After last night’s disappointing 103-74 road loss to the San Antonio Spurs, the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers find themselves out of the number one spot in the Eastern Conference standings for the first time this season, trailing the Boston Celtics by a half game.
The Cavs, who are 6-9 in the month of March, have played five of their last six games on the road, with four of those contests resulting in rather embarrassing defeats — especially last night. Their long travel hours seem to be catching up with them as the regular season nears its end.
As most fans of the team know, the Cavs have struggled with quite a few injuries this season, including Chris Andersen‘s season-ending ACL injury, Kevin Love‘s knee, J.R. Smith‘ fractured thumb, and Andrew Bogut‘s unfortunate season-ending leg injury just moments into his debut with the team. Now, Kyle Korver has been in and out of the rotation due to a sore foot, which team physicians have dubbed “tendon inflammation.”
Making things more challenging, the Cavs have been trying to acclimate several new players into their rotation, including Derrick Williams and Deron Williams. Needless to say, Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue has his hands full at the moment.
LeBron James, a proven leader, tells Joe Vardon of cleveland.com that this might not be the proper time for him to speak up.
“I kind of wait for the right time,” James said after Monday’s loss to the Spurs. “It’s a delicate time right now for our team and a lot of people talking.”
“Not saying it’s for the bad, we’ve got a couple guys showing leadership right now,” James continued. “We’ve got some guys that have been in the fray before that’s given their opinion. My time will come. We’re just not playing good basketball. We’ve got to figure that out.”
The Cavs struggled to find their mark from the three-point line in last night’s game, finishing with a 4-of-26 mark from downtown. James recorded 17 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists. Those are solid numbers, sure, but he too had a hard time finding a rhythm, as he was 7-of-17 from the field.
Coach Lue spoke to members of the media after last night’s loss. The second-year head coach stated that the Cavs are “going to be fine.”
“I swear, I promise we’re gonna be fine,” Lue said of his team’s recent struggles. “I’m not pressing, we’re going to be fine. They know that. We just gotta play better, that’s all.”