The Cavaliers have 15 games left. Nine of those games will be against teams that were in the playoffs as of Monday night.
What’s to prevent a repeat of Monday night’s 111-90 manhandling by the Indiana Pacers nine more times, starting Wednesday night against Miami, which has won 23 straight games?
“Heart,” said C.J. Miles who led the Cavs with 21 points on his 26th birthday. “Toughness.
“Either you’re going to lay down, or you’re going to swing back. It’s plain and simple.”
It would seem to be plain and simple, but how many times have the Cavs said the same thing after yet another double-digit loss? After another third-quarter meltdown? After another team pushes them around another time?
Monday’s loss was the Cavs third to the Pacers this season, and all of them have been by 10 points or more. In fact, with the loss, their third straight, the Cavs dropped to 22-45, and 21 of those losses have been by 10 points or more.
Too many of them have been like Monday night’s, where the Cavs are out of it almost from the opening tip. Too many times, the Cavs seem to take them in stride. They’re young, they say. They’re learning, they say.
Asked if he was embarrassed by his team’s performance on Monday, coach Byron Scott said, “No, not really. We played a very good team that’s playing for something special, [that] came out and took it to us right from the get-go. We’re going to face that in the next 10 games probably eight more times. It’s more of how we react to it.”
So react already. Shouldn’t somebody blow a gasket in the locker room once in a while? Break a chalkboard? Throw a sandwich?
The closest anybody got to being testy after Monday night’s debacle was Tristan Thompson, who finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
Asked if the Pacers were just that much better than the Cavs, he snapped, “Are they that much better? No. Were they the better team tonight? Yes. We play them again soon. We’ll see who’s the better team.”
Thompson did own up to the fact that the Pacers, without David West (back) and Danny Granger (knee), dominated inside. They outrebounded the Cavs, 57-45, and outscored them in the paint, 42-26, and on second-chance points, 22-15. Tyler Hansbrough, starting for West, finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Gerald Green had 20 points, including four 3-pointers, as the Pacers improved to 41-26.
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