Game Night Observations: Inconsistent Basketball, Shooting Slumps and Minute Management

This is called a losing streak. It has happened before.

Photo by Leo_Visions on Unsplash

The Cleveland Cavaliers were defeated by the Sacramento Kings 123-119 on Wednesday night, marking the second time this season Cleveland has lost three consecutive games.

During the month of March the Cavs haven’t played their best basketball. That’s not some crazy enlightening statement. Some of the team’s poor performances have been masked by the ability to squeeze out of tight spots routinely early on in the month. In the last three games, the Cavs haven’t been able to do that. The mistakes have finally caught up with them.

That happened against Orlando on Sunday, it happened against LA on Tuesday and happened again on Wednesday in Sacramento. Realistically, the Cavs have played two complete games in March — wins against Milwaukee and Memphis. They’re 5-3 in the other eight games, but any of the five wins could’ve been losses. The haven’t been the dominant team that they were earlier in the season.

There was talk during January about it being the “dog days” of the season in the NBA. There’s certainly a lull in January, but the real “dog days” are right now. It’s easy to look ahead to the postseason rather than what’s actually happening right now. The Cavs aren’t a team that’s playing for seeding — this loss does, however, drop them below Oklahoma City for the league’s best record. They can’t fake the desperation that the teams they’ve played during this losing streak clearly have. That’s part of the equation here.

Fourth Quarter Management

The way the Cavs played in the fourth quarter — and really the second half — is why they lost this game to the Kings. They didn’t defend well enough throughout the half and had too many stretches, particularly in the third quarter where they got too sloppy on offense.