CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cavs’ 99-94 loss to an injury-ravaged Warriors team on Saturday sparked one of the sharpest debates between host Ethan Sands and Cavs beat reporter Chris Fedor on the latest Wine and Gold Talk podcast.
Takeaways:
1. The Loss Was Labeled the “Worst of the Season” by Fedor
While Sands initially argued the loss was a product of bad shooting luck, Fedor argued that this was the Cavs’ worst loss of the season. His conclusion was based on the context surrounding the game: it came immediately after a significant, morale-boosting win against the San Antonio Spurs where the team seemed to rediscover its “joy.” Furthermore, the Golden State Warriors were severely depleted, missing stars like Stephen Curry and Draymond Green and relying on G League-caliber players. For the Cavs, who had their three All-Stars — Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and Evan Mobley — in the lineup and were nine-point favorites at home, the defeat reset any positive momentum.
2. Defensive Lapses Were Glaring and Exploited
A critical point of failure was the team’s defense, which was described as having “appalling” rotations and a tendency to overhelp. This was perfectly illustrated by the performance of Warriors’ two-way player Pat Spencer, who had a career night with 19 points and 7 assists. The transcript noted that Spencer proceeded to back Darius Garland down and orchestrate the offense effectively. This breakdown in the team’s supposed “defense-first mentality” led Kenny Atkinson to state that the team needed to “get back to the principles,” indicating a failure to execute fundamental defensive assignments against a lesser opponent.
3. Donovan Mitchell Expressed Concern Over the Team’s Bad Habits
Star guard Donovan Mitchell’s post-game comments were highlighted as particularly telling. He used the phrase “flip the switch,” suggesting a concern that the team believes it can rely on sheer talent to win games without consistently executing the “little things.” The guys interpreted this as a dangerous mentality for a team that has not yet “earned” the right to coast on talent alone. Mitchell’s repeated emphasis on the need for change and his visible dejection pointed to a growing frustration with the team’s inconsistent focus and the development of poor habits. This indicates a leadership-level concern that the issues are more mental than purely physical or schematic.
4. Key Players Evan Mobley and Darius Garland Underperformed
Beyond the team-wide issues, the individual performances of Evan Mobley and Darius Garland were heavily scrutinized. Garland, despite working his way back from injury, was decisively outplayed by Pat Spencer, a matchup he should have dominated. More concerning was the critique of Evan Mobley’s passivity. Against a less-skilled Warriors frontcourt, Mobley was described as “timid” and failing to “impose his will” on the game, passing up clear advantages. A reporter covering the Warriors even asked if Mobley was “always that passive.” These performances from two of the team’s core pillars were deemed unacceptable and highlighted a lack of consistent aggressiveness.
5. The Loss Stifled Momentum and Necessitated a “Reset”
The defeat did more than just add another loss to the record; it completely erased the positive vibes from the previous night’s victory and sent the team into a five-day break in a “quiet” and “somber” mood. What could have been a second straight win to build momentum heading into a lighter part of the schedule instead became a moment of crisis. The hosts agreed with Coach Atkinson that the team needed a “reset,” primarily a mental one. The loss brought the team’s record to 14-11, a stark contrast to the previous season’s pace, and amplified questions about the team’s identity, championship aspirations, and ability to perform consistently.
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Transcript
NOTE: This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and could contain misspellings and errors.
