Cavs prove they still have plenty of gelling together to do in loss to Wizards; three takeaways

Hill says the layoff was one of the worst things the Cavs had to contend with. pic.twitter.com/gtjYEgoc5Z

— Ashley Bastock (@AshleyBastock42) February 23, 2018

3. Still needing time to gel

Yeah, a loss is never ideal, but overall this felt different from losses earlier in the year, especially the ones leading up to the trade deadline.

Part of the problem was simply stalled momentum due to the All-Star break layoff.

“I think that was one of the worst things we had to deal with, finding that rhythm after taking those (nine) days off,” Hill said. “We can’t make excuses. We missed some great looks today that normally we’ve been making.”

“We had some really, really good looks and we played hard,” James said. “I think the legs being off for nine days kind of got to us, especially after the first quarter.”

The other issue at play was that the Cavs are still getting accustomed to one another on both ends of the floor. Basically, these sort of breakdowns were at times unsurprising, and aren’t anything to hit the panic button over.

“I mean there were quite a few (breakdowns) that were my fault, and it’s just kind of learning different guys,” Nance Jr. said. “Who gets over screens and who doesn’t, and different things like that. It’s our third game together and Washington is a good team. I don’t think there’s any reason to overreact.”

Larry Nance Jr. said that a lot of the defensive breakdowns are just a matter of not being as familiar with each other. pic.twitter.com/LY7AOuUQAE

— Ashley Bastock (@AshleyBastock42) February 23, 2018

“It’s still a work in progress with us,” James added. “It’s not going to be overnight, no matter the excitement over the break. We have a lot of things to work on and implement that we need to do, but tonight we still played our game and we just didn’t make a lot of shots.”

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