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What To Make Of The Cleveland Cavaliers’ 24-Game Losing Streak?

The Cleveland Cavaliers set a record on Saturday night with their 24th consecutive loss in one season. (Their next chance to break the streak: at Dallas on Monday night.) With the year that Cavs fans have lived through – only made worse last summer by Dan Gilbert’s angry letter and undelivered promise of winning – what should Cavs fans believe anymore? Here’s a sampling of the different reactions that Cleveland’s viewers took in the first few hours after the team’s 24th straight loss:

Acceptance: “These guys are used to misery,” says the Cleveland Plain Dealer‘s Terry Pluto, speaking about Cavs fans. “The Cavs are an NBA worst 8-43, which is not the negative in the big picture of trying to recreate the franchise in the post-LeBron James Era. It should mean a high draft pick and perhaps setting up some trades.”

Even though this was perceived as a rebuilding year, though, the front office “never imagined the team would be historically horrible.” What’s gone wrong? Injuries, bad defense, bad offense, lack of speed – pretty much everything. But at least “most fans seem to understand, or at least be resigned to how swift[ly] and severe[ly] the team has fallen.”

Hope: “This season started off with promise,” recalls Leo Florkowski at Bleacher Report. And with “one of the weakest drafts in recent memory,” on the horizon, things won’t turn around any time soon. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and it’s now time to start hoping that “LeBron chokes in the playoffs once again and gets to watch someone else win it all.” LeBron’s suffering would make Cavs fans feel better about their position. “Hopefully this nightmare is over sometime soon. Until then the consecutive losses are at 24 and counting.”

Need for salvation: “It’s just another game, really. And that’s how the Cavaliers have to think of it. You can’t think about it too much, your role in one of the truly worst teams in NBA history,” says Matt Moore at NBC Sports. “It’s just something that happened. Like it happens to Cleveland, seemingly every year in some sport.” But with the team at “rock bottom” right now, having “gone down the tubes,” all that’s left to say is “God save the Cavaliers. God save Cleveland.”

AP photo (Mark Duncan), via