Cavs make wrong kind of playoff history not seen since 1997

Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers must have been over the moon after they clinched their spot in the Eastern Conference Finals back on the 17th of May. But just eight days later, their season is over. The New York Knicks have sent Mitchell and the Cavs home, with the Cavs bowing out in rather embarrassing fashion — losing Game 4 of the ECF in blowout fashion, 130-93, despite being at home.

The Cavs have to be thinking big picture; they have now fallen short of their goal of winning a title or even making it to the NBA Finals for four consecutive years. While adding Mitchell has established the Cavs as one of the most consistent teams in the NBA during that span, they have to be wondering whether or not to make seismic changes as they continue to try and get over the hump.

But they have to be wondering why the effort level they’ve displayed throughout this year’s playoffs tends to wane. For example, the Cavs have allowed 20-plus points off turnovers in 10 games this playoffs, per Keerthika Uthayakumar of StatKeeks. They played a total of 18 games in the 2026 NBA playoffs, which means that they’ve gotten thrashed in transition for over half of those games.

The Cavs did lose 10 times in this year’s playoffs, and simply put, not taking care of the basketball and being unable to get back in transition is quite the recipe for disaster. It doesn’t help that Cleveland is one of the rare teams employing a double big lineup, and the floor tends to get imbalanced, which means that they cannot make up as much ground when coming back to defend the break.

This Cavs front office is no doubt going to be very busy this offseason, but at the end of the day, the team just needs more defenders and athletes to try and complement the Mitchell-led core.

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