Ethan Sands: What up, Cavs Nation? I’m your host, Ethan Sands, and I’m back with another episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast. And with me Tonight, Chris Fedor, cleveland.com Cavs beat reporter and we’re coming to you guys after the CAVS Latest loss, 99 to 94, Saturday night’s shootout. Chris, this was a game that felt like it was straight out of the history books. It was a game that was slower pace, but it also didn’t have a whole lot of offense from the beginning. I mean, after the first quarter, the two teams combined for 30 points. The Cavs scored 36 points in the first half. As we remember from Friday night’s contest against the San Antonio spurs, they put up 72 points in the first half. So this was drastically different. And Chris, I just want to answer some questions that I’ve been seeing circulating on the Internet about whether or not this is the Cavs worst loss of the season. To me, it’s not, because to me, this was a product of they simply couldn’t make shots. Even when they were getting to the rim. They were having problems getting the ball to go through the hole. It was not a lackluster effort. It didn’t feel like they didn’t have the hustle, at least on the offensive end. They won the rebounding battle, they won the turnover battle. All of these different things they were actually able to have success in. But to me, the worst losses of the season come where you feel like the lack of effort is heavily imposed from this team, where you feel like the hustle isn’t there when you feel like the want to isn’t there. But tonight didn’t feel like one of those games. It feels felt like a product of a system of bad luck, especially after a season where we were spoiled with so many offense and performances that were just spectacular. This one felt like a dud.
Chris Fedor: All right, I completely disagree. I think this was their worst loss of the year. I think in part because it comes on the heels of what was perhaps their most complete second half of the year. Like that win last night against the San Antonio spurs was really, really good. The vibes were good. The Cavs were feeling themselves. They were talking in a different kind of way after that game. They were blasting music. They were cracking jokes. They had a team meeting the day before about playing with joy, finding their joy again. And then the way that they played in the second half, attacking the paint, defensive tenacity, attention to detail, changing a few things schematically, that was a really, really good Win against the San Antonio Spurs, a very good San Antonio team that came into Rocket arena on the heels of two straight wins with de’ Aaron Fox playing really well, with Harrison Barnes playing really well. So that was the fifth win that the Cavs had all season, Ethan. Against a team with a record above.500. To follow that up with this kind of performance against this version of the Golden State Warriors. The only team in the NBA that has a longer injury report than the Cavs currently is the Golden State Warriors. That wasn’t Steph. That wasn’t Draymond. That wasn’t Jimmy Butler. That was Pat Spencer, De Santos, Costco Anderson, Vera Zhao out there.
Chris Fedor: Who else? Gary Payton. The second. Jonathan Kaminga was wretched Brandon Pajemski. The Cavs came into the night, they were nine point favorites at home. They had Darius Garland in the lineup. They had Evan Mobley in the lineup. They had Donovan Mitchell in the lineup, all three of their All Stars. So there are some nights where you look at the injury report and you can say, well, Cavs are undermanned. Cavs are depleted. The Cavs are playing Naquan Tomlin more than they intend to. The Cavs are relying too much on Dean Wade and all that kind of stuff that doesn’t hold up when you look at the other side and everybody that the Golden State warriors were missing. So for them to lose this game on the heels of what they did last night against the San Antonio Spurs, I could understand Donovan Mitchell being dejected after this one. I could understand Darius Garland having short answers after this one. I could understand Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson saying, we need a reset. We need a reset. Let’s reset and let’s see what happens Friday when we come back from this long break because we didn’t make it to the NBA Cup. I understand what you’re saying about the effort and the intensity and the bad shooting and the bad luck that probably went. I don’t care. You have three All Stars in your lineup. You have the most expensive roster in the history of the NBA. You cannot lose that game to that group of Golden State Warriors. No, that was a bad, bad loss for the Cavs. And here’s the other reason why it was a bad, bad loss, Ethan. Because we talked about winning against San Antonio. This could have been the second straight win. They could have gone into this break that they have coming up feeling good about themselves, with good vibes around the team. Come out of that, have a chance to probably rip off five or six wins, given how the schedule sets up for Them coming up here and then all of a sudden by Christmas, we’re talking about a 20 and 10 team that is completely rolling now. They’re going into this mini break with a completely different feeling. You were in the locker room, it was quiet, it was somber. Players looked dejected and they should have. This is a team that is supposed to win a championship. This is a team that is supposed to compete for a championship. And they lost to Pat, Pat Spencer, Quentin Post, Gary Payton, the second, like I said, Costco Varajao, Moses Moody, Trace, Jack. No, this to me, given everything around, was by far their worst loss of the season.
