This is a disaster for the Cavs...

This is a disaster for the Cavs. The Cavs just lost to the Heat and the season keeps spiraling in the wrong direction. How can they turn it around? I'll talk about it in this video and about the Cavs last game against the Heat. So the Cavs just lost to the Heat. It was an NBA Cup game and let's just dive right into that game. And first I'm going to start with the Cavs and the And looking at how some of these players perform. Obviously, Evan Mobley was out, and that was a huge loss, right? Because we'll look at the Heat's team stats in a minute, but Bam Adebayo and Davion Mitchell, Giannis, obviously, they popped off. And the Heat looked like what they were supposed to when they traded for Giannis. The Heat are moving in the right direction, and the Cavs are not. So obviously, since Mobley was out, we started Jalen Tyson in his place, and he played pretty good. Harden even had a pretty decent game. We had some guys playing off the bench who, you know, Malik Thomas, Tyrese Proctor, those guys put up some good numbers. But there's some other players in our starting lineup that really need to step it up. I think Peyton Watson, I mean, four points is not going to cut it on two of 10 from the field. That is not why we went out and traded or why we went out and signed him. Peyton Watson needs to be a lot better. I know it's early on in the season, but he really needs to start showing some improvement soon. And then Jared Allen, too. In a game where he has the height advantage down low on the block, and really we don't have Mobley, so we really interchange Jared Allen and Mobley throughout the game as our center. Thank you. And we have Thomas Bryant as our backup center. So we're really – Thomas Bryant is not a true center. He's a guy who loves shooting the threes and loves being on the perimeter more than he does being in the paint. And getting rebounds, as you can tell by his nine points and one rebound in the game against the Heat. But Jared Allen really needed to step up and just dominate the paint on both ends of the floor. And Bam Adebayo won that matchup versus Jared Allen. Thank you, Alan. So really the team just needs to play better. I know we're down, obviously, Evan Mobley, but that's part of the NBA season, right? You're not going to be 100% throughout the season. You have to learn to adapt and learn how to fill that void when a player like Evan Mobley is out. And again, the Heat really played well. They dominated this game. They won by 12, but honestly, it felt like a little more than that, especially down the stretch. Thank you very much. But yeah, I mean, Giannis obviously had a great game. So did Bam. Both those guys went for 37 points and, Bam, 14 boards led the game in rebounds. And that was, you know, a great performance from him. Jarrett Allen has to do a better job guarding him. And Giannis was just a matchup nightmare for any team, and he went off. And then I want to look at, you know, obviously arguably the most impressive performance from this game was Davion Mitchell. I mean, look at that. He had 22 points. points and 17 assists. He was just dishing out the rock. That's something I expect from James Harden, not Davion Mitchell on the other side for the Heat. Also, Ryan Connell, the rookie, getting 20 points off the bench for the Heat, too. That obviously didn't help. Um, but. But boy, Davion Mitchell, what a game for him. This was kind of a three-headed monster for the Heat the other night with Bam Giannis and Davion Mitchell and just something that I wasn't expecting to see from this Heat team, especially early on in the season. But what a game from Davion Mitchell. We really couldn't shut down this Heat offense at all as they put up 133 points. Now, moving in the right direction, what can the Cavs do? How can they improve? And I think it starts with defense on the defensive side of the ball. And getting stops and locking down, showing the effort plays, doing the little things, because that's what is going to turn this team around. We're not really doing that. We're not looking like a championship team. We're not looking like we want to play basketball, let alone championship basketball. And it starts with Peyton Watson. This is the guy that we went out and signed, inked him to a huge deal. And he's going out and putting up these numbers. That is not a good return on investment. Four points, four boards, two assists, minus six, a terrible shooting day. For him, 2 for 10, 0 for 5 from 3. So that's, you know, something we in Denver, he. Thank you. Did a great job shooting the three ball. He improved every year he was there with his shooting percentages. And so far this season, he's been abysmal shooting the basketball. So he really has to step it up offensively, but not even that, defensively. He has to be, you know, the menace defensively that he was in Denver. That was his calling card. That's what he was known for. That was the whole point of his game was defense. He was such a great on-ball defender. Could really guard anybody, one through five. Five. And with Mobley out, that would have been our typical matchup on Giannis. It fell to Peyton Watson, and he did not do a great job guarding him, obviously. Obviously, it's a team effort, right? You're rarely on one guy the entire game. But we really missed Evan Mobley, and then Peyton Watson did not do a great job on either end of the floor. And he really has to improve and be