The month of February has not been very good for the Cavaliers(10-17). The Cavaliers are currently 1-6 this month and are on a six-game losing streak, including last night’s 129-110 road loss to the Blazers(15-10).
Cleveland is 0-3 on their five-game road trip and has been blown out in their last two games, including a 133-95 loss to the Nuggets on Wednesday night. Cleveland has two more games left on this trip and will play the Clippers on Sunday night, who blew out the Cavs earlier this month in Cleveland.
According to Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, teams are jumping on Cleveland early because they know the team is struggling.
“Obviously, we’re going through a rough patch at a tough time against very good teams,” Bickerstaff said. “These teams are coming out, playoffs teams that are hungry for every win. They know that we’re in the rut, and they’re trying to jump on us early to not give us any confidence. So, we just have to keep competing, we have to stay together, and we have to figure it out.”
Defense has been an issue for the Cavs during this six-game losing streak. Cleveland is allowing 124 points per game in those six losses. Before the losing streak, the Cavaliers were allowing 108.1 points per game, so at this point, Cleveland’s defense is a problem, which Bickerstaff discussed.
“It’s a little bit of us fighting human nature,” he said. “When things go wrong offensively, not putting in the same collective effort on the defensive end of the floor, and we just can’t afford do that. We gotta be scrappy; we gotta protect the paint, we gotta challenge shots, we gotta be more physical, and let the offensive come to us.”
Andre Drummond, who had eight points and five rebounds against Portland, believes this adversity is a big test for this team.
“We just have to find the will, the will to do it,” Drummond said. “We’re playing really good teams right now, playoff teams, championship-contending teams. This is a great test for us as a young team to go against these teams and see where we are. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do.”
Notes:
Collin Sexton tallied a team-high 25 PTS (8-16 FG, 8-9 FT), 3 REB, 5 AST, and 2 STL at Portland on Friday, his second 20+ PT outing this road trip. On the season, Sexton has scored 20+ PTS on 15 of his 22 appearances this season, which includes a 27-point performance in the first meeting against the Clippers on Feb. 3.
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