Winners and Losers: Cavs at Hawks – Bad habits cause painful losses

The Cleveland Cavaliers lost a frustrating one to the Atlanta Hawks. Their NBA Cup dreams are dead. Let’s see who else won or lost the night.

This was only the third time all season the Cavaliers had their full expected starting five available. That’s wild.

Simply having these guys on the court was enough to feel relieved. The outcome of this game was less important. Having all five of your best players healthy and available is the first step towards gaining any momentum and finding your identity. Anything less than that is a non-starter.

However you feel about this team through November, the Cavs could change everything if they manage to stay healthy moving forward. You can say that’s wishful thinking. But that wish is only possible if the team is healthy. Right now, they’re trending in the right direction.

The Cavs opened this game with a 7-0 run. That’s the energy you want to see after three games off. But that engagement didn’t last. The Hawks immediately flipped the game and built a 13-point lead, putting Cleveland into an early hole.

The energy during this stretch was awful. Cleveland’s offense was stagnant and rushed. Their defense was even worse, blowing rotations and allowing straight-line drives. The Cavs responded in the second quarter and got this game under control. But you never want to see such a total lack of focus as they displayed at the start of this one.

Process matters. Playing with a purpose is the only thing you can control. If you abandon your winning habits and start playing lazy basketball, these games will quickly get away from you. I’d argue that happened tonight. The Cavs played like they didn’t care about this game. That’s going to bite you more often than not.

Cleveland’s first quarter slump was threatening to carry over into the second. That is, before De’Andre Hunter tore down the roof with a monster slam over Mouhamed Gueye. Hunter’s hostile slam caused Gueye to retaliate with a shove — and that was enough to revive the competitive fire inside the Cavs.

It didn’t last forever, but Hunter’s dunk gave the Cavaliers life for the remainder of the half.

Highlight plays like this can serve as more than food for social media. They can deliver serious momentum shifts that change the outlook of games. Hunter did this same thing earlier in the season, when he crossed Josh Giddey into another dimension before dunking on the Chicago Bulls during Cleveland’s comeback win.

The shot clocks that sit on top of the backboard were malfunctioning to start the second half. After a brief pause, the game returned with a pair of shot clocks sitting on the baseline for each team.

Then those clocks stopped working too.

The game officially returned with no shot clock other than the ones facing towards the sidelines. Atlanta’s PA announcer had to announce over the speakers whenever the clock hit 10 seconds. Nobody likes that.

Mobley has had every movement scrutinized this season. That’s for a valid reason. The Cavs are expecting greatness out of Mobley. And the pressure will grow for every game he goes without delivering it.

I don’t know if Mobley was great tonight, but he was flirting with it. A rough night shooting the ball, including a handful of questionable shot attempts, likely holds back. But the impact he showed on the box score was tangible when watching the game. 20 points, 14 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks had Mobley’s hands in every cookie jar.

Mobley still hasn’t figured out how to take over games. His offensive repertoire looks too limited to make that happen. Maybe it will come in the future. For now, he’s getting back to the All-NBA floor he set for himself last season. Let’s see if he can build on this and take it any further as the season goes on.