The Cleveland Cavaliers enter tonight’s game against the Indiana Pacers having lost three of their last four contests, all of which were against teams chasing them in both the Eastern Conference and Central Division standings.
Although the Cavaliers (41-17) still hold a two-game lead over the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference standings and a 10.5-game edge over the Pacers in the Central Division, after a 113-99 loss to the Washington Wizards Sunday, shooting guard J.R. Smith knows to stay in front and head into the playoffs on a positive note, the current struggles have to stop…and quickly.
“We can’t play basketball like this going down the stretch,” Smith said following the loss to the Wizards. “There’s 24, 25 games left in the year and you talk about contending, being a championship contender and get blown out by a team. After losing a game to the No. 2 team in the East, then you come out and get thrashed and make it look good at the end.
“We can’t do that. If we’re serious about who we’re supposed to be, then we can’t do this.”
Heading into Sunday’s game against the Wizards, the Cavaliers had an opportunity to rebound from a loss to the Raptors, which gave them a tiebreaker over Cleveland.
The Cavaliers held a 10-point lead over the Raptors after the first quarter and four-point edge heading into halftime. But after building up the lead to nine heading into the fourth quarter, the Cavaliers managed just 20 points over the final 12 minutes of play and suffered the two-point loss.
Rather than building themselves back up from the loss to the Raptors, the Cavaliers imploded in the first half and never recovered against the Wizards.
“If you lose a game like the other night to a team like Toronto and come out here and play the way we did and you had a lack of energy, maybe we shouldn’t be in this position,” Smith said. “I don’t know. It’s tough. If we’re going to play with a lack of energy after losing a game on the road and come out and play the way we did today, then we shouldn’t be who we are and be in these uniforms.”
The Cavaliers played Sunday’s game against the Wizards without small forward LeBron James, who was given a day of rest on the first night of a back-to-back, and the lack of intensity without the on-court leader came as a surprise to point guard Kyrie Irving.
“For sure. For sure,” Irving said when asked if the lack of intensity was surprising. “Our top leader isn’t playing tonight. It’s another opportunity for guys to step in and relish that opportunity, but our intensity level just wasn’t there.
“It’s very deflating, but for us, we have to have more of a resilient attitude, and guys like myself just have to be accountable and kind of forcing the pace in the third quarter. When you come out and Otto Porter hits back-to-back-to-back threes, it’s definitely deflating, but we have to have more of a positive outlook coming out at halftime, even if they’re making shots.”
Heading into tonight’s game against the Pacers, Irving believes the Cavaliers need to “continue to trust our defense” if they hope to right the ship and get back on course coming down the stretch of the regular season.
“I feel like we were just really hugged up and we were a step slow coming up on our defensive breakdowns,” Irving said. “For them coming in, playing small ball, having Jared Dudley at the four, it put us in a lot of mismatched opportunities. We’ve just got to stay locked in and stay to our defensive schemes.”
