Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson has been stern since the beginning of training camp with his blunt playoff-record message, and now, Donovan Mitchell is echoing that tough love in early November. Following a 132-121 win over the Philadelphia 76ers, the wine and gold's All-Star guard addressed mental lapses that could have proved costly — and will if they continue to do so.
“It can't happen,” Mitchell said in Wednesday's postgame, referring to Cleveland giving up leads multiple times this season. His message came across in the same perturbed tone that was used after a 131-124 victory in Brooklyn. That night, the Cavs were routing them, and did the same to the Sixers almost two weeks later. Somehow, each of those opponents came back in the fourth quarter. The Nets chopped it down to a one-point deficit, and Philly even charged back twice in one night.
With Cleveland getting off to a torrid start with Darius Garland's return, the Sixers took a 14-point deficit from the opening period and went into halftime down by three, then tied the game two minutes into the third quarter.
“I ripped them at halftime because I think that second quarter, we just completely lost mental focus,” Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Our activity went way down, defensive activity. I mean, I ripped them. Ripped them as much as you can rip anybody in the NBA. First quarter, we were all over the place. Second quarter, we were relaxed, and this is one of our improvement areas: doing better, playing better with the lead.”
“Everything he says is true,” added Jarrett Allen, who returned from a two-game absence due to a broken left ring finger. “It is hard to argue with him about what he sees. We know that it's deserved, and we know that we can do better out there. He's just telling us how it is. Listen to what he says and not how he says it. Let's just say that… We let them back in and they tied the game, and I feel like we picked it back up to be able to expand the lead.”
Atkinson was just as disappointed in how his squad finished. The Cavs had a 25-point lead disintegrate into nine with a minute left in the game.
“It might look like to you guys, ‘Oh, well that's kind of normal,' but you can feel us kind of drop our energy and drop our focus,” Atkinson said. “I think we had seven turnovers in the fourth quarter, and you really want to put your foot down, put your foot on the pedal, and keep it pressed.”
The Cavs have to play for 48 minutes to be a true contender
Mitchell understands that the Cavs will have to figure out this nagging issue themselves.
“[Allowing] 34 points in the fourth, 40 in the second… the second quarter got choppy, so it's tough in those scenarios, right? But still, if we want to be that team, that can't happen. And we'll watch our film, we'll hold ourselves accountable. And that's the biggest thing that I take away from early-season games is we have to continuously be that team that gets up and stays up, and, honestly, sits in those situations.
“We should not be playing because we should have taken care of business right then and there.”
The same sentiment was shared throughout the locker room. Sam Merrill said Cleveland had to adjust to Philly's speed and drives. Although Atkinson's tirade was effective initially, he had the same feeling as Mitchell about the final frame. It wasn't perfect, and the Cavs got the job done, but closing strong is paramount.
“You've just gotta find a way. You've got a team on the second night of a back-to-back,” said Merrill, who made his return after three games on the shelf with a hip injury. “If you have a chance to get it to 25 or 30 and end the game, generally… I mean, these guys play a lot of minutes on the other team, so they might have just kept going. But you want to take advantage of those opportunities to get the rest when you need.”
“I feel like there's times when we just need to lock in to be able to understand when to put our foot down and not let them back into the game,” Allen added.
Only eight games into the campaign, we've seen Cleveland's concentration falter in blowout situations. That won't cut it if the Cavs are trying to be the team nobody wants to face on any given night.
“It's a mental thing, to Kenny's point, and it's all five guys on the floor.” Mitchell said, “It's everybody on the bench. It's a collective. And Zo [Ball] said it, but we've got to find a way as a group. It can't just be two people or three people or four, or one or none. Like, it's everybody coming together.”
