This Cleveland Cavaliers team has been solid in the regular season ever since they brought in Donovan Mitchell back in 2022. Suffice to say, despite entering their Monday night contest against the Charlotte Hornets with a record of 5-5, they have earned the benefit of the doubt and that it's only a matter of time before they turn things around. But more red flags have come to the forefront after the Cavs' embarrassing 124-112 loss to the Hornets.

That 12-point ending deficit does not do justice to how putrid the Cavs were on the night. They outscored the Hornets by 15 in the fourth, and the game was long decided by then. For head coach Kenny Atkinson, he felt as though the Hornets simply outplayed and outhustled the Cavs.

“I just felt like their energy level was at a 10, our energy level was at a five. The difference in energy level was stark,” Atkinson said in his postgame presser, via RealCavsFans on X.

Kenny on how the Cavs came out:

"I just felt like their energy level was at a 10, our energy level was at a 5. … The difference in energy level was stark." pic.twitter.com/6iIdsBydlC

— RealCavsFans.com (@realcavsfans) November 10, 2026

It was obvious that the Cavs came out flat, and it did not help that their superstars did not show up yet again. James Harden has been in the middle of a slump to begin the 2026-27 season, and that persisted on Monday, as he finished with just 11 points on 3-of-9 shooting from the field.

Meanwhile, Mitchell wasn't much better, if at all. He scored 11 points as well and shot 4-of-11 from the field.

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But perhaps the most worrying part about all this is that the Cavs allowed the team with the worst offense in the NBA entering the night to pop off for 124 points and shoot 50% from three-point land.

The Hornets also dominated the Cavs on the boards (49-32), and Charlotte had 11 more shot attempts than Cleveland as a result of this discrepancy on the glass.

The season is long, and the Cavs have plenty of time to get it together — starting on Wednesday in an Eastern Conference Finals rematch against the New York Knicks.