{"id":27371,"date":"2025-05-14T23:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T23:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/27371\/"},"modified":"2025-05-14T23:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T23:01:08","slug":"the-reason-for-the-cavs-playoff-exit-is-clear-theyre-not-tough-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/27371\/","title":{"rendered":"The reason for the Cavs playoff exit is clear. They\u2019re not tough enough"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletics has live coverage of Knicks vs. Celtics Game 5<\/a> in the 2025 NBA Playoffs.<\/p>\n

CLEVELAND \u2014 Donovan Mitchell grappled with all of the stages of grief in a span of eight minutes at the podium late Tuesday night. Still dressed in his full uniform, bypassing the fashion and sunglasses commonly seen on NBA podiums, Mitchell was clearly struggling to process how the Cavaliers \u2014 the 64-win Cleveland Cavaliers \u2014\u00a0could be eliminated yet again in the second round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Denial: \u201cCouldn\u2019t believe it. Didn\u2019t want to believe it, don\u2019t want to believe it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anger: \u201cY\u2019all gonna write us the f\u2014 off, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bargaining: \u201cGetting beat down like this, y\u2019all are gonna write some s\u2014 about us, man. And that\u2019s gonna be fuel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Depression: \u201cLet the city down, man. This place is special. This place is really special. We didn\u2019t get it done, especially at home. That\u2019s what hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acceptance: Well, maybe not yet. That\u2019s what the next five months are for.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get this part out of the way: Mitchell has been in the league for eight years and still hasn\u2019t made it out of the second round. But it\u2019s hard to blame him for what happened in this series. Mitchell didn\u2019t shoot it well but still averaged 34.2 points in this series on one leg.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Donovan Mitchell is seventh all-time in playoffs points per game average at 28.19. He has made the postseason every year of his eight-year career.<\/p>\n

Despite this, Mitchell has yet to make a conference final appearance in his career. pic.twitter.com\/vB8Vmj92f3<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Athletic (@TheAthletic) May 14, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how to frame this postseason as anything other than a disaster in Cleveland. Losing in the second round, injuries or not, is a woeful underachievement for a team that raced to the top seed in the East during a regular season that doesn\u2019t much matter anymore.<\/p>\n

Sixteen teams in NBA history have won 64 games or more with an average margin of victory of at least 9 points, according to Stathead. The Cavs and the Oklahoma City Thunder are two of those 16. Of the other 14, all but one reached the NBA Finals. Twelve of the 14 won championships.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see how the Thunder finish. For now, the Cavs are one of just two teams that have had that level of success in the regular season and did not make it to the Finals.<\/p>\n

There is a toughness factor to this team that is painfully absent. The Cavs have been called soft in various ways for a few years now, but the chorus is only growing louder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From the way they handle injuries to the way the Indiana Pacers pushed them around in this five-game series, there\u2019s a necessary level of nasty that is missing from this team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is the third postseason in a row Jarrett Allen has been a complete ghost when the Cavs needed him most. The Knicks pushed him around two years ago when he conceded the lights were too bright. His ribs were injured last year in the first-round series against the Orlando Magic, and he missed the rest of the playoffs, frustrating members of the organization in the process. His combined stat line from the last two games in this series: 11 points and six rebounds. In two games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cavs told you with their actions that the problem last year was coaching.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They fired J.B. Bickerstaff, brought in Kenny Atkinson and kept the entire roster intact. For seven months and 82 regular-season keg parties, they were correct.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no denying Atkinson\u2019s incredible impact on this roster, his unlocking of the real Evan Mobley and how he revamped what was a stagnant offense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, this ending looks awfully similar to years past: pushed around physically, overmatched and overwhelmed by what was supposed to be an inferior opponent. The Pacers are really good<\/a>, they play really fast and they are guided by one of the league\u2019s best coaches. They\u2019re going back to the conference finals for the second time in as many years. They were clearly the better team in this series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cavs did nothing to help their cause. They regressed from the second-best 3-point shooting team in the NBA to the worst in these conference semifinals. The drive\/kick\/swing offense that carved teams up during the regular season became little more than the isolation\/wait for Mitchell to bail them out that it was in previous years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mental part, we gotta get over that,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cWe got another jump to make with our mental strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will be more demands made this summer to break up this core four of Mitchell, Darius Garland, Mobley and Allen after three consecutive postseason failures, but it\u2019s not that easy anymore. The die has been cast. This is who they are. Acquiring DeAndre Hunter at the trade deadline ensured the Cavs will be a second-apron team next season, barring some drastic subtractions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That makes adding talent extremely difficult. At best, they can retain Ty Jerome, whose stock crashed considerably in this series. He remains a better option than most anyone else available in free agency since the Cavs are primarily relegated to league minimum free agents as a second-apron team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Making major changes now comes with major obstacles, but that doesn\u2019t mean they shouldn\u2019t at least be explored. I don\u2019t know how Allen can return. I wondered whether he could come back after the way last season ended. The Cavs wanted to see this through. They wanted their four key pieces to have another run. To be fair, it\u2019s not even a question of whether Allen and Mobley fit alongside each other anymore. It\u2019s an attitude adjustment that feels necessary. The Cavs need to get tougher.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Watching this team toward the end of the regular season, I wondered if they would just have to wait out Boston for the Eastern Conference to open. Even if the Cavs couldn\u2019t conquer the Celtics, big changes seem to be heading toward Boston just because of the crippling tax bill ahead of them. Then Jayson Tatum crumpled to the court in Madison Square Garden and the more painful reality is the Cavs may have missed a chance at a championship. This second-round exit may have cost them a ring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Tatum out for an entire season, the East truly is open next year. The Celtics could pivot and try to duck the tax entirely. Giannis Antetokounmpo could be traded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cavs can still be a strong contender, but they\u2019ve bankrupted public trust in regular-season currency. No one will believe them until they see it in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Before the start of this postseason, Cavs chairman Dan Gilbert loved the idea of the \u201cCavalanche,\u201d so much that he paid more than $500,000 to install fake snow machines in the arena\u2019s ceiling that could blast confetti throughout the arena\u2019s bowl when the Cavs went on one of their patented offensive tears.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cavalanche machine went off exactly once in the entire postseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It will be a dark, cold summer in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

For decades, teams fought tooth and nail to secure home-court advantage in the NBA Playoffs. But what if being at home doesn\u2019t actually matter anymore?\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Photo: Jason Miller \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n