a game currently scheduled between December 6th and December 17th. They will have two games in there. I they’re going to my best guess and again by the time you’re listening to this podcast it will probably be out because last year they announced it like in the middle of the night but my best guess is that they’re going to add a road game against either Boston or the Washington Wizards and a home game against either the Brooklyn Nets or the Charlotte Hornets. I could be wrong, but that is my best guess as to what is going to happen as of right now. But more importantly, there’s rest built in there. And if you think back to last year, the Cavs were scuffling a little bit going into this stretch, right? Like they had lost the game to uh Atlanta. They had lost two games in a row to Atlanta, right? And that was something that I think kind of raised some eyebrows and they weren’t necessarily playing their best basketball at that time. And listen, playing your best basketball isn’t required in late November, early December. You do have to build up to it, but the Cavs were not necessarily playing their best basketball going into it. So, they get to that stretch coming off of a couple of wins over bad teams. They did beat the Nuggets and the Celtics just before it, which was good, too, but they also had wins against the Wizards and the Hornets. And against the Hornets, they didn’t necessarily look good, although that’s the game Evan Moy looked awesome. And then they lost to the Miami Heat. Then they had that five-day break. They played Washington. They won that game. They played Brooklyn. They won that game by 29. Those two games that they added were the first two games of a 12game winning streak. And that winning streak included wins over the Milwaukee Bucks, who were a playoff team, the Denver Nuggets, the Golden State Warriors, the Lakers, the Mavericks prior to them trading Luca Donuch, although I believe he was hurt. They beat Oklahoma City. They beat Toronto. That was the Cavs took off, right? Like they got back to playing really good basketball. And this year we have not seen the Cavs play really good basketball. So I call this a gut check period because the Cavs are going to get some rest. They’re going to get some practice time. They’re going to be able to I think sort of reshape their season when they hit that rest period in December and that’s going to be very important. But I think feeling good about themselves going into that and kind of rebounding from what has been I think an underwhelming first quarter of the season so far. I think it is time to to see this team start to build better habits. I think it’s time to start to see this team play a better version of basketball that we’re used to seeing from them because that’s not been the case so far this year. And I think that given that yes, it’s four games in five nights, but four of them are at home. You’re getting a Boston Celtics team that’s not very good that you should beat. You’re playing a Pacers team that yes, they’ve played better lately, but they’re not very good. It’s a team that you should beat. The Portland Trailblazers are a team the Cavs should beat. The San Antonio Spurs are not going to have Victor Webyama probably won’t have Stefan Castle. That’s a team the Cavs should beat. The Golden State Warriors might not have Steph Curry. Who knows who else is going to be injured from that team that is just filled with old basketball players. These are five games that on paper the Cavs should win all five of them. And I’m not saying that they’re going to go out there and go 5-0. I think given what we have seen from this team so far this year, that’s not a fair expectation. But I do think if they go anything less than 4-1 on this stretch, it’s going to be at least mildly concerning because I know that this Cavs basketball team I know is better than what we have seen so far. And I think that is what makes it very frustrating to watch because they’re not maximizing who they are. Like if they were not as talented as this roster is, okay, fine, you lost the game, no big deal. But I just don’t think that we have seen this Cavs team really maximize who they are or even come close. and they don’t have to do that in November, in December, but they’re not showing signs of it. They’re not building good habits. And those are the things that I look at and say, “This is what you should be concerned about. The transition defense is an issue. The point of attack defense is an issue. Yes, I think a lot of their issues offensively. I thought they like the turnovers were an issue, but they shot the basketball. I thought they got good shots. I don’t have much of an issue with how they played offense on Friday against the Hawks. And I think Darius Garland will solve a lot of those things, but this is a Cavs team that just feels slightly off so far. And I think that this week is a good opportunity for them to start to feel like the Cavs. And if it doesn’t happen this week, they’ve got the break coming up. And then if it doesn’t happen after that, that is when I think it’s time to be seriously concerned about them. But I think we’re kind of getting into like that first gut check time for the Cavaliers. So I will be back on Monday talking about whatever happens between the Cavs and Celtics. Should be an interesting game. Very interested to see how the Cavs respond to two losses. I don’t think they’ve had three straight losses all year. The last time they lost uh two games in a row, Kenny Atinson said after the the game that they won to break that streak, kind of felt like we needed to have this one. I am interested to see if the Cavs feel the same way on Sunday against the Celtics. But while we get out of here on YouTube, do me a favor, hit that thumbs up button for me, click subscribe, and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss latest locked on Cavs content. And of course, make sure you’re subscribed to this show anywhere you get your podcast. It’s Apple, it’s Spotify, that is anywhere else. And I will talk to you first thing on Monday morning.

On Saturday’s edition of Locked On Cavs, Danny Cunningham dissects the latest Cleveland Cavaliers loss to the Atlanta Hawks in which the team struggled mightily in transition and defensively. Despite 42 points from Donovan Mitchell, the Cavs couldn’t find a way to win the game. Danny also dives into why he thinks the Cavs will learn a lot about themselves over the next week with a stretch of five games in seven nights beginning on Sunday against the Celtics.
Check out Danny’s Substack, The Inside Shot: https://theinsideshot.substack.com/
Email the show: LOCavsmailbag@gmail.com
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