From impressive wins to baffling losses, the Cleveland Cavaliers' season continues to be a frustrating roller coaster that can't quite stay on track, but time is running out
There's better basketball being played in Cleveland, of late. The Cavaliers entered Monday night's matchup with the Utah Jazz having won five of their last seven, including an impressive 146-134 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday.
That game may have just been the Cavs' best win of the season. Two nights later, though, a 123-112 loss to Utah may be their worst loss of the 2025-26 campaign. This one-step-forward, two-steps-back roller coaster ride has defined their season to this point.
For whatever reason, the wine and gold just can't seem to replicate their progress with any kind of regularity night-over-night. The question is, why?
"We gotta focus on the little details," star guard Donovan Mitchell said. "When we're in this position we can't afford to have the little mistakes. Slow starts. A bad third quarter in Minnesota, a bad second quarter against [Minnesota] on Saturday. We don't have the margin for error. And I think that's the frustrating part is, its there. We see it. We just gotta figure it out."
Neglecting "the little things" has been at the heart of the Cavs inconsistent play this season. The collective effort and energy of the team have been called into question almost nightly at this point. Those issues reared their ugly head right away on Monday as Cleveland opened up the game looking as flat as they have all season.
Utah took advantage, pouncing on the Cavaliers to mount a 21-4 lead after the midway point of the period. That left them chasing the rest of the night and by the fourth quarter they were out of juice.
Kenny Atkinson continues to point to one important factor as to why they can't turn the corner to rattle off even a mini-win streak.
"I think it's the mental piece, [and] again, I think as we get healthier we'll get better," the Cavs head man said. "You have Dean Wade tonight, you put him on [Lauri Mar ] , there's pieces to this. We're kind of moving a lot of pieces around. You have a guy like that out, it's not an excuse, you just want everybody in their spot. We just gotta figure it out."
There's that phrase again. Internally, the prevailing thought seems to be that they will, which speaks to the general positivity that the team still tries to present.
"I don't think we're being held back, per se," veteran center Jarrett Allen said. "We're still making progress in the right direction. [Winning] five-out-of-seven is a huge step for us going forward. It's progress, we're doing everything the right way. You keep hearing us say the process is right, we're gonna keep going and we're gonna get to where we want to be."
But time is no longer on their side. It's now the middle of January. The trade deadline is about three weeks away. The All-Star game a little over a week after that. At this stage of the season, "gotta figure it out," rings hollow. It's time to actually figure it out.
Monday proved they still haven't.