CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cavs are past the quarter mark of the season, sitting at 12-9 and lodged in the play-in tier with the seventh seed.
As head coach Kenny Atkinson put it, “the sky is not falling.” Not when the organization entered the year prepared to absorb injuries and willing to sacrifice early wins to strengthen the long-term process.
But what they didn’t plan for, and what’s starting to gnaw at both fans and players, is how often they walk onto the court without the sharpness, urgency or hunger that championship teams carry as their baseline.
The latest example came Sunday night. Boston was without two of its best players, played the second half of a back-to-back and still built a 21-point lead on Cleveland before holding on 117-115. The Cavs are now on a three-game losing streak.
Even without five role players, Cleveland still had enough to tilt the matchup. What they didn’t have was the will to use it.
“We gotta just bring it every time we step on the floor. Every second of the game, we can’t let up,” Evan Mobley said after dropping 27 points and grabbing 14 rebounds.
“We could sit here and say we’re frustrated. We’re all professionals here. We just gotta do our job,” Jaylon Tyson added. ”Everybody’s gotta do their job, right? 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, and we gotta find a way to win these games.”
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This is not a new diagnosis.
The Cavaliers dealt with the same pattern a season ago — long stretches of inconsistent focus, games that got too close because leads became invitations for opponents to believe. But back then, Cleveland was usually the one up 20.
This year, they’re the ones trying to claw back. And the playoff collapse last spring wasn’t about talent; it was about a team that admitted it lacked the mental toughness needed to advance.
Even depleted, the Celtics still play with the kind of internal fortitude forged through deep postseason scars. This version of the Cavs hasn’t built that identity yet.
“I just think we’re in cruise control,” Tyson said. ”As a team, I think that we’re not hungry enough. What happened to us last year, it’s a similar thing that’s happening this year. Getting ran out the gym. Getting beat on the glass. Toughness, right? So, I mean, it’s just a common theme, and ultimately it’s on us to fix it.
“We have three of some of the best players in the NBA. Our starting five, I’ll put them up with anybody in the NBA. One of the most talented teams in the NBA. But talent don’t win championships. It’s all the little stuff, the grittiness, the hunger. I feel like that’s what wins championships.”
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Cavaliers guard Jaylon Tyson (20) tries to block a shot by Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) during NBA action between the Boston Celtics at the Cleveland Cavaliers in Rocket Arena on Sunday, November 30, 2025.David Petkiewicz, cleveland.com
The Cavs haven’t been past the Eastern Conference semifinals since LeBron James walked out the building. They don’t have the pedigree to cruise, even if their roster construction depicts a team filled with talent. They haven’t earned that luxury.
Especially when their approach hasn’t matched the standards of a team with championship aspirations.
The starters, the stars, the players whose résumés top the scouting reports — those are the ones easing into games, waiting for the late punch that sometimes arrives and often doesn’t.
Whether defenses are forcing the ball out of their hands or an intentional effort to pace themselves, the result is the same. Too much coasting, not enough dictating.
If the regular season is supposed to be the lab for postseason growth, Cleveland can’t have its best players playing with a clock set to the final 12 minutes.
Too often, the bench is the group dragging the team into the fight. They’re the ones flipping momentum, raising the building’s energy, forcing the stars to match a level they should be setting.
When the gap between 100% and 75% is visible, it becomes the storyline.
“It’s up to all of us to feed off their energy,” Tyson said of the bench group. “It should never be, like [Donovan] said it, the young guys and the role players, like, it shouldn’t be us having to bring energy every time, right? Everybody has to bring energy. Everybody has to pour into this thing.”
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Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) reacts after mishandling a tipped ball from Cavaliers center Evan Mobley (4) during NBA action between the Boston Celtics at the Cleveland Cavaliers in Rocket Arena on Sunday, November 30, 2025.David Petkiewicz, cleveland.com
As Tyson spoke, Donovan Mitchell sat at his locker listening. Staring ahead. Processing. He knows the opportunity in front of him, especially while playing at an MVP pace. And yet, it hasn’t been enough. Not because of what he’s doing, but because of what the Cavs aren’t doing around him.
Yes, injuries matter. But returns aren’t magic. Reintegration takes time, and frustration doesn’t evaporate when bodies come back.
Atkinson asked for 25 games before any real evaluation. He’s almost there, and the Cavs are looking in their own mirror anyway. And they don’t like what they see.
Even though their record after 82 games might not matter as much to this team, they still all have the same end goal in mind. A championship. They’ve said so repeatedly. But wanting and becoming are different things, and the space between them is defined by accountability.
“Everyone wants to be better, everyone wants to win, everyone wants to be the best we can be but right now we’re not,” Mobley said. ”We got to find a way on how we’re going to fix that. Frustration might help, honestly, a little bit.”
The “soft” label has stuck to this group since the Knicks shoved them out of the 2023 playoffs. Last season’s exit to Indiana only strengthened the perception. Players acknowledged after last postseason and even into training camp that they weren’t mentally strong enough in that Pacers series.
This season’s adversity could help shape if they’re ready for a different outcome in the playoffs. But that only matters if the Cavs respond with urgency — not with hope that a healthier roster will arrive like a life raft.
Throughout the locker room, players talk about refusing to let opponents “punk them.” A phrase that captures both mental toughness and physical intensity. They know toughness can’t just be conceptual. It has to show up in the collisions, the chases, the battles that define possessions long before the ball goes through a net.
“Compete,” Tyson said simply when asked how to find that gear for 48 minutes. “Want it more than the other team. I feel like teams want it more than us. There’s a target on a lot of our guys’ backs ... it’s everybody’s job to go at it. You want to come at us, let’s go. Let’s make this a dog fight. That’s how you combat it.”
Because the most troubling signs aren’t in the sets or the schemes. They’re in the habits, the lapses, the miscues that no system can cover. Transition defense that invites teams to run. Rebounding possessions that end with opponents celebrating on Cleveland’s floor. The moments when someone needs to act, and everyone waits instead.
There are too many blueprints to beat the Cavaliers right now.
Too many ways to expose the same pressure points their past playoff failures already revealed. And maybe Mobley is right. Maybe a little frustration is the only way to force evolution. Because the Cavs can’t wait for a perfect bill of health that may never come. They have to decide who they want to be with the group in front of them.
And they have to do it before the season decides for them.