The Cleveland Cavaliers suffered their second loss at home since bringing in the new players from the blockbuster trade deadline deals. The wine and gold were defeated by the visiting San Antonio Spurs 110-94 on Sunday at the Quicken Loans Arena even with LeBron James putting up his usual insane numbers.
James finished the game with 33 points, 13 rebounds and 9 assists, but the starters were practically nonexistent on the offensive end.
As noted by Cavs Nation’s own Tomer Azarly, the starters scored a combined 14 points. That’s the lowest ever for a LeBron James-led team. It’s also a numerical representation of how the Cavs remain too dependent on the four-time MVP.
George Hill (1-of-7 with 2 points), JR Smith (1-of-8, 2 points) and Cedi Osman (1-of-6, 4 points) were the primary culprits for the starters’ poor showing by shooting a combined 3-for-21 from the field and 0-for-10 on three-point field goals. Tristan Thompson, on the other hand, was 3-of-7 for six points.
The bench played much better as Jordan Clarkson led the reserves with 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting, and Jeff Green had 14 points (6-of-9).
“We just had a rough night shooting the basketball. It’s going to happen,” Lue said. “I thought defensively we were pretty good. I just thought Aldridge took advantage of us in that third quarter, the start of the third quarter on his post-ups.”
Despite his own stellar performance, LeBron James coughed up the ball six times for the Cavs who had 15 total turnovers which led to 29 points at the other end. James is averaging 26.5 points, 8.9 assists, and 8.2 rebounds per game so far this season.
His head-to-head record against the Spurs went below .500 according to ESPN Stats & Info. Moreover, the Cavs are now just 2-8 in their last 10 meeting with San Antonio going back to 2013.
The Cavs play again on Tuesday as they host the Brooklyn Nets.
