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'A miserable part of our business:' Cavs learn harsh lessons as season ends with thud
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- 'A miserable part of our business:' Cavs learn harsh lessons as season ends with thud
CLEVELAND — Neither the trenches nor the psychological warfare favored the Cavaliers .
The Cavs weren't tough enough — physically or mentally — to advance past the New York Knicks in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
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And now Cleveland's season is over.
"As much as it hurts, these are the things that you go through that make you a better basketball player," Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. "Losses like these make you aware of the areas you need to improve in. They make you understand all the things that everybody tells you about playoff basketball."
The Cavs fell 106-95 in Game 5 Wednesday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, losing their best-of-seven series against the Knicks 4-1.
"It is a miserable part of our business," Bickerstaff said, "but you have to fail in order to be successful."
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Of the seven Cavs players who played the most minutes in the series, three of them had never previously been in the playoffs: point guard Darius Garland , forward Evan Mobley and small forward Isaac Okoro .
Garland conceded the Cavs encountered a learning curve because of the physicality and mental aspect of the postseason. He said the mind games were even more challenging than the rugged style of play.
"It's a lot of stuff going on in these games, especially at a fast pace," he said.
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Apr 26, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland (10) defends New York Knicks guard RJ Barrett (9) in the first quarter during game five of the 2023 NBA playoffs at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
The Cavs never held a lead against the Knicks in Game 5 of their NBA playoff series
The Cavs didn't handle the pressure of Wednesday's elimination game well.
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Despite entering the playoffs with a regular-season record of 51-31, the Eastern Conference's fourth seed and home-court advantage, the Cavs never led in their do-or-die showdown against Knicks, who went 47-35 and took the fifth seed.
The Knicks led by 18 points with 3:37 left in the third quarter, and the closest the Cavs came to completing a comeback was when Garland cut New York's lead to six points by making a jump shot with 8:10 remaining in the fourth quarter.
All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell led the Cavs in Game 5 with 28 points, Garland had 21 and small forward Caris LeVert added 17.
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Guard Jalen Brunson and forward RJ Barrett powered the Knicks' scoring with 23 and 21 points, respectively. Sixth man Immanuel Quickley had 19 points, a key to the Knicks beating the Cavs in bench scoring 32-19.
By the way, as the Knicks celebrated their first playoff series victory since 2013, Brunson explained they take pride in "just trying to be physically and mentally tough."
Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff talks with the media before an NBA basketball first-round playoff series game against the New York Knicks, Wednesday, April 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Phil Long)
In the buildup to tipoff Wednesday, center Jarrett Allen said the Cavs had been "a little rattled" during the series, and Bickerstaff admitted "psychological things" had played a role in the series.
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"Regular-season games, they just don't have that same intensity that the playoffs have," Bickerstaff said after Game 5. "The crowd is into it in another way. The pressure, the mental fatigue of every possession mattering is just not the same in the regular season as it is in the playoffs.
"As much as we talk about the physical aspect of the training, there's a mental aspect of the training as well. Like, can you sustain it for long periods of time without having that mental fatigue?"
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Sense of urgency is something the Cavs never consistently grasped. The team's knack for falling behind only to rally and pull off comeback victories in the regular season frustrated Bickerstaff and his assistants because they knew about the pitfalls.
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"When you find success sometimes in bad habits, you think it's OK," Bickerstaff said.
It was not OK in the playoffs.
Cleveland Cavaliers' Jarrett Allen (31) and New York Knicks' Mitchell Robinson (23) vie for a rebound during Game 5 in their first-round playoff series Wednesday, April 26, 2023, in Cleveland.
The Knicks finished their series against the Cavs with a rebounding advantage of 227-186
The Cavs being dominated by the Knicks in rebounding for the majority of the series wasn't, either.
Cleveland outrebounded New York just once — 43-36 in the Cavs' 107-90 Game 2 victory April 18 at home. In Wednesday's closeout game, the Knicks earned a rebounding advantage of 48-30, including 17-4 on the offensive end of the floor. New York had 20 second-chance points compared with Cleveland's three.
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"When you lose the rebounding battle in every game that you lose," Bickerstaff said, "and it's not from a lack of effort, that's when the physicality comes into play.
"There are regular-season games that the finesse can help you and get you through it. These [playoff] games, you have to be built to win in the trenches, and you have to be built to hit again and then hit one more time."
LeVert pointed out Cleveland actually shot better than New York in the series, finishing 44.9% from the field versus 43%. But the Knicks outrebounded the Cavs 227-186.
"They killed us on the glass all series," LeVert said. "It kind of takes the air out of you. It makes you feel like you've got to hit every shot just because you're getting one shot at it. They're getting two, three, four shots at it."
Apr 26, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; New York Knicks forward Julius Randle (30) is helped to his feet in the second quarter during game five of the 2023 NBA playoffs against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
The Knicks didn't even need All-Star power forward Julius Randle for all of Game 5 to thrash the Cavs on the boards. Randle suffered a left ankle injury and exited the action with 1:17 remaining in the second quarter. He had 13 points, six assists and four rebounds in 16 minutes.
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Knicks center Mitchell Robinson scored 13 points and grabbed a game-high 18 rebounds, including 11 on the offensive end. Conversely, his Cavs counterpart, Allen, had just four points and four rebounds.
"I think their size weighed on [Allen]," Bickerstaff said. "Mitchell Robinson is a big dude, and he understands exactly how he impacts winning, and I thought he went out and did it. He [imposed] his will on this series, and 11 offensive rebounds in a closeout game, give him credit because his will outweighed ours in that moment."
Bickerstaff and Garland said physicality was the difference between the two teams.
"We didn't punch first," Garland said. "We were always being punched, and that's what had to change."
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Caris LeVert (3) celebrates a 3-pointer in the first quarter of Game 5 of the 2023 NBA playoffs against the New York Knicks at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
LeVert said the coaching staff stressed the importance of the rebounding battle before every matchup with the Knicks, but New York set the tone for physicality March 31 in a 130-116 regular-season win in Cleveland. Aside from Game 2, the Cavs never recovered.
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"That was going to be the deciding factor," LeVert said, "and we never figured it out."
Mitchell tried to disperse the blame instead of allowing it to settle on Mobley and Allen.
"It's not just on our bigs," he said. "It's on us guards to get in there, get hits. Josh Hart had 12 [rebounds for the Knicks in Game 5]. He's a guard. He's not a big."
The anguish from the letdown led Garland to lament having "a bad taste" in his mouth after the game. He and his Cavs teammates vowed to use the defeat as motivation while they train in the offseason.
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LeVert revealed Mitchell shared the following advice in the locker room: "Let it fuel you. Don't let it kill you."
Knowing how to survive is crucial in the playoffs, and the Cavs should now have a better understanding.
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich .
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Cavaliers eliminated from NBA playoffs by New York Knicks
