Dribbles: Cavs Deliver Another Stinker, Drop Second Straight To Hawks. What Now?

November 29, 2024

Random dribbles from the Cavaliers’ embarrassment of a 117-101 road loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday. …

1. The Cavaliers can beat just about everyone else, but they cannot beat the Atlanta Hawks. They don’t even look like they come remotely close to matching up with Atlanta.

2. Donovan Mitchell (12 points) gave his worst showing as a Cavalier. He finished 5-of-23 shooting. What in the world? Mitchell did give effort and he did snare 11 rebounds. But he just didn’t have it on offense.

3. So the Cavs (17-3) have lost two straight and are out of the running for the NBA Cup quarterfinals. After a 15-0 start, the Cavs are 2-3.

4. Oh, and the only other team to beat them is in town on Sunday. That would be no less than the reigning champion Boston Celtics.

5. Translation: The Cavs had better find something, anything that works. Because whatever they were doing at the start of the season has suddenly vanished.

6. At the start of the year, the Cavs couldn’t miss. Now every shot is an adventure. It’s almost like they’re just hoping it goes in. What’s happened?

7. This sort of stuff happens in the NBA. But how the Cavs went from world-beaters to … well, whatever this is … well, it’s a little bit of a mystery.

8. The Cavs trailed by just two points (52-50) at halftime. They allowed Atlanta to go on a major run in the third quarter and never recovered. The Cavs have played the Hawks worse than any team in a long time.

9. This was just a basketball bloodbath. De’Andre Hunter. Trae Young. Rookie Zaccharie Risacher. Name the Hawk, and they did mostly whatever they wanted.

10. The Hawks led 91-73 at the end of the third. Meanwhile, the Cavs stood around just complaining to the refs. This was the Cavs at their worst. One game after their previous worst.

11. Fortunately for them, they don’t face the mighty Hawks (9-11) again until January 30. Atlanta has now swept two games from the Cavs, beat the Celtics in Boston … and are also responsible for the Wizards’ lone two wins. (Washington is 2-15.) Yeah, I don’t get it, either.

12. Except this is the NBA. Thankfully for the entire league, there are about 60 games to go. Whatever ails you now doesn’t have to last for long.

13. Hunter just has abused the Cavs in two games. And I do mean abused — doing whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. In this one, he finished 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Young scored 21 with 11 assists. Jalen Johnson scored 20 on 9-of-14 from the field. Atlanta just put on a clinic.

14. Along with everything else, the Cavs are just fouling too much. Too many of them are downright silly, maybe lazy. They say they know that.

15. If it wasn’t for Darius Garland (29 points) the Cavs might have lost by 30. Evan Mobley also kept it close in the first half. He finished the game with 24 points, 12 rebounds and seven dunks.

16. In each of the last two games, the Hawks were just more active. They beat the Cavs to every loose ball and made every hustle play. It was just a complete meltdown for Cleveland. No one had an answer. Not even coach Kenny Atkinson.

17. It’s hard to believe the Cavaliers led by eight points in the first quarter. They led Wednesday’s game by 19. They lost both. In this one, they gave up 39 points in the third.

18. Now, there’s no reason to panic over a team that has lost just three of 20 games. But the Cavs need to find some resolve and probably find a way to beat Boston on Sunday.

19. They can’t let doubt start creeping in. Losing streaks can do that. A win over the Celtics would help them forget all about this two-game slide and get things very much back on track.