Ethan Sands: I think for me it’s more. So obviously the vibes were off. You’re absolutely corrected. In the locker room we got to talk to Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland. And Donovan Mitchell is elite at giving structured answers that go into depth of what we’re talking about, the questions that he’s getting. And tonight it was just like, we gotta be better, we gotta move on, we gotta reset, we gotta get outta here. Because I think he was also just tired of being in that funk, being in that state of mind. And obviously Donovan Mitchell has played to the caliber that the Cavs have expected. Outside of Donovan Mitchell, who had seven made three pointers tonight, three other players made a three pointer, not made multiple made a single three pointer. So I’m talking about the offensive process was decent tonight. When it comes to how they were getting the ball into the hands of their scorers, it didn’t feel clunky. Darius Garland was getting to the rim, he just was not converting. These different things are different to me than what we’re talking about on the opposite end of the ball where we can have a completely different kind of conversation, where the defensive rotations and overhelping were appalling. Tonight you mentioned it. Pat Spencer, a guy who had not come into tonight making three threes in his entire NBA career thus far, he’s on a two way contract and now he had one of the best games of his career and it was against a team that has a defense first mentality and a part of that. And I don’t want to point fingers or anything, but Darius Garland, as we know, is a player that can be attacked defensively. Pat Spencer saw Darius Garland check back into the game and legitimately smiled. He said, oh, I can turn around and back Darius Garland down and wait for the other motion players on the Golden State warriors to move around or if I get deep enough into the pain, I can just do whatever I want. And that’s basically the system of how they were operating with allowing Pat Spencer, a two way player again to utilize and move the offense however he saw fit and then creating for himself and for others. Pat Spencer finished the game with 7 assists, 19 points, 3 of 4 from deep, 7 of 12 from the field. And I don’t want to discredit him because he had a good game. But to me it’s glaring how the defense, especially with defensive player of the year Evan Mobley was just attacked relentlessly and how this continues to be an issue for this team going forward and how they have to address it. And Kenny Atkinson said it at his postgame press conference, we have to get back to the principles. To me, sounds like they got to get back to the principles and the fundamentals of what those principles are because this is basic stuff. Over helping Jalen Tyson, Donovan Mitchell leaving their man and allowing a wide open three pointer. It’s unacceptable at this point. And it’s again, as you said, Chris, for a team that has championship aspirations.
Chris Fedor: It’s quite clear to me, Ethan, that Donovan is starting to get pretty concerned about the habits that this team is developing, just not seeing the kinds of habits that he wants to see. And look, here we are, it’s definitely December, there’s time for that to change. There’s plenty of time to correct some of these things. But he seems to be talking about the same stuff over and over and over again and that becomes problematic. Um, the other thing that stands out to me is that it feels like the Cavs have have gotten to a point, mentally this is a bad place to be because they haven’t earned this. They have gotten to a place mentally where they feel like they can out talent teams, that they don’t have to do the little things that they don’t have to follow the scouting report, that they don’t have to pay attention to details that they don’t have to play with the requisite energy. Donovan Mitchell used the term flip the switch and that brought me back to the Donovan Mitchell days of of past in Utah. It brought me Back to the LeBron James days past of Cavs. And it’s a situation where like yes, the Cavs are talented. I think everybody recognizes how talented they are. But that doesn’t mean that you stop doing the little things. It doesn’t mean that you all of a sudden ignore some of the stuff that led to you winning 64 games in the regular season last year, having the best offense, one of the best offenses in NBA history.