better. Now, I'm going to always look for the positives and things, and there were some positives to take away from this loss, and that is in our young players. First off, I want to highlight Jalen Tyson. He got the start filling in for Evan Mobley, and he did a really great job. He had a good game. I mean, you look at his numbers, minus 13, yeah, that's more of a team thing than a player thing, in my opinion. But Tyson, 16 points, and the shooting splits were really good. Six of 11 and four for seven from three. For him stepping up for Evan Mobley, I think he did a really great job, especially in the scoring column and shooting-wise. We really didn't miss the scoring impact that Mobley has. Obviously, we missed the rebounds and the size and the defense because Tyson is a completely different player from Evan Mobley. But offensively, Tyson did a really great job, and it was very promising that he's a player that is going to be and can be a spot starter for the Cavs throughout this season. And he did a really nice job filling in for Mobley and scoring the ball offensively. And the second bright spot that I want to look at, is another young player who played really well, Tyrese Proctor, coming off the bench. How about those numbers, man? 22 points, 4 boards, 3 assists, 7-9 from field, 5-7 from 3, got to the free throw line a couple times. And this is an impact that I'd love to see Tyrese Proctor have more often. We can play him more. I mean, in this game, he had 27 minutes and performed fabulously. He's a great shooter, 3-and-D guy. He can defend other quick guards. He can run the point at times. And I love Tyrese Proctor. I loved him in college. I love his game. He's a great shooter, as you can tell by these numbers against the Heat. And I expect Tyrese Proctor to get more minutes, especially since the team's been struggling lately. We've got to look to somebody to, you know, bring some spark, bring some energy. And Proctor can definitely do that off the bench like he did in this game. I think he's one of the big reasons we were still kind of in the game as much as we were down the stretch. And Tyrese Proctor did a great job. Coming off the bench on a night where the team was rather thin with depth, Tyrese Proctor did a really nice job filling in. Now, This was an NBA Cup game, and we're going to take a look at the East standings, and I'll talk about the NBA Cup standings. But with that loss, the Cavs now fall into the play-in 6-7 early in the season. But you've got a long way early. You've got your work cut out for you if you're the Cavs. I mean, when you look at those top couple seeds, Boston and Philly both already at 10 wins. The Cavs got a long season. You can obviously go on a winning streak. But the Cavs have their work cut out for them. Like I said, this was... a cup game and the Cavs I don't know if a lot of fans realize this, but our division for the NBA Cup, the East Group B, is brutal. The Heat are leading. They're 2-0. We're currently in second just based on point differential with 1-1. Philadelphia is also 1-1. The Pacers are 1-1. And then the reigning NBA champ Knicks are in fifth at 0-2. So Heat, Cavs, 76ers, Pacers, and Knicks all in one division for the NBA Cup. That is a brutal draw. Thank you very much. All very capable teams. Winning the NBA Cup and even the finals, this is a tough draw for us. And we're good right now on point differential. We're good for second place. Only the Heat and the Cavs are plus point differential so far. But we got a couple more games in the NBA Cup. We still have to play the Pacers and Knicks. Thanks. So. I really hope we can get some wins and advance in the NBA Cup, but we have a really tough draw to try and win it and make it out of there. But schedule-wise, we're trying to go on a run, and there's no better time to go on a run than right now. Coming up, the next four games, we have four in a row at home. Got the Mavs, Bulls, Grizzlies, and Pacers between now and... November 20th on Friday, so that's four games in six days, all at home. In my opinion, also all against winnable opponents. I know the Mavs have been kind of hot lately with Cooper Flagg and Kyrie. All right. But the Bulls, Grizzlies, Pacers, all winnable opponents, four in a row at home. The Cavs really have to go on a winning streak, in my opinion. I think if we're able to win all four of those, the season's looking bright and we can turn around real quick and get it moving in the right direction. But it's a really great home stretch for us to try and win four games in a row. Well, um... So how can the Cavs turn around their season? Obviously the home stretch. Helps with four games in a row at home coming up, but can they rely on veterans? Can we play our young talent more? Maybe Kenny Atkinson relies on the bench, guys like Tyrese Proctor and Jalen Tyson who just played really well against the Heat and ride them, or are we screwed? Are we doomed? Thank you. slow start to the season is going to continue throughout the rest of the season. I think the answer is relying on our young talent and we also need our vets to play better and to improve, but That's just what I think. I think it's a combination of those first two answers, but let me know what you think, and hopefully the Cavs can get it turned around and moving in the right direction with this home stretch coming up. As always, thank you for watching. Subscribe to Cavs Digest if you're not already, and as always, go Cavs.