It has been a tough past few days for Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs guard missed two games against Memphis and Brooklyn due to a groin injury but saw his team extend their stellar winning streak to 16 games. On Sunday, Mitchell made a comeback to the court against the Orlando Magic with the hopes of helping his team win their 17th game in a row. However, the Magic had other plans, as they won a hard-fought battle against the Cavaliers. If snapping a sixteen-game winning streak wasn’t frustrating enough!

On Tuesday, the LA Clippers made Mitchell’s return to the hardwood even worse. Cleveland entered the Intuit Dome looking to bounce back from a defeat but veteran superstar Kawhi Leonard stood firm between them and a win. The Klaw was in his groove and for the first time this season looked like the old Kawhi. He finished the night with 33 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. But, these stats don’t do justice to Leonard’s elite-level shooting as he shot a ridiculous 63.2 percent from the field and 83.3 percent from the deep. With Kawhi’s support, the Clippers rolled past the Cavs, 132-119.

After suffering back-to-back embarrassments, Cleveland’s head coach Kenny Atkinson was left visibly frustrated by his team’s poor defensive performance. After the game, Atkinson wasn’t impressed by his players for allowing Kawhi and Co. to shoot so freely throughout the night. “They play great, um elite shotmaking performance by them, um poor defensive performance by us.” The Cavaliers HC stated. Moreover, he also blamed his team’s poor discipline putting LA on the line and giving them second chances another key factor for this agonizing defeat. Then Atkinson issued a stern warning for his players keeping the playoffs in mind.

“I guess to learn or take away from it, I don’t know a little bit, um yeah just got to be better. You know that that kind of defensive performance means you’re not surviving in a playoff atmosphere.” Atkinson asserted. Well, Atkinson’s team was outplayed by the Clippers in rebounding as LA grabbed 49 rebounds compared to Cleveland’s 29. Moreover, they were beaten by the LA’s physicality in the second half of the game. So, Atkinson’s warning sounds fair! The performances they’ve put up in the last couple of games are nowhere near the level of the top-seed team in the East.

However, this begs the question of whether is this just another bump along the road or something the Cavaliers should be concerned about.

Are these back-to-back defeats a reason to worry for Cleveland?

Against the Magic, Cleveland missed a massive 56 shots overall and 30 threes. Then on Tuesday, they saw themselves getting bullied by Ivica Zubac and the Clippers in rebounding. To top it all off, Cleveland was disastrous in the final quarter of the game against LA scoring a mere 17 points and shooting a single, yes, a single three in the entire quarter. While we have to give credit where it’s due, both Orlando and LA played well and deserved to win, could this be something to worry about for Cleveland when we look at the bigger picture?

Well, their head coach Kenny Atkinson himself accepted the fact that performances like these won’t survive in the playoffs. But, the Cavaliers have been impressive throughout the season, they’ve had not just one but two massive winning streaks. So, the team knows how to bounce back, that’s for sure. Moreover, this is just the third time Cleveland has lost back-to-back games this season. Also, the fact that they’ve built a huge gap between them and the rest of the Conference might be playing a factor in them getting a bit complacent.

The Cavaliers are well ahead and already booked their tickets for the playoffs so they don’t have much to look forward to in the regular season. They next head to Sacramento to face the Kings with the hopes of bouncing back. However, even if they don’t that won’t necessarily ring alarm bells in Cleveland as they’ve reached a point where a few defeats won’t cause a lot of trouble. But, they must not get too comfortable, as that could really affect their performances when it matters. Well, for now, we can just wait and watch how Donovan Mitchell and Co. play their next game in Sacramento.