Cleveland's Loss To The 76ers Proves They Have A Long Way To Go To Be Contenders

The Philadelphia 76ers exposed many of the Cleveland Cavaliers' flaws on Wednesday night.

The Cavaliers are heading into the All-Star break on a hot streak of 7-1. From the outside, they've been pretty good at basketball, but that one loss shows where Cleveland stands in the Eastern Conference.

Wednesday night was the Cavs' final game before the long weekend and they suffered a brutal loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. The final score ended up being 118-112 but the Cavs were down by 28 at one point.

I'll admit it, parts of this game were tough to watch.

In the end, Cleveland was outplayed, out-hustled, out-coached, out-manned, and was the inferior team on every level. Yes, they were able to cut it close at the end but even when it mattered the most they made costly mental errors that a more experienced Philadelphia team didn't make. 

One of these errors was deciding to foul James Harden instead of trapping him like coach J.B. Bickerstaff was calling out. This foul put the game out of reach for the Cavs in the final two minutes. 

Cleveland is also known for their defense which currently ranks second in the league. But that defense was nowhere to be found on Wednesday as they allowed the 76ers to shoot 48 percent from three and 50 percent from the floor. 

This defense won't cut it in a long playoff series. 

The Cavs' bench was also subpar compared to the 76ers. Cleveland was only able to get 12 points from their reserves, including five from Caris LeVert, three from Danny Green, two from Raul Neto, and two from Lamar Steven. On the other hand, Philadelphia's bench scored 30 points.

In Cleveland's defense, they were without both Cedi Osman and Ricky Rubio who play heavy minutes on any given night. 

I've spent a lot of time going through what didn't go right for the Cavs, but it wasn't all bad. Cleveland was able to cut the deficit to just four points with a couple of minutes to go after trailing by 28. They outscored Philadelphia in both the third and fourth quarters.

A lot of teams would see themselves trailing by almost 30 points and completely give up on the game. But credit has to be given to how Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland brought the Cavs back.

Cleveland needs to take the good from this loss and come out of the All-Star break and apply it to a full game. 

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