INDEPENDENCE — Two years after the Cavaliers were bullied out of the NBA playoffs by the New York Knicks, Cleveland’s lack of toughness has returned to the forefront.
This is a conversation the top-seeded Cavs are driving on the heels of their 4-1 series defeat to the fourth-seeded Indiana Pacers in a best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal.
“We got to get tougher — mentally, physically,” Cavs small forward Max Strus said Wednesday, May 14, less than 24 hours after Cleveland’s season ended way earlier than it expected.
Toughness comes in different forms.
Unlike against the Knicks in 2023, the Cavs weren’t crushed by the Pacers in rebounding. The Cavs actually outrebounded the Pacers 229-208 in their second-round matchup, including 70-35 on the offensive end of the floor. As far as game-by-game results go, the Cavs won the rebounding battle twice, lost it twice and tied with the Pacers once.
In this year’s playoffs, the toughness the Cavs sought had more to do with focus, fight, composure and assertiveness. It was tied to keeping up with the Pacers’ elite transition offense and handling their full-court defensive pressure. Indiana’s relentless pace clearly wore down Cleveland on multiple fronts.
“If you look at the series, we kind of weren’t ready for Game 1,” Strus said. “I think the Miami series [sweep in the first round] didn’t really prepare us for that, and we kind of slept on that and didn’t come out with the same force and aggression.
“Then Game 2, can’t lose that one. The toughness in teams and knowing how to win and toughing games out, that’s where it is. You got to close those games out when you’re up. [In Game 5] we were up [19 points] in the first half. In the playoffs, those got to be wins, and that’s where we needed to grow and learn as a team and kind of understand that.”
Strus knows what is required in the postseason because he went to the NBA Finals with the Miami Heat in 2023, yet he is hardly the only member of the 2024-25 Cavs kicking himself about a lack of collective toughness.
The topic became a central theme of player season wrap-up news conferences at Cleveland Clinic Courts.
A small sampling …
- All-Star point guard Darius Garland: “The mental toughness, the physical toughness that we’ve been through before and just trying to get over that hump. … It’s hard getting over that hump, so we’ve got to figure out what can we do to make that next step.”
- Forward Dean Wade: “[The Pacers] kind of absorbed the punches we were throwing and just kind of stayed in the fight. And then whenever we got tired, they just kind of took over.”
- Center Tristan Thompson: “Every matchup [in the playoffs] is about which team can be more physical. The possessions go down. The physicality goes up. The whistle is blown less. So it’s about physicality, mental toughness, who’s going to play hard and compete for longer. I think you’ve got to give the Pacers credit. They competed at a higher level with physicality for longer.”
For the Cavs, exhibiting toughness at times in the regular season has yet to consistently translate to requisite playoff grit.
So how can the Cavs become tough enough to flourish when it really counts?
“I think it can be learned through tough times,” Strus said. “That’s with anything in life. When you go through tough times, tough things, you kind of learn more about yourself and kind of who you want to become and who you are from those experiences.”
Strus called the Cavs being eliminated by the Pacers in Round 2 “a wasted opportunity.” All he can do now is hope the Cavs come back with a vengeance in the playoffs this time next year.
“You can talk about it all you want,” Strus said. “But until you actually show up and be about it, talking don’t really matter.”
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.
