Cavs’ Win In Portland Gets Mixed Feelings From Team

The Cleveland Cavaliers had split team reactions after their latest win over the Portland Trail Blazers to end the four-game road trip.

After four games and over a week on the road, the Cleveland Cavaliers are finally coming home. 

The good news is that the team redeemed itself with a 109-95 win over the Portland Trail Blazers, making it a split-record trip out west. Plus, the wine-and-gold will have seven of the next eight games at home through the end of November.

Yet, even with a victory to close things out, some of the Cavs didn’t feel too hot about the way they performed against a severely undermanned, inexperienced Blazers bunch.

The Cavs took hold of the Blazers from the start with a 25-11 getaway, but did not close out the opening quarter or the next two, so Portland stuck in there. Cleveland had moments of self-inflicted wounds that gave the home team life. Luckily, the wine-and-gold’s fourth-quarter surge was enough to wear the opposition down. Not pretty, but a win was a win.

“Maybe a step, but not two,” Max Strus told Bally Sports Ohio in a postgame on-court interview. “We can still do a better job with our effort, I think. It was kind of a lazy game. [There] wasn't a lot of energy. I think we can pick that up, and hopefully, we will when we go back home.”

Veteran leader and team favorite Tristan Thompson did his usual fun-loving videobomb while he offered his thoughts, but Strus meant all business after the game. 

Cleveland head coach J.B. Bickerstaff also appeared less than enthused with the night itself.

“It’s over and we get to go home,” Bickerstaff said, shaking his head at the podium. “Not that we're being picky [but] we scrapped it out at the end of a long road trip, which can be difficult. I thought we did things well... in spurts. It's over with. We get to go home and see our families.”

On the other hand, in the locker room, Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell felt more pleased about Wednesday than those two.

“I feel we definitely made a step forward tonight,” Mobley said. “I feel like we played pretty consistent throughout the whole entire game. We've just got to keep carrying that into each game and continue that over and over again.”

“I think we did a lot of things right,” Mitchell added. “They're a team that we've seen that we can't take 'em lightly. We got up, let 'em come back a little bit, but you've got to give them credit [because] they never stopped fighting. But for us, it's just about what we did as a group collectively. [We] did a lot of really positive things. The biggest thing now is just being able to keep it consistent. Like I said against Sac, the first 10 games are over with. All we can do is figure out what to do from here.”

Nov 15, 2023; Portland, Oregon, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Max Strus (1) and Portland Trail Blazers guard Shaedon Sharpe (17) chase after a loose ball during the first half at Moda Center / Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports

Bickerstaff reflected on the roadie as a whole with a touch more positivity.

“I think we had great conversations, spent a lot of time together, got on the same page, went through some hardships, some adversities, which are things that bring you together. So from that standpoint, I think the trip was a good one,” Bickerstaff said.

“Obviously, we could've had a couple better performances I thought, especially on the defensive end of the floor. But I think guys have an understanding of who we are and what we need to be, and now we've got to carry that over.”

With those 10 days behind them, the Cavs are heading back to Cleveland with a 5-6 record and a chance to right the ship.

“Lot of things we can clean up,” Mitchell said. “But it's always good to have these things early then go home, get back to where you're comfortable at, get back to Rocket Mortgage [FieldHouse] and get it going. We've got a tough task coming up. We've got Detroit and then we've got Denver, Miami, Philly. So we've got to be ready, we've got to be locked in.”