The Cavaliers are only three games into the season, but they’ve already run through a full range of emotions. They’ve let a big lead slip away, nearly did it again, and then dug out of a 15-point hole to beat the Timberwolves in overtime Monday. That’s a lot of drama for October.
Donovan Mitchell summed up the experience with a dry line after Cleveland’s 127-125 win.
“It’s not easy, is it?”
No, apparently it isn’t. But for a Cavs team that opened 2-1, coach Kenny Atkinson sounds like he’s welcoming the pressure rather than running from it. Cleveland gets another tough assignment Wednesday night, when the Wizards come to Rocket Arena for a 7 p.m. tipoff.
Washington is bringing more than a usual early-season trip. The Wizards have Trae Young and Anthony Davis, and No. 1 overall pick AJ Dybantsa could also be in line to make his NBA debut.
He missed the first four games with a sprained ankle, but has been upgraded to questionable. Wizards coach Brian Keefe said the rookie is making encouraging progress, according to Rookie Wire.
For Atkinson, the early schedule has already felt like a crash course in high-stakes basketball.
“I’ve felt like we played two and a half playoff games already, which is great, which is what the NBA wants,” Atkinson said. “There’s going to be no easy games.
It’s going to be a battle. It doesn’t matter who you play.
Brooklyn gave us a tussle. Minnesota is an elite team in this league.
It’s just going to be that way every night. All three games we’re getting great training for pressure situations.”
The Minnesota game was the latest reminder that Cleveland can’t assume anything, even with talent and expectation on its side. The Cavs were shaky in the first half, down 10 at intermission and later behind by 15 before they finally settled in.
“It was kind of the reverse of our first two games,” Atkinson said. “It’s like, well, we’re down 10 and we should have been down 20 the way we were playing. We got a little lucky, but we kept our composure.”
A major part of the turnaround came from rookie guard Meleek Thomas, who delivered 16 points in 19 minutes in his NBA debut. Thomas said afterward that he knew his chance would come.
“You can’t really keep a star in the closet for too long,” Thomas said. “Knew my time was going to come eventually and I knew that when it did I was going to be ready and I was just ecstatic to be out there.”
His energy changed the tone, and the Cavs noticed.
“It started with Meleek, honestly,” Evan Mobley said. “He came out with the energy, knocking down shots, playing defense, getting steals, running the floor and everyone just hopped on the bandwagon.”
Mitchell said the rookie gave Cleveland a jolt it badly needed.
“It’s very rare to ride the coattails of a rookie going into the half,” he said. “We didn’t have energy.
We were flat. We were playing the wrong way.
And for him to be the spark in his first game of the year, that’s not normal. He made the most out of his moment.”
Cleveland also leaned on its veterans and late-game defense to finish the job. Mitchell and James Harden each hit clutch baskets, Mobley knocked down four 3-pointers, and Peyton Watson delivered a huge late block on Anthony Edwards.
That kind of sequence is the stuff contenders lean on. And after the Cavs stumbled through their first two games - including leads of 22 and 29 that got away - Monday’s finish offered a much cleaner feeling.
“The roles were reversed this time,” Mobley said. “We wanted to come out and prove a point that not every game’s the same. Some games don’t go your way the first half and you’ve got to fight through all 48 minutes and figure out how to come up with a win.”
Still, Cleveland would probably prefer fewer heartburn games and a little less improvisation. The first three contests have already shown how quickly things can turn, and that’s exactly why Atkinson sees value in them.
The next one comes quickly, and it doesn’t look like a breather. With Young, Davis and possibly Dybantsa in the mix, the Wizards could make Wednesday another test for a Cavs team that’s learning on the fly.
In Other News...
Peyton Watson Is Giving The Cavs Something They May Really Need
Amid the early-season chaos around the league, Peyton Watson has given Cleveland a different kind of lift in a recent overtime win, the sort that tends to matter more when games tighten and possessions get ugly. The Cavaliers have plenty of scorers they can lean on, but Watsons value showed up in the areas that dont always make the highlight reel, with his activity helping swing momentum on both ends while the team keeps sorting out its rotation.
The offense still has a bit of a project attached to it, though, and that is the piece Cleveland will keep watching as the sample grows. Watsons size and defensive energy are already giving the Cavaliers something they can build on, but the next question is whether his shot becomes reliable enough to make him more than a situational weapon as the season moves along. [Read more 🡒]
Cavaliers Win Still Exposed A Frustrating Problem Mobley And Allen Haven't Fixed
The Cavaliers got the overtime win they needed against Minnesota, but the box score still pointed to a nagging problem that has followed them at times this season. Even with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen anchoring the front line, Cleveland was hurt on the defensive glass, and the Wolves extra chances kept possessions alive in a way that made the game far harder than it should have been.
For a team built to defend at a high level, the issue goes beyond two big men doing their job. Rebounding on the defensive end has to be a full-team task, with guards and wings helping close possessions before they turn into second opportunities, and this one offered another reminder that the Cavaliers still have work to do there if they want to make wins look cleaner. [Read more 🡒]
Cavs Win Just Sparked An Officiating Debate Fans Will Be Talking About
The Cavaliers overtime win over the Timberwolves is already the kind of result that gets replayed, but the NBAs Last Two Minute Report added another layer to the discussion. The league identified two officiating mistakes that worked in Clevelands favor, while also backing several other calls from the final stretch, including the non-flagrant ruling on Donovan Mitchell and a foul on Jaden McDaniels.
What stood out most was how thin the margins were late, when every whistle can reshape a games finish. The report said a key call should have gone the other way on the final possession of regulation, and it also marked an overtime foul involving Mitchell and LaMelo Ball as incorrect because the contact was deemed incidental, leaving plenty for fans to debate even after the result is in the books. [Read more 🡒]