The Land on Demand

Game Night Observations: No Mitchell, Big Problems

Cavaliers head coach JB Bickerstaff. ESPN Cleveland

Cavaliers head coach JB Bickerstaff. ESPN Cleveland

Game Night Observations: No Mitchell, Big Problems

As of Friday, December 9, 2022

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 Danny Cunningham covers the Cleveland Cavaliers for 850 ESPN Cleveland and TheLandOnDemand.com

“Nothing.”

That’s how Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff responded when asked what happened to the team’s offense down the stretch of its 105-96 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Friday night.

The Cavaliers were without three of their rotation players, as All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell missed the game with right lower leg soreness, Kevin Love was held out due to a sore back, and Dean Wade continues to miss time with a shoulder injury. Even with that, the Cavaliers found themselves in what should have been a good spot, leading the Kings 95-87 with 4:50 left in the fourth quarter.

From there on out, the Kings outscored the Cavaliers 19-0.

“We didn't execute well enough,” Bickerstaff said. “Couldn't create for one another, and then we had shots we turned down that I thought were open. So, we didn't do a good job of closing.”

This loss is the latest example of the Cavaliers struggling offensively late in games. It hasn’t been much of an issue lately for the Cavs, but something that really weighed them down early in the season, specifically during their five-game losing streak.

Friday’s loss was arguably the worse loss the Cavaliers have had this season. Especially considering the game took place at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, where the team had been a league-best 11-1 at home.

There can be a number of different reasons to point to as why the Cavaliers lost, but the biggest one that cannot be ignored is that Mitchell was on the sidelines. While his play certainly would not have guaranteed a win, it becomes much more difficult to envision the Cavaliers going scoreless for almost five minutes to close out a game when he’s on the floor.

Darius Garland, who finished with 19 points and six assists, and Caris LeVert, who had a game-high 22 points, six rebounds, and six assists, didn’t do enough to bring the game home.

Nights like this one are why the Cavaliers obtained Mitchell via trade this offseason. He’s the guy they can lean on down the stretch of these games, of which there will be plenty more. Obviously, Garland, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen are vitally important for the Cavaliers and have to be great for this team to reach where it wants to go. Friday night showed that Mitchell is indispensable to this team.

Maybe one day, that’s not the case, but in the present it is. Even if Friday night was an extreme case of not being able to operate offensively with Mitchell on the floor, it’s still evidence for how important he is. Even on a night when the team got more than it has been lately from LeVert, it still wasn’t enough without Mitchell.

That’s a scary place for a team to live.

With that said, it’s where the Cavaliers live in the middle of December. It’s not where they are promised to be in March, April, and May. There’s time for this to get fixed, and hope that circumstances can be better health-wise when the games really matter.

Right now, however, it’s obvious that Mitchell is the team’s closer, even with as good as Garland is as an All-Star in his own right. It’s hard to win games without the best player on the team on the floor, and that was on display against the Kings.

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