Chris Fedor: Getting to the second round of the playoffs, you know, beating Miami in lopsided fashion. There were things that the Cavs did last year, Ethan, that were good, that were positive. It didn’t end the way that anybody wanted it to, but part of the reason that they did some good things is because they did focus on the little things that they did. Pay attention to detail, that they did play with a level of focus, a level of determination, a level of. Of consistency that we just hadn’t seen from this version of the Cavs. And I think to hear Donovan Mitchell use the term flipping the switch, saying, quote, there’s no switch to flip until there’s a change in that, we’re going to keep being in these positions. We’re going to keep having these conversations that, to me, was pretty telling about what he sees from this basketball team and a concern that he has with this basketball team. And he’s right, because like I said, there are other talented teams across the NBA. There are other teams that have a bunch of all stars, right? So talent for talent. Yeah, the Cavs can match up with a lot of them, but what are the other things that you can do to separate yourself? And the Cavs have to dig deep and find those kinds of things, and they need to dig deep and find those things on a more consistent basis. The other thing is, Darius Garland cannot get outplayed by Pat Spencer. Like, come on.
Chris Fedor: I. I know Darius is still working his way back from offseason toe surgery, and they have to manage him throughout the course of this regular season, and he’s not playing back to backs, and he doesn’t look like the same guy that he was last year when he became an all Star for the second time in his career. But he can’t get outplayed by Pat Spencer, and that happened just like he can’t get outplayed by Peyton Pritchard against the Boston Celtics. And that happened. Like, the idea, the general idea of the Cavs is that their talent can be so overwhelming, that their offense can be so dynamic, and Darius is a part of that. He puts so much pressure on the defense. He creates advantages for them. He puts the defense in a bind, a pick your poison type bind, where it’s like, okay, what are we going to do on the defensive end of the floor when Darius is over there and Evans over there and Donovan Mitchell’s over there and they’ve got all this weaponry, and I understand that some of it is missing, but Darius Garland cannot get outplayed by Pat Spencer. Evan Mobley can’t be timid. There was a reporter that covers the Golden State warriors that was in town and he said something to me in the media room following the game as we were both writing our follow up stories. And he said, hey, Chris, is Evan always that passive? I thought he was second team all NBA last year. I thought he was an all star last year. Is he always that passive? He had a lot of advantages tonight against these warriors based on who the warriors were missing. What was that? And I said, yeah, sometimes he’s that passive. Sometimes the Cavs are trying to pull out and intensity and aggressiveness from Evan and it hasn’t been consistent from him. So, like, he can’t have the kind of game that he did tonight. DeAndre Hunter can’t keep having these kinds of performances if he’s going to continue to be in the starting lineup for the Cavs. 2 of 9 from the field. Oh, of 4 from 3 point range, 6 points. With this version of the Cavs, he’s supposed to be like the fourth option, so that can’t happen. And I understand there were some outlier things to what happened in tonight’s game. I mean, The Cavs shot 42% on field goals in the paint and they took 56 of them. That’s a lot for them. That’s a lot. It’s more than half of the total shot attempts that they had tonight. But 42% in the paint, obviously that’s not going to happen all the time for this team. 23.8% from 3 point range. Again, an outlier type thing. But there just wasn’t enough other good things that they did throughout the course of this game. They trailed for 35 minutes. Against this warriors team. It’s just. It’s just not good enough right now from the Cavs. And I agree with Kenny Atkinson. The way that I view this is that this is a basketball team that needs a reset mentally and physically. Mostly mentally, though.
