CLEVELAND — The
Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t register a single point in overtime as they fell to the lowly Charlotte Hornets
119-111.
Head coach Kenny Atkinson downplayed his team’s recent struggles before Sunday’s game.
“The sky is not falling,” Atkinson said before the game. “Crises aren’t happening. … Catastrophes are not happening…just so you guys know. We’re going to be all right.”
While that may be true in the long run, the results on the court have been pretty consistent so far.
The same issues that have been apparent all season were once again there on Sunday against a bad Hornets team. The Cavs didn’t play consistent enough defense, lacked energy, weren’t hitting outside shots, and were completely reliant on Donovan Mitchell to save them.
We’ve watched different versions of this game seemingly dozens of times this season.
Mitchell struggled, so the Cavs lost. He had a chance to win it on the final possession of regulation, but couldn’t get his 12-foot jumper to go. Afterward, Atkinson said it was the shot he wanted as it was similar to the look that
Mitchell had to defeat the
Milwaukee Bucks last season.
Mitchell slammed the scorer’s table and then rested his head on it in disgust after missing the potential game-winner.
“I had one of those nights…in a situation I’m not allowed to have one of those nights,” Mitchell said afterward. “I feel like if I play better, we win that game. I don’t want to put that on anything else. Put this one on me. We competed, we fought, but I played poorly on both ends of the floor.”
Mitchell isn’t wrong in his assessment. He scored 17, went 6-24 from the field, 1-11 from three, and missed defensive assignments. This was simply a bad game.
With the loss, Cleveland is now 0-5 when Mitchell plays and scores 21 points or fewer. They’re 8-1 when he puts up 35 or more. The Cavs can’t afford for Mitchell to play this poorly, even when they’re going against a bad and injured Charlotte team.
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Second quarters continue to give the Cavs problems. Things started fine, but they took a turn for the worse once the initial subs entered the game. This included losing the second quarter 24-18 as the Cavs went 5-23 from the field (21.7%).
This is the time of the game when you get the deepest bench lineups. Teams like the Cavs usually start the second quarter with at least three reserves. On Sunday, Cleveland didn’t go back to their full starting lineup until just over three minutes left in the half.
This is the quarter that has hurt the Cavs the most. They’ve registered a
-12.4 net rating in the second quarter this season. That’s good for
28th in the league. This is by far their worst quarter as they have a positive net rating every other quarter and have the
third-best second-half net rating in the league (
+10.1).
The numerous injuries the team is dealing with have obviously impacted the starting lineup, but they’ve still been able to put together decent groupings. The lineups with three or more reserves are the ones that have struggled most. Atkinson has been forced to use players who wouldn’t be in the rotation when they are healthy.
We can talk about how helpful guys like Nae’Qwan Tomlin, Tyrese Proctor, or Craig Porter Jr. have been this season. And while they have been surprisingly good at times, they currently aren’t the caliber of player you can rely on to consistently anchor good bench lineups. Especially when some of the starters, like De’Andre Hunter, have struggled as much as they have.
Hunter missed three shots in one possession, all of which were inside eight feet, with his last attempt being blocked by two Hornets.
This served as a perfect encapsulation of Hunter’s season so far.
Atkinson said at media day that Hunter wasn’t utilized enough after being acquired at last season’s trade deadline. He played well then, even though he was mostly miscast as a backup power forward.
The Cavs have prioritized putting Hunter in his proper position this season and given him a chance as a starter. He’s yet to reward the team for doing so.
Hunter went 1-7 from the field with just four points on Sunday. The defensive end hasn’t been much better as he still struggles with navigating screens, is susceptible to being blown by, and doesn’t rebound well for his size. This resulted in him being benched down the stretch and in overtime on Sunday.
The defense was an issue once again. The Cavs have consistently found themselves in rotation this season. The point-of-attack defense isn’t where it needs to be. And when Evan Mobley isn’t there to bail them out, things can get ugly, as they did at times against Charlotte.
