Max Strus should've taken his own advice for Game 5 against the Pacers

Max Strus is the butt of many jokes on social media, following Cleveland’s exit from the postseason Tuesday night at the hands of the Indiana Pacers. While shooting 0 for 9 in any game might be reason enough for this, it was actually his message to teammates prior to game five that has folks giving Strus the side eye. Strus sent a text to teammates before the game, seemingly in an attempt to rally the troops.

“If you don’t believe, don’t show up to work.”

Strus’s message wasn’t what people took issue with, it was the messenger. His text was spot on, but it needed to come from, say, a Donovan Mitchell or Darius Garland instead. Strus meant well, but then to come and not score a single point in 26 minutes is wild.

He didn’t even take his own message seriously from the looks of it. This is how the social media world views it, for whatever that’s worth. The fact that this got out to the public is ridiculous in its own right to begin with. It was a nice try by Strus, who, to be fair, did play on some pretty good Miami Heat teams in the past that made deep playoff runs.

However, in today’s NBA (and society), most people won’t respect the background singer speaking up in the group. Strus said what needed to be said, but all fans can see is the messenger. It’s not fair, but that’s the world we live in.

Mitchell (35 points) and Evan Mobley (24 points) did their part in game 5, but didn’t get a ton of scoring help from anyone else. The third leading scorer for Cleveland in this game was De’Andre Hunter with 12 points. That’s better than Strus’s goose egg, but by halftime, the momentum had shifted in Indiana’s favor after trailing big in the first quarter. The Pacers then outscored the Cavs, 33-20 in the third quarter and that was all she wrote.