Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen urge Cavs to ‘stick with it’ amid testing

If it is The Cleveland Cavaliers will wake up from a nightmare they are at this point, it will take a team effort. After the wine and gold’s last loss of 127-111 on the road to the Chicago Bulls, Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen choosing to uplift rather than berate as this group tries to find a way out of a nearly season-long funk.

“Just stick with it,” Mitchell told reporters after the game. “Yeah, it’s frustrating. Shit. But at the end of the day, what are you going to do, feel bad? You know what I mean? It’s December 17th. What are we going to do, let’s call right now? Go on. Go on. And part of it is not making shots. That’s really hard. We have great looks, we have really good shots, and we have great shots. That’s how it goes a little bit, you know what I mean. Sometimes you’re in trouble.

“I mean, everybody thinks about everything that could go wrong, but at the end of the day, I’m going to stay with the team,” Allen added. “That’s the easiest thing to do; you could think badly about what’s happening now, you could give up, but at the end of the day, if you keep trying, keep fighting, things will eventually work out.”

The Cavs allowed 68 points to the Bulls, many of which came in transition and turnovers. Cleveland had desired recording profile once again, but an uncharacteristic 20 errors proved costly and gave Chicago the advantage. However, even in the half court, the Cavs defense lacked the awareness to cut from the back and they could not keep up with the faster home team after the try or miss.

The Bulls also threw a 2-3 zone at the Cavs after a 28-16 start, completely disrupting any rhythm the visitors had from the start. Although Cleveland ended up shooting a respectable 48.3% from the floor, it was a paltry 12-of-39 from downtown.

“Guys are in, guys are working on their games,” Mitchell said. “It’s not like habits don’t exist, right? Obviously, defensively, we have to correct that. But offensively, we still look good. Sometimes, the shot just doesn’t fall, which then leads to them scoring and us not, and then we end up losing.”

“I believe in everybody in this locker room, we believe in each other, and it’s going to turn around. But you can’t sit here and tuck your tail between your legs and be sad just because we’re being booed and we’re not playing well. There’s an expectation. (We have) an expectation to be a championship team; we like it’s not even close to playing like that always. (have) this today but in a few months, so stick with it, stick with each other, which we are, and go from there.

Pressed on why that belief is strong, Mitchell states that it is because Cleveland was not, and still is not, at full strength. Connectors like Sam Merrill and Max Struss were missed offensively, as was the recently suspended Evan Mobley.

“We’re not healthy. I don’t know how else to put it,” Mitchell said reluctantly, unwilling to make excuses for Cleveland’s shortcomings. “They help a lot of things that we struggle with offensively. Defensively, we can be who we are. But I think offensively, even just their presence, that’s what gives me confidence.”

“We know who we are as a whole group. We saw that in training camp. We had really good faith going into the season. We played well at the beginning of the season. Obviously, we gradually became inconsistent, but I believe in everyone in this locker room as we should because we showed that we can be that team. Now it’s just a matter of sticking with it, not letting it affect the mental state, just keeping with the mental state.” ‘Hey, we got this’ and we’ll be fine.

Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson he also does not question his group, remaining steadfast in his trust. He highlighted the positives, such as Mitchell playing while under the weather, Allen giving them solid minutes, Darius Garland looks more like himselfCraig Porter Jr. gives Cleveland “really good” minutes and stops in zone coverage.

“Our job is to keep trying and keep tweaking,” Atkinson said. “Move the lineups around, try different guys, give different guys a chance. We’ve got some guys in a funk, some guys that aren’t hitting right now, so try to find a way to help them, try to create lineups that can help them the most. I don’t think staying the status quo is the way to go when you’re struggling. You’ve got to look at different things.

“I would say during these times you discover a lot about yourself, you discover a lot about your team. You can also find things, find things that can help you down the road.”

Allen believes that it will take time to get out of this difficult spell. He and the Cavs don’t know how much it takes.

“Teams go through ruts all the time,” Allen said. “Sometimes it takes a while to get out of them. Like Indiana last year, it’s a perfect point of view. They didn’t have the best start to the season. Look at us now, we’re in the same position kind of. … You see flashes of it. You can see who we are. You can see us on the court playing great. So we know who we are.”

Mitchell doesn’t see any fight or heads down despite Cleveland’s back-to-back losses and fourth in their last six games. There were many occasions to separate wine and gold in these frustrating times; they stayed strong through it all in response — reflecting the six-time All-Star message.

“If we’re going to sit here — and I’m not saying we are — if we’re going to sit here and be sorry and, ‘Oh, woe is me,’ in December … Stick with it,” Mitchell said. “I’ve been in this position before. There’s still a lot of season left, there’s still a lot of time left. Shit. It’s not great. But stick with it. Keep the spirit. Keep the togetherness and go from there.”