These Cleveland Cavaliers are up for debate. Yes, the team won in convincing fashion over the Portland Trail Blazers on the road. It was a final score of 122-111 and it’s great to see them when like that so what could possibly be wrong?
It’s the Donovan Mitchell issue. He was listed as OUT with “injury management” and it’s a left groin deal that was cited for the game that he did not play in against Portland.
Now, I certainly get the idea of keeping a player out who is injured, but what makes injury management a true reason to keep players out? The problem is that this Cavaliers team has to make sure they are completely ready for playoff basketball in the coming weeks. So how does that continue to be possible when their star player isn’t even in the lineup?
It makes the win over Portland almost meaningless because the team continues to not “gel” so to speak, as a group. Even at 58-14 on the season, there are so many questions that many experts have on the Cavs as we look toward the postseason and a potential run to the Finals. Many aren’t even afraid of playing against them. It’s best to have all players active and ready, getting prepared together as a unit.
Let’s get all the players out there for the rest of the season winning games together to be as best prepared for the playoffs as possible.
Even so, it was nice to see others step up, like Sam Merrill, who got the start and played 29 minutes with 14 points on 5-7 from the floor. But that type of performance is simply conflicting because, well, the star wasn’t even playing. So, how does the team get even better without playing as a complete unit?
It’s at this point that these Cavaliers are really going to have to begin to prove themselves as a whole. It would be nice for the entire roster to be ready to go and prepared together as one. This being without any lingering issues keeping them out because of this unit playing together idea before that big date.
At 58-14, the Cavs have 10 games left in the regular season. Those need to be played with the full roster as possible. This makes the team as playoff-ready as possible. Let’s make that happen.