Ethan Sands: I agree with you, Chris, and I think this is a different topic for a different day. But I’ve talked about on this podcast as well just the potential for DeAndre Hunter to get benched when Max Druce gets back, or whether or not Kenny Atkinson decides to keep Jaylon Tyson in the starting unit over Max Drusen, over DeAndre Hunter, with his productivity, his length, his size, his defensive acumen, and most importantly, his rebounding. He had 11 points and 11 boards tonight. Three assists, four offensive rebounds, and it wasn’t even Jaylon Tyson’s best game. And Chris, to your point, Evan Mobley, I feel like there were opportunities for him to attack. And I wrote this in my preview article for tonight. We saw what happened against the San Antonio spurs where Evan Mobley was more aggressive. He was trying to get to the rim, he was dunking the basketball and that’s the type of style you would have expected against a team that doesn’t have a true center. Obviously Quinton Post is 7ft tall, but he’s not to the same skill level as Evan Mobley. This is supposed to be you put that guy in a blender type of season. If you wanted to showcase your mid range game, this should have been it, right? If you want to pull out a much bigger defender and go at him one on one with the ball in your hands, show off your dribble series or simply get to a three point shot, this should have been that kind of game because the skill level is so much different and I understand that Evan Mobley is still trying to find this balance between a creator and a offensive focal point and all these different things. But as you mentioned, Chris, 8 of 19 for a guy who is known for his efficiency is just not good enough and 0 of 5 from 3 the other night he took 0 threes and we were happy with it. He knew what he needed to do was attack the painted area and create from 12ft out in elbow in the free throw line extended and all of these good things. I just think this team obviously won the rebound battle heftily. 24 offensive boards to 8 offensive boards. I mean you talk about second chance points, it was only 23 to 14. If the disparity in offensive rebounds is that drastic, there has to be a different shift or it’s just a product of them not being able to make shots, which is what it feels like tonight. Obviously 94 is the least amount of points that they’ve scored in a game this season. If there’s multiple different areas where the Cavs need to improve, obviously energy, hustle and intensity for a full 48 minutes. But then also you’re telling me that the defensive focus lapses on countless occasions and then you’re not making shots. There’s just too many questions when it comes to this team and going forward, especially when you go into a five day stretch of just practicing and I don’t know how many days we’re going to get to talk to them as a media group, but I would hope they practice at least four of those days because you get to see what they believe needs to be changed and I think they’re also trying to figure that out as well.
Chris Fedor: So I think a couple things that you mentioned there, the DeAndre thing is interesting, and I do think it’s a conversation as we continue to go on throughout the course of this season. Him and Kenny Atkinson talked in the off season about what is the best role for DeAndre. What’s the best usage for DeAndre? Kenny specifically asked him, as I reported, do you want to start? Do you prefer to start? And he said, yes. But that doesn’t mean that he’s right. It doesn’t mean that you have to keep going with that. The Cavs have the second least productive bench in the entire NBA this year. The only one that’s worse is the Lakers, and that’s totally understandable because Austin, Reeves, luka Doncic and LeBron James and Rui Hachimura and even Deandre Ayton, they carry most of the load. They account for most of the production for the team. The Cavs need more from their bench. One way that they can get more from their bench is to separate these guys and allow DeAndre Hunter to slide back into the role that had him looking like sixth man of the year before he was traded to the Cavs, that had him in the midst of a career year before he was traded to the Cavs. That is still possible that they can do that. That is still possible that DeAndre can be effective in that particular role. And I do think it’s something that the Cavs absolutely need to consider. The other thing that you talked about with Evan Mobley, think about some of these other guys that the Cavs kind of put Evan Mobley up on a pedestal alongside. And Evan views himself as a certain kind of way, right? And his teammates view Evan a certain kind of way. So think about that company, those kinds of players, and think about the approach that they would have had to tonight’s game when it’s Quentin Post as Trace Jackson, Davis going up against him. Do they play it the way that Evan did tonight? No, of course not. They try to impose their will. They see an advantage and they exploit it. And that’s the way that Evan Mobley needs to think. Now, he may not have the complete game to do that. He may not have enough polish to his game to be confident in his abilities to do that. But if they’re going to talk about him a certain kind of way, if he’s going to see himself a certain kind of way, he needs to start acting like that. He needs to start approaching games like that. I get the whole thing of try to make the right play, read the game See what the defense is doing to you. But there were numerous occasions against the warriors where he had a clear advantage, a size advantage, a strength advantage, a skill advantage, and. And he just didn’t do enough to impose his will on the game. And that’s the kind of stuff that the Cavs need from Evan. If Darius is going to be 6 of 15, if DeAndre Hunter is going to be an essential no show, if they’re going to get absolutely nothing from the bench, Ev, that’s the next level that people are talking about with Evan. That’s the next step that people are talking about with Evan. A recognition of these dudes can’t guard me. I’m too good for them. I need to act that way. I need to treat this matchup that kind of way. And you just don’t see that enough from Evan. So I, I do think that.
