The Cleveland Cavaliers are heading into Monday night’s matchup with the Indiana Pacers severely shorthanded - and with more than just a few questions to answer. Six players have already been ruled out: Darius Garland, Lonzo Ball, Jarrett Allen, Sam Merrill, Max Strus, and Larry Nance Jr. That’s a sizable chunk of their core rotation, and it couldn’t come at a more precarious time.
Cleveland is coming off a narrow 117-115 home loss to the Boston Celtics on Sunday, a game that slipped through their fingers late. That loss marked their third straight, and the frustration is starting to bubble to the surface - not just in the standings, but in the locker room too.
At 12-9, the Cavs are still above water, but the numbers tell a story of a team stuck in neutral. They rank 13th in points per game, 14th in points allowed, 13th in offensive rating, 10th in defensive rating, and 13th in net rating.
In other words, they’re hovering right around the middle of the pack in just about every major metric. For a team that entered the season with real aspirations, that’s not where they want to be.
After Sunday’s loss, Evan Mobley didn’t sugarcoat it. “We gotta just bring it every time we step on the floor.
Every second of the game, we can’t let up,” he said. That urgency has been missing lately, especially in crunch time.
Jaylon Tyson echoed that sentiment, calling out the team’s lack of execution. “We see it, we talk about it over and over again.
We’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do that, and we just don’t execute. So that’s on us,” he said.
“We gotta find a way to win these games.”
This isn’t just about a rough patch in December - it’s about a group that’s been knocking on the door for a while but hasn’t broken through. Last season, Cleveland grabbed the No. 1 seed in the East and swept the Miami Heat in the first round, only to fall to the Pacers in five games in the second. That core of Mobley, Garland, Allen, and Donovan Mitchell has yet to lead the franchise beyond the second round, and the pressure is mounting to change that narrative.
If things don’t turn around soon, there could be bigger conversations looming in the offseason. President of Basketball Operations Koby Altman has shown a willingness to make bold moves before - and if this group doesn’t meet expectations, he may be forced to do it again.
For now, though, the focus is on Indiana. And while the Pacers have struggled mightily - sitting at just 4-16 - this is no time for Cleveland to take anything lightly, especially with so many key players sidelined. The margin for error is razor-thin.
Mobley summed it up best: “Everyone wants to be better, everyone wants to win, everyone wants to be the best we can be but right now we’re not. We got to find a way on how we’re going to fix that. Frustration might help, honestly, a little bit.”
The Cavaliers aren’t just battling opponents right now - they’re battling themselves. And if they want to get back to being a serious threat in the East, it starts with rediscovering that edge, even when the deck is stacked against them.