The Cleveland Cavaliers grabbed a much-needed 130-126 win over the Washington Wizards, but this was hardly a step in the right direction.
Donovan Mitchell said afterward that this was a good and bad win.
“Yeah, we pulled it off and figured it out, but we can’t be in this situation,” Mitchell said to Serena Winters after the game.
It’s difficult to completely disagree with Mitchell. It’s good that the Cavs played with the resiliency they needed to in the fourth quarter to overcome a 17-point second-half deficit. But was it the team that was resilient, or was it just Mitchell?
Mitchell continued his MVP-caliber season. He refused to let his team lose by nearly outscoring Washington all by himself with 24 fourth-quarter points. Mitchell relentlessly attacked the basket as he went 8-9 inside the restricted area. This was coupled with being a deadly shooter off the dribble. He canned 8-of-his-15 attempts from beyond the arc. It’s not exactly difficult to see how he ended up with a season-high 48 points.
More than the scoring, it was Mitchell’s unwavering commitment to winning this game that kept the Cavs going. He played like someone incapable of accepting that his team could lose to the injured, three-win Wizards. This showed up in how he fought for loose balls and competed on the defensive end. It also stood in stark contrast to many of his teammates.
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The Cavaliers have gone as Mitchell has this season. They’re now 8-1 when he scores 35 or more points and 7-10 when he scores less or doesn’t play. This includes being 0-4 when Mitchell registers 21 points or fewer.
While it’s encouraging that Mitchell is playing the best basketball of his career, the team with the highest payroll in the league shouldn’t be relying this heavily on one player. This is especially so when they’re going against the worst team in the league.
Things may be worse for the Cavs than we realized. Typically, teams that have nearly a week off and spend the time talking about how they’re refocusing usually show a little more effort than this.
Head coach Kenny Atkinson led a lively film session that highlighted just how poorly his players were on the defensive end. He called them out individually, which prompted a player-led meeting afterward.
The Wizards came into this game with the 29th-ranked offense and were without their top scorer in Alex Sarr. You would think this would all add up to a good defensive showing from Cleveland. Instead, they turned in arguably their worst defensive performance of the season.
The Cavs were getting repeatedly blown by at the point of attack. This was especially true for the guards as Bub Carrington, who came into this game averaging 7 points on 35% shooting, went off for 27 points on 5-7 shooting inside the arc. CJ McCollum also contributed 27 points while going 7-11 on twos.
This all added up to the Wizards registering their third-highest single-game offensive rating of the season.
“Well, my defensive film session did not work too well in the way we played defense,” Atkinson said. “We got to play better defense if we’re going to do something this year.”
Darius Garland still doesn’t look right. He was outplayed by Washington’s backcourt as he struggled to stay with them on the perimeter.
The lateral quickness still isn’t there after this summer’s toe surgery. This shows up in his inability to navigate screens as well as he has in the past, or simply stay in front of his opponent. Garland has never been an elite defender, but he showed last season that he can be good for his size. He won’t be able to reach that level again unless his mobility increases.
This also affects his offense. Even though Garland went 6-6 inside the arc on Friday, the shiftiness still isn’t to the level it was during his All-Star campaigns. His entire offensive game relies on the ability to manipulate defenses and create space off-the-dribble. Throw in another off-night shooting (0-11 from three), and you have someone who still looks out of place.
The Cavs need Garland at his best if they’re going to reach their ceiling. We saw how important he was to the team last postseason when they didn’t have him at 100%. While Garland is moving significantly better than he was last spring, it still seems far off from how he played all of last season.
Offensively, the Cavaliers are still settling for too many threes. They shot 15-53 (28.3%) from beyond the arc against Washington. These types of numbers have usually produced losses this season. The Cavs are now 2-5 when they attempt 48 or more threes and 2-4 when they shoot 30% or worse.
The offense remains out of balance or even backwards. The most frustrating part of all this is that the Cavs’ offense was great last season. They took a lot of threes, but they did so from off-ball movement and sharing the ball. This year’s offense has often felt stagnant and has primarily looked to move the ball from side to side instead of getting downhill, as was the case on Friday.
Things aren’t right with this group. This was supposed to be the game the Cavs refocused and took care of the worst team in the league. Instead, they came out flat, didn’t play defense, and delivered arguably their worst overall performance of the season minus Mitchell.
Each showing like this makes it more difficult to believe this team will ever turn it around. We’re too far into the season to just excuse games like this, even if the team continues to battle injuries. Something is just off. And there isn’t a simple solution that will fix everything.
At least the Cavs left this one with a win.
