Well this one certainly didn’t go the way we’d hoped, did it? Ouch. The Cavaliers drop their third straight playoff game, and go away quietly into the offseason. New York just was the better team this time. Cleveland may have been more talented on paper, but that’s where the advantages for the Cavaliers ended.
New York had all the qualities I hoped the Cavaliers would show: Heart, grit, toughness, a stubborn refusal to fold, and the ability to stick it out when things weren’t going well. But Cleveland had none of those qualities. That made me sad, honestly. When a Cleveland team truly embodies the city, those are the exact qualities they show when they go toe to toe with whoever they’re facing.
True Cleveland teams aren’t flashy. They aren’t “sexy.” But they’ll punch you in the face and give you their best shot every time they’re out there. But I saw none of that tonight. I saw glimpses of what this Cavaliers team is supposed to be, but that was only in Game 2, the lone Cleveland win in this series.
But as for tonight, where did things go wrong? Let’s take a look at the Keys to Victory.
Effort, Effort, Effort!
I shouldn’t have to keep going back to this as the top Key to Victory. Not because effort isn’t important. It’s incredibly important. But high effort, and high energy is expected in games this big. True, a team may not always have high effort all the time. Teams go through stretches. It ebbs and flows. But it seemed like Cleveland didn’t bring the effort needed to win this game, and truly compete for an entire series. The only time they brought anything close to that was in Game 2 when they won.
But they didn’t bring the necessary effort tonight. The rebounding gap between the Cavs and Knicks told that story. Overall, New York outrebounded Cleveland 48-30. But perhaps even more unsettling if you’re a Cavaliers fan, is that Cleveland snagged only four offensive rebounds all night. Four. They were outhustled for offensive rebounds 17-4. That tells me all I need to know about where this team lost the game, and ultimately the series. A team can’t get outclassed that badly on the glass, and expect to even compete let alone win in big games like this.
If I’m Koby Altman and the Cleveland front office, I’m going after a big, tough rebounding center, power forward or both. We need guys who can snag rebounds like nobody’s business. I like Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, but those two guys are incredibly soft in the paint. If they intend to keep their spots and stay in their roles next season, they need to hit the gym and add 10-15 pounds of muscle and work on their low post game. Otherwise they might both be out of a job sooner rather than later, and I don’t want to see that happen to either of them.
Earth to Donovan Mitchell: There’s a game to play!
Mitchell scored 28 points on 11-28 shooting. Not a bad night individually. But he definitely could have been better. He just didn’t seem to show the urgency, desire or ability to take the game over tonight. And those are the qualities a leader is expected to have. Especially when his team is in desperate need of a victory to keep the season alive. I don’t know how much of this was on him in this series, and how much of it is due to the Cavs’ lack of a second consistent scorer.
But either way, he needs to decompress after this. And as soon as he’s ready to work on preparing for next season, if I were in his shoes, I’d put a bug in Koby Altman’s ear to go after another consistent scorer in free agency or the Draft. Donovan Mitchell can’t do it by himself. Nor can Darius Garland. Cleveland needs another reliable scorer who can give at least 20 points a night, if there’s one out there.
Get the crowd into it!
This one never really came anywhere close to happening. The Cavaliers were never able to get into enough of a rhythm to get the crowd at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse worked up. The crowd never stayed loud enough to have an impact on the game. But it’s hard for the crowd to get excited, especially when this game played out the way that it did.
Any time Cleveland made any kind of run, the Knicks answered. Whether it was from a dagger three pointer, or another second chance rebound used to score points on the other end of the floor, the Knicks kept the home crowd quiet for the vast majority of the night. The loudest the crowd was all night, was probably when they started booing this team at the end of the game when they let another game-sealing second chance rebound slip away. It made me sad to hear people booing the Cavaliers. But I can’t say they didn’t deserve it.
Nobody ever says it, but I’ll say it right here. There is an unspoken rule when it comes to Cleveland fans, and it’s this:
No matter if the teams we support win or lose, we always expect them to work as hard as they can, and give their absolute best effort at representing Cleveland and Ohio proudly whenever they play. If the Browns, Cavaliers or Guardians do that? They will be loved and cherished by everyone no matter what happens. But when they fail to give absolutely everything they have in terms of effort, Cleveland fans aren’t afraid to let them know they’re not happy about it! Fans like us aren’t fair-weather fans. We’re just so passionate about rooting for these teams, that the least we expect them to do, is to reward how much we root for them by playing their absolute hardest and best. And it breaks our hearts when we don’t see that level of effort. People from Cleveland and Ohio are a rare breed. We’re a bunch of hard-nosed people. We expect our sports teams to embody that!
The Cavaliers now go into the offseason after an early exit from the Playoffs. Up next? The 2023 NBA Draft starting on June 22nd, with Free Agency following soon after. Cleveland has a chance to build on what was a successful season overall, even if it ended far sooner than we would’ve liked. But no matter how frustrated I was with this series, I still am and will always be, a Cleveland Cavaliers fan.
Just as I’ll always be grateful to all of you who read these articles! Thanks for always being the best fans around. The OH Report exists to serve passionate people like you!
Stats Leaders
Donovan Mitchell: 11-26, 28 points, 7 reb., 5 ast.
Darius Garland: 7-13, 21 points, 2 reb., 4 ast.
Caris LeVert: 6-13, 17 points, 5 reb., 4 ast.
Source: ESPN
Photo Credit: ESPN
