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After an impressive win over the Magic the Cavs take their talents, such as they are, to South Beach. Both the Cavs and Heat sport 12-9 records; the Heat are 5-3 at home while the Cavs are 6-3 on the road. These teams played in Cleveland on Nov. 22 with the Heat destroying the Cavs 129-96. However, the Cavs had beaten the Sixers in overtime the previous night in Philadelphia and were exhausted while the Heat had the day off. Donovan Mitchell did not play and the end of the Cavs’ bench (Merrill, I. Mobley, Banes, etc) played 67 minutes. Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo were out for Miami but it didn’t matter. Jarrett Allen, wiped out from jousting with Embiid the night before, had 4 points in 23 minutes and the rest of the starters were...

Can this Cavs team show up more often? It wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t always pretty, but it was much more along the lines how everyone expected this team to play. They had five players in doubt digits, competed (more) on defense, and the starting backcourt had 61 points, 15 assists and 4 turnovers. More of that please. Starting out, you thought it might be another one of those quarters. We’ve talked about the Cavs sluggish defensive starts, and being near the bottom of the league in first quarter defense. The Magic scored 10 of their first 12 points in the paint. It looked that way, and then things turned around. While the Magic were getting in the paint, the Cavs were pretty active and attentive defensively. But what really turned the...

Let’s address the elephant in the room: Yeah, the Donovan Mitchell contract saga is and will be a little awkward. Mitchell has two more guaranteed years on his deal with a player option in 2025/2026. He can be a free agent as early as two years’ time and the window to trade Mitchell to recoup value is next year. So, the fork in the road is quickly approaching. The discussion of a star player leaving Cleveland for greener pastures isn’t a new one. Cavs fans were ever used to it during the first LeBron James tenure and became more accepting of such discussions during his return. Guardians fans known it’s a formality once a homegrown player reaches a certain level of stardom that it’s only a matter of time until a prospect haul is...

If the Cavs were a rollercoaster, it’s not one I’d want to ride. Going 6-2, then losing to a lowly Blazers team at home, and to being down 8 deep into the second half versus a team that didn’t win in the month of November, is quite the ride. They managed to squeak out a 9-point victory (bad teams stay bad) but it was anything but revitalizing. The Pistons started out by pounding the paint, and challenging the Cavs inside the arc. While the Cavs are overall strong paint defensive team, they’ve been more susceptible to paint scoring to start games which goes against what you’d think would happen having Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley on the floor. In the 1st quarter of their last 15 games, the Cavs rank 22nd in points in the paint allowed...

The Cavs hit the road with the first game in Detroit where the 2-17 Pistons have lost 16 straight games. There’s not much to be said and anyone who wants to stop reading here is certainly excused. The Pistons are in a death spiral. These teams played in Cleveland two weeks ago and the Cavs, without Donovan Mitchell, prevailed by a 108-100 score. The Pistons had a mind boggling 18 offensive rebounds which kept the game fairly close. Fortunately the Pistons were just 9-for-35 on 3’s and committed 17 turnovers. The Cavs shot 51% overall and 43% on 3’s but took nine fewer shots than the Pistons thanks to all the offensive rebounds. Two days ago the Pistons lost on the road to the Knicks by just six points, so they aren’t throwing in the...

If the Cavs are consistent at one thing it’s being inconsistent. After finally starting a game strong, and being up by as much 16 in the first half, they fell flat. The Cavs went down by 12 in the 4th quarter and they dug themselves too deep of a hole to get out of. To see how the Cavs started the game versus how they ended the game is night and day. They held the Blazers to 40 first half points, and were attentive on the defensive end out the gate. They were forcing Blazer turnovers and capitalizing on those opportunities. Darius Garland was getting into the paint early for easy looks to Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, and then.. it just kind of stopped. The Cavs had the paint advantage for most of the night but went away from it. On a...