Cleveland Cavaliers Still Have One Glaring Issue Despite Winning Game 5

The Cavs picked up the home win against the Raptors in Game 5, but ball distribution was still a huge problem area. Can the Cavs get back on track before the conference semifinals?

Apr 29, 2026; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) talks to guard James Harden (1) against the Toronto Raptors in the first quarter of game five of the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Rocket Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-Imagn Images | David Richard-Imagn Images

The Cleveland Cavaliers have been one of the best teams in the league at distributing the ball, as the team was ranked in the top seven among playoff teams since the trade deadline in assists per game. However since the start of the playoffs, the Toronto Raptors are ranked first and the Cavs are in the bottom three in assists per game.

The Cavaliers won Game 1 convincingly, with an all around stellar team performance. However despite winning Game 2 by 10 points, there was a major issue with ball movement.

Distribution issues begin in Game 2

Game 2 was the first game where this became a minor issue.

This is because no single Cavs player was able to tally more than five assists, which is not ideal. 

Especially in the playoffs, it is essential that your point guard, or primary ball handler, is hitting their assist average at the bare minimum. This would be James Harden, who only had four assists in Game 2 despite averaging almost eight since joining the Cavs at the deadline.

Game 3 the Cavaliers struggled yet again to share the ball. This time, it resulted in a loss.

Evan Mobley was the Cavs assist leader with seven, which is the amount of assists that Mitchell and Harden combined for. In fact, Harden had twice as many turnovers (8) as he did assists (4).

The Cavaliers lost this game in large part due to the fact that their primary ball handlers in Mitchell and Harden fell significantly under their average for assists and distributed the ball so poorly that a former DPOY had to lead the team in assists.

This was not and is not sustainable.

Game 4 brought the worst ball handling/distributing performance of all 5 playoff games thus far. Even though Harden was able to bounce back with 8 assists, half of which came in the final quarter, his 7 turnovers overshadowed the whole affair.

Outside of Harden, the only other players to record assists were Donovan Mitchell(3), Evan Mobley(3), and Keon Ellis(1). This led to a pathetic team total of a whopping 15 assists.

Even in a victory, ballhandling was an issue for the Cavs in Game 5

Game 5, despite being a win, was another embarrassing showing for the Cavs ball handlers.

Harden again led the squad in assists, but he was only able to record five which was again overshadowed by his six turnovers.

This lack of dominance from the Cavs primary distributors led to a lackluster 20 assist total. However, the bright spot for Cavs fans was that every player that got minutes recorded at least one dime.

The winning solution to this issue come crunch time appeared to be Dennis Schröder minutes. Since ball distribution appears to be a challenge non-exclusive to road games, expect Kenny Atkinson to continue to workshop multiple adjustments until the issue is remedied.