'Why stop now?': The Cavaliers have been at their best with their backs against the wall
BOSTON — The league keeps trying to bury them, but they keep coming back to life.
That has been the story of the 2023-24 Cavaliers thus far.
Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff recently called them a team "left for dead" at different points this season by many people. He wasn't wrong.
It would be a lot easier if it wasn't done this way, but the Cavs seem to find their highest level of play shortly after falling to their lowest of lows. Being "left for dead" seems to work like a charm for them.
Time and time again a brutal loss, or a losing streak, or a tough break on the injury front has been followed by the Cavs' best moments.
"It talks about the togetherness of the group, the reliance fo the group, and the importance of winning to them," Bickerstaff said Thursday after the Cavs' 118-94 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 2, which came after a blowout loss in Game 1, because of course it did. "There is no other agenda. We've got playoff games in front of us that we need to win, and the guys sacrifice and are willing to do whatever it takes to win. They don't want to disappoint one another."
Losing streaks during the regular season were followed by blistering hot spurts that included some of their best basketball. After they lost Darius Garland and Evan Mobley to major injuries in a matter of hours, instead of the season being virtually over, the Cavs found their rhythm, discovered perhaps their most effective offensive style and had one of the best records in the league over the next several weeks.
They limped into the playoffs only to win Games 1 and 2 against the Orlando Magic wire to wire.
After the absolute beatdowns in Orlando in Games 3 and 4, the Cavs won Game 5 in thrilling fashion. Then, after losing Game 6 and falling into an 18-point hole in Game 7, with their playoff hopes fading fast and the summer on their doorstep, the Cavs rallied to pull of a historic comeback win.
Cavaliers rebound after blowout loss in Game 1 to beat Boston Celtics in Game 2 and even the series
Then they get dismantled with a 25-point loss in Game 1 of the second round against the Boston Celtics. When the final whistle blew Tuesday night, a four-game sweep sure seemed more possible than ever.
So what happens with their backs again against the wall Thursday night in Boston? The Cavs crush the No. 1-seeded Celtics, the team that won 64 games and was the best team in the East by a mile in Game 2 with a 24-point blowout win to even the series 1-1. They had Celtics fans leaving the arena with five minutes left.
The Cavs have been one shovel full of dirt away from being completely buried several times, only to punch their hand through the threshold and climb out like in almost every old school zombie movie ever made.
"I think the biggest thing is we have a group that sticks together and believes in each other," said Donovan Mitchell, who scored a game-high 29 points in the Game 2 win. "It's easy to kind of be, like, 'We don't got it, we don't have it.' Everybody's, like, you want to trend upward in the playoffs and [saying] different things. … For us it's continuing to build and believe in each other as a group."
They will remain heavy underdogs to win this series against the Celtics, the team that cruised to the No. 1 seed in the East. But regardless of how the series turns out, or how these playoffs end for them, the Cavaliers have shown a remarkable knack of unburying themselves just as the sunlight, and any hope, begins to fade.
As Mitchell added, talking about their never-say-die mentality that has saved their season and postseason multiple times now, "Understanding that we've been through so much, why stop now?"
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com. Follow him on Threads at @ByRyanLewis.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Cavaliers beat Boston Celtics in Game 2 to even series 1-1
