{"id":355670,"date":"2025-12-18T07:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T07:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/355670\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T07:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T07:43:07","slug":"donovan-mitchell-jarrett-allen-urge-cavs-to-stick-with-it-amid-testing-rut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/355670\/","title":{"rendered":"Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen urge Cavs to \u2018stick with it\u2019 amid testing rut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen urge Cavs to \u2018stick with it\u2019 amid testing rut<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> are going to wake up from the nightmare they\u2019re in right now, it will take a team effort. After the wine and gold\u2019s latest 127-111 loss on the road to the Chicago Bulls, Donovan Mitchell<\/a> and Jarrett Allen are electing to uplift rather than scold while this group tries to find a way out of a near-season-long funk.<\/p>\n

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\u201cJust stick with it,\u201d Mitchell told reporters following the game. \u201cYes, it\u2019s frustrating. It sucks. But at the end of the day, what are you gonna do, feel bad? You know what I mean? It\u2019s December 17. What are we gonna do, call it in right now? Keep going. Keep doing it. And some of it too is we\u2019re not making shots. It\u2019s tough. We\u2019re getting great looks, and we have a lot of really, really good shooters. Sometimes, that\u2019s just how it goes for a little bit, you know what I mean? That\u2019s to no fault. Sometimes, you\u2019re just in a rut. You\u2019ve kinda got to accept it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, everybody thinks of everything that could be going wrong, but at the end of the day, I\u2019m gonna stick with the team,\u201d Allen added. \u201cThat\u2019s the easiest thing to do; you could think bad about what\u2019s going on now, you could give up, but at the end of the day, if you keep trying, keep fighting, things are gonna go right eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cavs allowed 68 points in the paint to the Bulls, many of which came in transition and off turnovers. Cleveland had the shot profile it desired<\/a> once again, but an uncharacteristic 20 miscues proved costly and gave Chicago odd-man advantages. However, even in the half-court, the Cavs\u2019 defense lacked awareness on back cuts and couldn\u2019t keep up with the speedier home team after makes or misses.<\/p>\n

The Bulls also threw a 2-3 zone at the Cavs after a 28-16 start, completely disrupting any rhythm the visitors had from the outset. Though Cleveland ended up shooting a respectable 48.3% from the floor, it went a paltry 12-of-39 from downtown.<\/p>\n

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\u201cGuys are in there, guys are working on their games,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like the habits aren\u2019t there, right? Obviously, defensively, we\u2019ve got to clean that up. But offensively, we keep getting good looks. Sometimes, the shot\u2019s just not falling which then leads to them scoring and we don\u2019t, then ultimately we lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in everybody in this locker room, we believe in each other, and it\u2019s gonna turn. But you can\u2019t sit here and tuck your tail between your legs and be sad just because we\u2019re getting booed and we\u2019re not playing well. There\u2019s an expectation. We [have] an expectation to be a championship team; we\u2019re not even close to playing like it. So, that\u2019s just what that is. I would always rather [have] this today than a few months from now. So stick with it, stick with each other, which we are, and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed on why that faith is holding strong, Mitchell states it\u2019s because Cleveland hasn\u2019t been, and still isn\u2019t, at full strength. Connectors like Sam Merrill and Max Strus have been missed offensively, as well as the recently shelved Evan Mobley.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not healthy. I don\u2019t know how else to put it,\u201d Mitchell said reluctantly, not wanting to make an excuse for Cleveland\u2019s shortcomings. \u201cThey help with a lot of the things that we\u2019re struggling with offensively. Defensively, we can be who we are. But I think offensively, even just their presence, that\u2019s what gives me belief.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe know who we are as a complete group. We saw it in training camp. We had a really good belief coming into the season. We played well to start the season. Obviously, we gradually became inconsistent, but I believe in everybody in this locker room as we should because we\u2019ve shown that we can be that team. Now, it\u2019s just a matter of sticking with it, sticking with the mental, not letting the outside noise affect your mental. Just say, \u2018Hey, we\u2019ve got this,\u2019 and we\u2019ll be alright.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson<\/a> isn\u2019t second-guessing his group, either, remaining steadfast in his trust. He pointed out the positives, like Mitchell playing while under the weather, Allen giving them solid minutes, Darius Garland looking more like himself<\/a>, Craig Porter Jr. giving Cleveland \u201creally good\u201d minutes, and getting stops in zone coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur job is to keep trying and keep tweaking,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cMove lineups around, try different guys, give different guys chances. We\u2019ve got some guys in a funk, some guys that are not grooving right now, so try to find a way to help them, try to create lineups that can help them the most. I don\u2019t think staying status quo is the way to go when you\u2019re struggling. You\u2019ve got to keep looking at different things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say, during these times, you discover a lot about yourself, you discover a lot about your team. You can find things, too, find things that can help you down the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Allen feels that getting out of this rough spell will just take time. He and the Cavs don\u2019t know how much it requires, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeams go through ruts all the time,\u201d Allen said. \u201cSometimes it takes some time to get out of \u2019em. Like Indiana last year, that\u2019s a perfect point of view. They didn\u2019t have the best start to the season. Look at us now, we\u2019re in the same position sort of\u2026 You can see flashes of it. You can see who we are. You can see us on the court having great stretches. So we know who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell doesn\u2019t see any in-fighting or heads dropping despite Cleveland\u2019s back-to-back losses and fourth in its last six games. There have been a lot of opportunities for the wine and gold to pull apart amid these frustrating times; they\u2019ve stayed strong through it all in response \u2014 which reflects the six-time All-Star\u2019s message.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re gonna sit here \u2014 and I\u2019m not saying we are \u2014 if we sit here and feel sorry and, \u2018Oh, woe is me\u2019 in December\u2026 Stick with it,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cI\u2019ve been in this position before. It\u2019s a lot of season left, a lot of time left. It sucks. It\u2019s not great. But stick with it. Keep your spirit. Keep your togetherness, and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: 1 statistic that proves Cavs\u2019 X-factor deserves to start amid Evan Mobley\u2019s absence<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen try to pinpoint reason behind Cavs\u2019 inconsistencies<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen urge Cavs to \u2018stick with it\u2019 amid testing rut appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[7329,8174,138362,27494,13054,119052,2652,27495,27497,355,111822,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-355670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-chicago-bulls","9":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","10":"tag-craig-porter-jr","11":"tag-darius-garland","12":"tag-donovan-mitchell","13":"tag-evan","14":"tag-indiana","15":"tag-jarrett-allen","16":"tag-max-strus","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-sam-merrill","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}