Dribbles: Cavs run short on help, energy in another loss to Knicks

Random dribbles following the Cavaliers’ 109-97 home loss to the Knicks on Saturday.

1. The Cavs looked like a team that played the night before. The Knicks looked like a team that hadn’t played since Wednesday. That doesn’t explain everything about this one, but it would be silly to pretend it explained nothing.

2. Friday, the Cavs handled a Sixers team that arrived with an 8-1 record. Saturday, they got the defending champions, who had a couple of days to rest and prepare. Meanwhile, the Cavs were missing starting center Jarrett Allen, Sam Merrill and Jaylon Tyson.

3. Sounds like excuses, doesn’t it? Well, I’ll make a few for them. That’s a tough assignment, even at home. The Cavs won’t say it, and their fans certainly won’t want to hear it. But circumstances count when you’re trying to figure out what a November loss actually tells you.

4. What this one doesn’t tell you is how a playoff series between these teams would go. The Cavs are 5-5. They have 72 games left. Nobody should feel particularly satisfied with the start, but there’s a long way between this and a final verdict.

5. Still, the Knicks were clearly the better team Saturday. They had more answers, more help for their leading scorer and enough left to keep the Cavs from making things especially uncomfortable late.

6. The first half was competitive, with 11 lead changes and five ties. Then the Knicks took control late in the second quarter and carried a double-digit lead into halftime. The Cavs never led again and fell behind by as many as 19 in the third.

7. Donovan Mitchell tried to make a game of it anyway. He finished with 37 points, including 21 of the Cavs’ 27 in the fourth quarter. That’s quite an effort. It’s also a pretty good indication that he needed more help.

8. A night earlier, the Cavs had contributions all over the place. Against the Knicks, Evan Mobley and Peyton Watson were the next-highest scorers with 12 apiece. Mitchell can do a lot, but asking him to manufacture nearly an entire fourth-quarter offense against the champs is asking an awful lot.

9. The Cavs did get within eight with about two minutes left. Then Mikal Bridges hit a jumper, the lead went back to double digits and the Cavs scored just one more point. They kept competing. They never quite made the Knicks feel as if they might lose.

10. Jalen Brunson finished with 31 points, nine assists and six rebounds. Karl-Anthony Towns added 29 points and 13 boards. OG Anunoby scored 15. That’s where Allen’s absence becomes particularly noticeable. Having another established big man to throw at Towns would have helped.

11. Merrill’s absence mattered, too. His elbow has been an issue since the preseason, and he exited Friday’s game at halftime. With Tyson still out because of an ankle injury, the Cavs were short on perimeter options as well. Those missing minutes have to go somewhere, especially on consecutive nights.

12. None of that means the Cavs couldn’t have played better. They could have. But after Friday’s performance, this felt more like a shorthanded team running low on energy against a very good opponent than proof that nothing has changed since last spring.

13. The schedule keeps coming. The Cavs begin a three-game trip Monday at Charlotte, with tipoff set for 7 p.m. Then it’s another meeting with the Knicks, followed by the Heat. Welcome to life in the NBA.

14. Ten games in, the Cavs have given everyone reasons to be encouraged and reasons to be annoyed. A split against the Sixers and Knicks this weekend isn’t a disaster. Now they need to get some bodies back, take the good stuff on the road and start putting together more than one good night at a time.