Donovan Mitchell declares the fans “deserve better” as the boos grow louder

The The Cleveland Cavaliers season was such a miss to see even their home advantage slip. After falling to a depleted Charlotte Hornets team on Sunday, the Cavs’ record at Rocket Arena dropped to 9-7 amid a barrage of boos.

“I was a fan once. I would have booed us too,” Cleveland’s All-Star point guard Donovan Mitchell he said after the 119-111 loss. “We’re not playing well. The city deserves better than what we gave, and we have to go out and figure it out. If we want to be what we want to be, we have to go out and figure it out as a team.”

To put this funk into perspective, the Cavs have already lost as many games at home as they did all of last year. It only took until mid-December.

Darius Garland, Mitchell’s All-Star partner in the backfielddownplayed hearing those boos, instead asking the crowd to pump their usual infectious energy into the team.

“I know it’s not much to cheer about right now, but we need fans in it,” Garland said. “That drives us. So when the fans (aren’t) in it, the bench has to be in it. Larry (Nance Jr.) did a really good job, and Thomas (Bryant), on the bench (Sunday). They’re really doing everything they can to try to get some energy in the arena, standing up, screaming from the other side of the floor to find what we need. We’re really trying.

Injuries aside, it was a a see-saw affair in terms of how this group has performed in Northeast Ohio over the past four seasons.

The 2024-25 Wine and Gold didn’t drop their seventh game at Rocket Arena until the regular season finale in mid-April, going 34-7 overall.

But in Jay Bickerstaff’s final year as head coach, Cleveland made it to December 21, 2023 and finished 26-15. In the season before that, where the Cavs went 31-10 at the previously named Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, it wasn’t until February 23, 2023 that they lost seven.

As for the overall record of this current group, the Cavs sit at 15-12 with plenty of season left. But things will quickly get awkward if there is no turnaround in this stretch of matchups against the Chicago Bulls and Hornets.