Chris Fedor: Like I said, there were some outlier things that happened throughout the course of this game, that if you were just to look at this game in a vacuum, that you may just write it off and say fifth game and seven nights, second game, back to back, all those other things, right? But because it has happened within this last two weeks where the vibes aren’t great, the team has lost five of seven. You have team meetings going on. You have Jaylon Tyson saying the things that he’s saying in the locker room, Donovan Mitchell saying the things he’s saying in the locker room, Darius Garland saying the things that he’s saying in the locker room now. So you just can’t write this one off and ignore it. It was a bad loss. Point blank period.
Ethan Sands: I want to be clear, I did not say it wasn’t a bad loss. I just didn’t think this was their worst.
Chris Fedor: What one’s worse?
Ethan Sands: If I’m looking at the schedule and I’m looking at what the energy level was for some of these contests. I thought the Boston Celtics game was bad. I thought Atlanta Hawks
Chris Fedor: They’re better than the warriors, though. But yeah, there are elements of that game that were bad. And there’s a reason why the guys said the things that they said in the locker room after that. But Boston’s better than this version of the warriors that the Cavs lost to.
Ethan Sands: I agree with that. To me, there’s different shades of what the Cavs haven’t been able to do and that that was more so teams attacking their weaknesses and teams trying to manipulate the game and dictate the pace of the game and all these different things. It didn’t feel like the warriors dictated the game today, it just felt like the warriors made more shots than the Cavs did. And Kenny Atkinson has said that sometimes you’re not going to make shots. And to your point, Chris, and I agree with you in this statement, the Cavs have to do all the other little things to win these games. And to me, when you look at the categories, when you looked at how the game was being played, it felt like they were doing the little things. It just didn’t pan out, that it turned into successful transition into possessions on the offensive end. So there’s obviously games that I can look at and point to and think even some of the wins that they’ve had have felt worse than this game. If we’re looking at the worst game that the Cavs have played, Toronto Raptors game where they were held to 99 points in that contest as well. Knowing how Evan Mobley perceives that kind of game and just what this Cavs team thinks about going into every contest, that’s one of the ones that I would point to when I would think about what they could have. Control. That’s the biggest thing to me, controlling what you can control and dictating an outcome rather than if you have a bad shooting night, which every team does.
Chris Fedor: I don’t know. They were nine point favorites on their own home floor against the Santa Cruz warriors on the heels of their second best win or best win of the season. And they trailed for 35 minutes with Darius Garland in the lineup, with Donovan Mitchell in the lineup, with Evan Mobley in the lineup. I, I don’t know how it’s worse than that. Nine point favorites. It might have actually moved when some of this stuff was announced before the game. It might have moved to ten or ten and a half or something along those lines, but I don’t know. Nine point favorites and they trail for 35 minutes. In the game against warriors he scored 36 points, 36 points at halftime. Zach Levine scored 42 on his own tonight for the Sacramento Kings. So he scored more in the game than the Cavs scored as a team in a half. That was hard to watch.
Ethan Sands: It was extremely hard to watch. And again, I’m not saying today was by any means fun to watch a good game for the Cavs. It was not. It just felt different than some of their other losses throughout this season. And I’m going to say this, if we’re talking about the line scores coming into these losses, well, the cavs have lost 11 games. I think they might have been the underdog in one of those games. Games that they’ve lost. And again, maybe it wasn’t nine and a half favorites, but the Portland Trailblazers game, you can bet the Cavs were highly favored in that contest as well.
Chris Fedor: Better than this warriors team. Think about the guys that played for the warriors tonight. They had 10 or 11 guys available. Oh my God. Santos played 27 minutes. I mean, they bench Kaminga because he was so bad. So, I mean, like going into the game, he was probably one of their more talented players, one of their better players. And he goes one of 10. And then they go to these other guys and they just bring it to a level. They took it to the Cavs to a level that should not happen with, with this team.
