CLEVELAND, Ohio — Donovan Mitchell didn’t want to use the word concern.
Not in early December. Not with 59 regular-season games remaining. Not with so many key players missing. Not with numerous circumstances working against them.
But after the latest loss — a 122-110 setback to the below-.500 Portland Trail Blazers that highlighted many of Cleveland’s flaws — Mitchell couldn’t downplay the continued struggles.
“Concern is a scary word to use with you guys,” Mitchell said late Wednesday night. “I don’t want to use it. It’s upsetting, but there’s room for growth. I’m not going to sit here and be like, ‘Oh, the sky’s falling and we’re panicking.’
“We have to play better. We just have to be better on all accounts. I don’t really have another message than that.”
Following Sunday’s lackadaisical effort against the rebuilt Celtics, multiple Cavaliers spoke about needing to play with more hunger, urgency, focus and toughness. Mitchell even addressed the team in the locker room, hoping to get everyone to understand the importance of building championship habits during the regular season.
Twenty-four hours later, it seemed like the message was received loud and clear, as the Cavs put together one of their most complete performances of the season, overwhelming the lottery-bound Pacers.
Instead of building on that against a young, inexperienced Portland team playing the second night of a back-to-back, Cleveland looked like the same maddeningly inconsistent group it has been the first 23 games.
Defensive breakdowns. Minimal resistance at the point of attack. Mental lapses. Wasted possessions. Clunkiness on offense. Chucking 3s. Rebounding woes. Getting beat in transition. Slumped shoulders. Erratic effort. An over-reliance on Mitchell.
Maybe this is just who the Cavs are?
Portland ended the game with an edge in rebounding (54-45), free throw attempts (39-24), second-chance points (10-7), fast-break points (17-15), assists (27-23), bench points (46-24) and made 3s (14-13). Forty-five of the Blazers’ 85 shots came in the paint. They led for 34 minutes — the entire second half.
“I felt like in the first half we lost our spirit a bit,” Atkinson admitted. “I’m not disappointed in the guys. I’m not down on the guys. There’s none of that stuff. I think my job is to understand the big picture and have perspective. I think we’ve just got some things we’re dealing with and I kind of knew coming into the season there was going to be some struggles until we get everybody in their slots.”
The Cavs are now 13-10, seventh in the Eastern Conference. They are 4-9 against teams with a record above .500. They have a 3.1 point differential, currently behind 13 other teams. Wednesday’s setback was their fourth in the last five games.
“We can’t lose three in a row, have a promising performance against Indiana and then come out and do this,” Mitchell said pointedly. “No matter who’s out there, no matter who’s playing, no matter what we’re doing, we all have to have it. We’ve done it — and that’s what is frustrating. We’ve done it. We’ve shown it. So, let’s continue to make that a habit. Right now, we’re not where we want to be, not where we need to be. We have time. It’s December. But at some point, we gotta — as a collective — we gotta do it.”
Cleveland was once again without four rotational players — Sam Merrill (right hand sprain), Jarrett Allen (strained right finger), Larry Nance Jr. (calf strain) and Max Strus (foot surgery). Those absences continue to be felt during this rough stretch and it’s fair to wonder whether the Cavs can be the team they believe they are until some of them return.
In the meantime, the losses keep piling up and the issues have become more glaring.
“We’re going to make mistakes,” Mitchell said. “This isn’t last year. Teams are coming for us. It’s a different year. It’s going to be harder. It’s going to be more taxing. We have some guys out, so it’s going to be mentally taxing, physically taxing. We just have to be ready for that on a consistent basis.
“To be elite, to be a championship team, to be just a playoff team, you have to bring it every night, you have to have it mentally every night. We just gotta mentally take that step. If this is what it takes for us to get there, then this is what it takes. But you know, we got to do it.”
The mental aspect can’t be ignored. Mitchell has been referencing it for months. It’s a season long theme, perhaps the determining factor in an ability to compete for a title.
“We’ve had this stretch in March the past two seasons, and that was a little more concerning,” Mitchell said. “But I think now we have time to fix it. That’s the upside of this. We have time to fix it, and we will. But it’s just frustrating because it’s just like, hey, mentally, just got to push through.”
“I feel it’s an easy thing we can control right now,” Evan Mobley added. “Just having the right energy coming into each game and if things aren’t going our way, keeping that energy high and playing together. Just gotta get going. That’s the main thing. I feel like we gotta get our energy right, our spirit and get back to what we know we can be. That’s the main focus right now.”
Then again, perhaps not everything is correctable, especially if the problems persist.
Wednesday was the seventh time the Cavs had a defensive rating of 120 or worse. Despite considering themselves a defense-first team, they have fallen outside the top 10.
After going a dreadful 13 of 52 (25.0%) from beyond the arc, they now rank 22nd in 3-point shooting, hitting just 34.8% — a drastic change from 2024-25 when they finished second in that category.
The retooled — and thinned-out — bench is the league’s second least productive group. Lonzo Ball, an expected linchpin of the bench bunch, is averaging an ugly 5.7 points on 28.8% from the field and 26.9% from 3-point range. Despite those shooting woes, Ball has attempted just 14 shots in the paint (out of 111 total). His struggles have raised questions about whether Atkinson should temporarily take him out of the rotation.
“I trust him,” Atkinson said. “I want him to find that rhythm. It’s going to come. And I felt like when we made that little run in the fourth, he was part of that group, got a couple steals, got us going a little bit. You got to go with your guys. I’m going to keep going to him.”
Garland — who tallied just six points on 2 of 13 from the field and 1 of 8 from deep and then went back onto the court after the final buzzer to get some extra work — is unrecognizable following offseason toe surgery.
Most nights, opponents are dictating terms and imposing their will. They look bigger, faster and longer. More tenacious. More athletic. Hungrier.
“Can’t blame the injuries. The injuries are not an excuse, but the game is changing, and we have to adapt to it,” veteran center Thomas Bryant said. “The game is played faster. There’s a lot of things that might’ve went their way before and are not going our way right now. We just have to adjust and keep following our path throughout it all.
“It’s not going to be perfect for us in any way, shape or form. Know we have a target on our back from what these guys did last year and what they’re trying to improve this year. We just have to build that consistency day in and day out and know that it’s not going to be easy for us.”
That’s an understatement.
So, what’s the explanation? Is it as simple as pointing to who is missing and how that has impacted lineups, rotations and roles? Is it as simple as saying there’s a hangover from last year, that the Cavs watched a historic 64-win campaign implode in two wretched weeks and chose to trivialize the regular season? Is it as simple as saying the sense of urgency will come later in the year, when the calendar is closer to spring?
Or is it more complex and deeper than that?
“OKC won a championship. I’m not comparing us to them, but they’re 20-1 or whatever it is,” Mitchell explained. “There’s urgency around the league and we want to be that. We want to be at that level. I don’t know anybody else’s record, but that’s the one that stands out. We want to be a championship team. It’s not one person. It’s not two. It’s a group thing.”
“I guess if went to the conference finals or finals, you could call that a hangover,” Atkinson added. “I don’t know if you have regular season hangover. We have a lot to prove. I don’t think it’s a hangover in the sense that, ‘Oh, we had a great season, let’s just kind of relax this season.’ It’s not that. I just think we’re dealing with a lot of moving pieces right now and juggling a lot of things. We’ll get our footing. I’m confident in the group.”