Quite a few eyebrows have been raised over the current three-game losing streak of last year’s NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers.
However, it is often said that defeat can be learned from. Cavs Head Coach Tyronn Lue brought that ideology to his players before Sunday’s practice in the form of a lengthy film session.
Coach Lue and his staff took the time to compile 151 separate video clips of lapses in defense over the last three games. In an article from Joe Vardon of www.cleveland.com, an honest Coach Lue explained that each man needed to step up, saying:
“About eight to 10 per guy,” said Lue discussing how many defenses lapses each player had over the past three games.
We’re an older team, we don’t have the best one-on-one defenders. We’ve got to be better as far as scheme-wise helping our teammates, recovering, making the multiple effort.
“We had kind of gotten away from that. So, today, we showed them the film. For the guys, it was good for them to see it. They were pretty embarrassed by it, and then today we went to work on it.”
LeBron James, who told reporters after Friday night’s loss to the Chicago Bulls, “The honeymoon stage is over”, called Lue’s film session “great”. James referred to the following practice session as “a hell of a practice”.
Kyrie Irving echoed Coach Lue’s sentiments with regards to defensive miscues, per Cleveland.com:
What is the next step? We are holding ourselves to such a high standard, and it’s the little things we’re not necessarily doing that you have to have every single night. And to compound on that, we are getting every team’s best shot, and then some.”
The Cavs are indeed getting solid efforts from opposing sides. And yes, the honeymoon stage is over. No more trips to baseball and football games – It’s time to go to work.