Ethan Sands: I’m not going to disagree with that because the Cavs did play against the G League warriors team basically tonight and still did not come out with the victories. So again, bad loss, but we can agree to disagree on if it was the worst loss or not. But the Cows are now 14 and 11. Chris, last season, and I know we’re not comparing to last year as much, but I thought that this was interesting. From the 64 Wind Cavs last year they lost their 11th game on March 16th. It’s December 7th. As we record this podcast, it’s a big difference. So I know people are like came into the season saying the regular season doesn’t matter, and Donovan Mitchell said If they win 82 games and they went 82 and, oh, it wouldn’t have mattered. Well, this version of the Cavs need to figure out who it is and what they want to accomplish this season and whether or not that is feasible with the roster that they have.
Chris Fedor: But yeah, because that’s the thing, Ethan. They’re missing guys. Everybody understands that they’re missing guys. And they’ve been missing guys all season long. And there are guys that have been thrust into positions and into roles that quite frankly, they don’t belong in, not on a team that has championship aspirations. So that is part of their reality. The other thing is how they’re approaching the regular season is well documented, so we don’t have to go over that. But even with those circumstances, basketball teams have to do the things the right way in the regular season.
Chris Fedor: And the Cavs aren’t right now. And it doesn’t mean that they can’t still, and it doesn’t mean that they can’t find it and turn things around. And maybe, maybe going into the Christmas Day game against the Knicks, we are talking about a team that’s 19 and 11, 18 and 12, whatever their record may be, and they’re higher in the standings than they certainly are right now. And the Cavs will say that there’s a benefit to some of the things that have happened to this point because they’ve gotten to look at Tyrese Proctor, they’ve gotten to look at Craig Porter Jr. Naquan Tomlin and Jalen Tyson, and these guys are getting opportunities that they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. And the Cavs have been impressed in many cases with those things. So, yes, I think everybody understands that there are circumstances tied to the Cavs record and tied to the way that the Cavs are playing. But you still have to do things the right way during the regular season, no matter how you feel about the regular season and no matter whether or not you want to peak right now, which they don’t. They clearly don’t. They want to be peaking in March and April going into the playoffs, but that doesn’t mean that you stop doing things the right way. It is possible. Ask Oklahoma City about it. They’re doing things the right way in the regular season after winning an NBA championship. Right? The Houston Rockets are doing things the right way in the regular season after being the number two seed in the Western Conference last year, I think it was, you know, the Detroit Pistons are treating the regular season the right way. The Denver Nuggets are treating the regular season the right way despite the fact that they already have an NBA championship with their core players. At some point, the Cavs have to start treating the regular season the right way and they have to start building the kind of habits that are going to benefit them when March and April roll around. And I think when you start seeing the opposite of those things, it just becomes a little bit more concerning. And I think it’s fair. Even though the Cavs have certain circumstances surrounding what they’re doing right now, I still think it’s fair to point those things out and be critical of them when they’re happening.
Ethan Sands: Of course. And I think that’s our job, to be critical of them. And obviously, even if we have differing opinions, that’s okay too, because we can both admit this is not the version of the Cavs that they wanted to be. Even though they had a plan coming in. This is unacceptable for this version of the team. This is unacceptable for any version of a team that has championship aspirations. And we’ll have to see after this 5 day break how they bounce back, how they respond, especially when they travel to Washington, D.C. to take on the Wizards, who are a lowly organization. But as you understand from tonight’s game, the Cavs can go up against anybody and make it interesting. But with all that being said, that’ll wrap up today’s episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast. But remember to become a Cavs insider and interact with Chris, me and Jimmy by subscribing to South Tech. Sign up for a 14-day free trial or visit cleveland.com/cavs and click on the blue bar at the top of the page. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. All you have to do is text the word stop. It’s easy, but we can tell you that the people who sign up stick around because this is the best way to get insider coverage on the Cavs from me, Chris and Jimmy. This isn’t just our podcast. It’s your podcast. And the only way to have your voice heard is through subtext. Y’ all be safe. We out.