CHA once again 1) pushes after a make and 2) works to put Darius Garland in action early.
Early switch leads to a post-up attempt. help is sent and there's never a sense of recovery from there.
pic.twitter.com/acGME0p9sZ
— Nekias (Nuh-KY-us) Duncan (@NekiasNBA)
December 14, 2025
This even led Cavs TV analyst Brad Daugherty to rightfully call out the defensive effort afterward.
Woo boy. Brad Daugherty not pulling any punches on the Cavs first half defense.
"People, our guys are just stopping and staying on the weakside and it's layup city."
pic.twitter.com/E16YoTvKpB
— RealCavsFans.com (@realcavsfans)
December 14, 2025
While this is a concern, it was the
offensive side of the ball that lost them this game.
The three-ball hasn’t fallen like it did last season. That happened again as the Cavs went 12-38 from distance (32%). This has led to Atkinson imploring his team to get inside the paint more. The issue is they aren’t making those either.
The Cavs converted just
51.6% of their shots in the restricted area (
8th percentile) and
35% of their looks between 4-14 feet (
22nd percentile).
This isn’t a recent trend. The Cavs came into this game
20th in the league in accuracy at the rim (
66.4%).
Everything comes back to the three-point shooting. If they were hitting those, they would be able to get inside much easier than they have been.
“They’re connected,” Atkinson said. “When you start making some threes, it opens up shot fakes and drives to the rim. If I played one-on-one with you and I wasn’t making any threes, it’s gonna be tough for me to get to the rim because you start backing off me, if I don’t have a physical advantage. So, they’re related, but we can do a better job.”
It’s a make-or-miss league. That also goes for shots inside the arc.
Darius Garland played his best game of the season, but was still hobbled. He got inside the paint, scoring a season-high 26 points on 8-15 shooting to go along with nine assists. There were times you could see glimpses of the two-time All-Star.
At the same time, he admitted afterward that it was his toe that was bothering him toward the end of the game, but he doesn’t want to use that as an excuse.
“I’ve answered all the questions about my toe,” Garland said. “I’m not even going to answer anymore about my toe. I’m out there playing. I’m out there for my teammates, trying to win basketball games.”
Jarrett Allen returned to the court on Sunday, but once again wasn’t in the closing lineup. Lonzo Ball replaced him down the stretch and in overtime, with Atkinson choosing to go with Dean Wade at the five. When asked about it afterward, Atkinson mentioned that he liked the small-ball lineup in this matchup.
While that’s certainly justifiable, this has been a theme with Allen all season. Atkinson has continually gone away from him to close games, even when that leaves him with imperfect options elsewhere.
You don’t want to get too big picture after a game like this, but in a salary cap sport, it doesn’t make sense to keep someone they’re paying as much as Allen if he’s consistently benched at the close of games.
The Cavs have talked about needing to go through adversity throughout the season, but have yet to respond well to it.
Circumstances outside of your control often determine success. Much more luck is involved in sports than we often care to admit. It’s possible that the injuries just keep this team from coming close to whatever their ceiling is.
At the same time, the process isn’t where it needs to be from the available players. There have been stretches of good play — as there was throughout the second part of the third quarter and most of the fourth — but it’s often been preceded by awful defense and bad offensive possessions. The consistency isn’t there. And hasn’t been through the first third of the season.
“It’s upsetting,” Mitchell said when asked about the team’s habits. “It’s stuff that we can control. I’m not gonna say concern because, like I said, you’re there 75% of the time, or 85%, but then that little 15% changes, and then we’re also not making shots, which sometimes affects our defense, which isn’t great. I’m not going to use the word concern, like I told you before, but it’s upsetting.”
The sky might not be falling, but the Cavs may be sitting in a pot of hot water that will be boiling soon if things don’t change. And so far this season, they’ve given very few reasons to believe that they will.
“We’re not playing well,” Mithell said. “The city deserves better than what we’ve been giving them.”
