Cleveland Cavaliers: Questionable Toughness or Tough Question?

When Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks went down with a knee injury a minute into their Sunday matchup with the Cleveland Cavaliers, some anticipation seemed to sag for the rest of the game. While the Cavaliers still needed to win to hold onto 2nd place in the Eastern Conference, the game seemed less of a test of Cleveland’s ability to avenge last year’s meager playoff showing and more of a ho-hum, it’s fine to get a win kind of night. Well, someone forgot to tell Cleveland that New York wouldn’t roll over and die just because of another injury as the Knicks knocked off the Cavs, 107-98.This loss sets the Cavs record at 3-4 since the All-Star game, tarnishing the gleam of the 18-2 run Cleveland had before the break. Because it’s the Knicks and because New York was missing its top 4 players for most of the game and because of how the playoffs went last year, the rumblings of the Cavs not being tough enough have turned into full-on callouts of anyone wearing wine and gold. The torches are being lit and the pitchforks are being gathered as we speak. By Monday morning, the rabble-rousers will be full-throated in burying this team and sending Donovan Mitchell to the coastal elite cities for a hill of beans and a note reading, “You got what you deserve, Cleveland. Thinking you could have nice things. Go back to being a mistake by the lake and light your river on fire again. *fart noises*” The fact of the matter is, the Cavs haven’t been very good since they came back and are a Max Strus miracle shot away from being a disaster. When this Cavs team doesn't play well, even their own fans question their toughness, and the national media dismiss all respect when that was the showing on an ESPN-televised game like this.Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley have been good at chasing rebounds down this year, but they have recently been seen backing down from physical altercations. Josh Hart had one fewer rebound himself than Allen and Mobley combined, 19-20. Donte DiVincenzo is a nice player with championship experience, but he willed his way to a star-like 28 points and +9 on the floor. In the first game out of the All-Star break, Mo Wagner nearly took Mobley out with a foul, and Evan simply walked away instead of standing up for himself. This isn’t a call for fist fights on the floor, but coach JB Bickerstaff said after the game, “You gotta stand your ground at some point.” That comment matches the eye test from the TV screen. The Cavs need a little bit of Tristan Thompson chestiness ((but not quite Kendrick Perkins thumping)) or Donovan Mitchell star power to see respect from these teams. While the Cavs seemingly added toughness in the offseason by signing Max Strus and Georges Niang, those two players haven’t totally had their shots with them for stretches this year ((especially Niang on Sunday, oof)), and neither of those guys was known best for their defense or rebounding. They are useful players and have been good additions, but internal growth (and getting tougher) on the glass was the most likely outcome for improvement. Mobley has shown growth on offense since returning from injury, being aggressive with his shot, and taking the ball up the floor himself on defensive rebounds. Allen was a star while Mobley was out, and has still been good, but seems to shy away from clogging the paint too much when all the starters are healthy. That unwillingness to stick his nose in there at all times seems to lead to him being more passive as a player overall. While he had a Cavs-record 13 consecutive double-doubles in points and rebounds with Mobley out, he has had only 2 double-doubles since the break, including grabbing only 4 rebounds total in Cleveland’s double-overtime loss to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday. Strus and Niang have shown they will have the back of any teammate in any situation, but the two young big men need to learn to lead the tough guy brigade, especially when Mitchell and Thompson are out. Their time is now. The Cavs remain ahead of the Knicks by 4 games in the loss column, even though they fall to a half-game behind the Milwaukee Bucks for first in the division. All that ails the Cavs might be solved by a hot stretch of shooting and Donovan Mitchell returning and being the star that he is. ((All the talk on Twitter about Kyrie Irving being the second-best Cavs player of all time is silly. Mitchell is two good playoff series away from silencing those ideas for the most part.)) Cleveland won’t silence their doubters in the national media and local fanbase until they show they can perform in the playoffs, but a game like Sunday’s goes as another drop in the bucket of suspicious toughness for a Cleveland team that got manhandled by these same Knicks in the first round last year. Shots didn’t fall enough last year, but these games with less physicality have been more the norm since returning from the All-Star break. The Cavs have a bunch of talented, nice young men on their roster. They added some adults in the room, but until the likes of Allen, Mobley, and Darius Garland stand up and say enough is enough, either on the scoreboard or in an opponent’s face, the doubts on toughness will linger. Whether or not it’s a fair question, Sunday night made us ask how tough this team is. Maybe Mitchell is the simple answer, but it doesn’t look like we’ll know until the postseason. The time to grow is now, or else we'll be asking ourselves the tougher question that the national media loves: Is this Cavs team not good enough to keep Donovan Mitchell?