The mental grind of this season: The Cavs are undergoing their latest test
CLEVELAND — The Cavaliers are undergoing yet another test during what has been a tumultuous 2023-24 regular season. But this one doesn't have much to do with the court.
It's about the six inches of real estate between the ears.
To say the Cavs' recent schedule has been anything short of grueling wouldn't be doing it justice. Since the All-Star break, the Cavs have played 19 games in a span of 32 days. It won't be slowing down, either. The Cavs have an upcoming road trip in which they'll play five games in eight days.
It's a stretch that would test the depth of any roster — any fully healthy roster, that is. And the Cavs are far from that.
They've been without Donovan Mitchell and Max Strus for the last several weeks. They were without Evan Mobley for an extended stretch. Dean Wade was missing for a bit. Tristan Thompson was suspended for 25 games and then almost immediately, accidentally broke Mitchell's nose.
Since the All-Star break in mid-February, the Cavs' normal starting five has played a grand total of 44 minutes on the floor together.
It's why Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, who recently detailed that he received threats from sports bettors, referred to Monday night's game against the Charlotte Hornets, and generally this entire stretch, as a mental test as the team balances this grind of a stretch in their schedule with performance and rest.
"That's where we're talking bout the mental stamina and mental fitness is because you do have to stay engaged and stay locked in," Bickerstaff said. "It becomes a point where it does consume you."
The Cavs have been working closely with their training staff to manage workloads as much as possible, and to keep players having to log heavy minutes night after night from being bogged down.
"That's where you have to figure out with the training staff, with your strength and conditioning staff, like how you balance how much stuff you do on the floor as opposed to how much stuff you do [with film] where you're not using your legs as much, but trying to stay engaged in the basketball aspect of it, because you can't turn it on and off," Bickerstaff said. "Guys find some time to themselves to be humans as well. It's a tough balance, but it's just something that, as we consistently grow, we try to be better at it."
After Monday's much-needed win, Jarrett Allen, who has arguably been a top-10 NBA player this season, echoed the sentiment that the mental toll of a stretch like this is something most people overlook.
Allen's cure to try to take a mental break? Enjoy a nice spring day around Cleveland — when they show up, of course — and do absolutely nothing for a little bit.
"For me, it's just try to get away from basketball," Allen said. "Days like [Monday] in Cleveland, I'll go by the lake, sit on the hill and just watch the clouds go by. Little stuff like that goes a long way, especially out here where you barely see the sun, you just got to find the little moments to decompress."
Cavs holding onto No. 3 seed in the East despite injuries to Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus, Evan Mobley
Despite the packed schedule, and being without 60% of the starting lineup through most of it, the Cavs are 8-11 since the All-Star break. The hot streak just prior to the break was enough to vault them into position for the No. 2 seed in the East.
They've since dropped to No. 3, but an 8-11 record on tired legs with a banged-up starting rotation isn't something Bickerstaff views as overly negative, considering how easy it might have been for this stretch in their schedule to snowball on them.
"I think we are extremely fortunate and it says a lot about our group for us to be sitting in the position that we're still sitting after all the things that we went through," he said. "Things haven't been perfect for us. … Timing kind of sucks for us, being the back end of the year and so many guys being out in those types of things, but I believe we'll have enough time to get everybody back to catch a rhythm."
Bickerstaff put it pretty bluntly in that the Cavs don't have any choice but to attack their schedule in the best way they can. The other 29 teams don't care about what they're going through. As Bickerstaff said Monday, "Nobody gives a S***."
This stretch has been a perfect time for Bickerstaff to relay a lesson in coaching he learned from his father, also a long-time coach with a tremendous career in his own right.
"One of the things I learned from my dad is you're always coaching for the difficult times and the tough times," Bickerstaff said. "So when guys are down, frustrated, the relationships that we as coaches, assistant coaches in particular, who spend countless hours with guys behind the scenes … that's part of our responsibility as coaches is, we do set the mood, right? If we come in and feel sorry for ourselves, like, that's who they see. So give our guys some joy and help it carry over to the floor."
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com. Follow him on Threads at @ByRyanLewis.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cavaliers without Donovan Mitchell grinding through 'mental test'
