The Cleveland Cavaliers had a chance to redeem themselves tonight at home against the Golden State Warriors. What was expected to be a big game for the Cavs turned out to be the Cavs worst loss of the season, and LeBron James’ worst loss in his 13-year, 1,127 game career, according to ESPN Stats & Info on Twitter.
The Cavs fell to the Warriors 98-132 after allowing them to shoot 65% in the first half (26-40) and 58.8% (10-17) from downtown. The Cavs weren’t too far behind offensively at 46.3% (19-41) from the field, but the Warriors broke down their defense unlike any team has ever done, including the Spurs.
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Golden State came into Cleveland, moved the ball well, shot the lights out and shut down the crowd down en route to their 38th victory in 42 tries this season. It’s just one game, but the Warriors proved that they’re playing at a higher and currently unreachable level than the Cavs.
Defensive breakdown after defensive breakdown led to three pointers or dunks for the Warriors, and the Cavs didn’t seem to be able to string together two or three consecutive stops with baskets. Furthermore, the Warriors have their rotations set while the Cavs simply don’t.
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David Blatt is still searching for the right group of guys to roll out onto the court. He’s started Tristan Thompson for most of the road trip before switching back to Timofey Mozgov as the starting center for the final game of the trip and the Warriors game. Bench players like Richard Jefferson and Anderson Varejao are constantly in and out of lineups that it’s become a little hard to build some consistency.
But no one should be faulting Blatt. Although the experimenting and losing may come during the biggest games of the regular season, the ones that fans really look forward to, it’s a chance for Blatt and his coaching staff to determine which players and lineups are most effective. Many fans are not happy with the loss, but it’s better to have it drop the Cavs to a 28-11 regular season than an 3-2 series deficit in the playoffs facing elimination.
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The Cavs (28-11) are currently first in the Eastern Conference ahead of the Toronto Raptors (26-15), the Chicago Bulls (24-16), and the Atlanta Hawks (25-17). They’ll likely finish the season as the East’s number one seed anyways barring any injuries, and they currently have the fourth best overall record in the NBA behind the Warriors (38-4), Spurs (36-6), and Thunder (30-12).
Through January 18, however, they’re 0-3 against the Warriors as well as the Spurs, shooting 41% from the field and 29% from downtown in those three games (1-3 record if you include the Thunder) and have a lot of figuring out to do: figuring out the player rotations, figuring out how to defend as a team, and figuring out the identity of their team.