WASHINGTON: Part of coach Tyronn Lue’s message to his players before Sunday’s game was simple: Play hard and compete and the Cavs are incredibly difficult to beat.
Unfortunately, without their best player on the floor, they couldn’t bother to accomplish either.
Lue held LeBron James out of the game to rest him, and most of the rest of the roster followed behind. The defense was abysmal, the energy was nonexistent and the outcome was decided midway through the third quarter in a 113-99 loss to the Washington Wizards.
Since the Cavs play again Monday night at home, Lue pulled most of his starters while behind 19 with seven minutes left in the third. The Cavs trailed by as many as 30 in the fourth after blowing a nine-point lead with 5:30 to play in Friday’s loss at the Toronto Raptors.
“If you lose a game like the other night to a team like Toronto and come out here and play the way we did and you had a lack of energy, maybe we shouldn’t be in this position,” J.R. Smith said. “I don’t know. It’s tough. If we’re going to play with a lack of energy after losing a game on the road and come out and play the way we did today then we shouldn’t be who we are and be in these uniforms.”
Smith scored eight points and failed to shoot a 3-pointer for just the second time this season. The Cavs have lost three of their past four and have seen their lead over the Raptors for the top seed in the East chopped to just 1½ games, all of which makes Smith’s level of concern “extremely high.”
“We can’t play basketball like this going down the stretch,” he said. “There’s 24, 25 games left in the year and you talk about contending, being a championship contender and get blown out by a team in their building, early game.
‘‘After losing a game to the No. 2 team in the East then you come out and get thrashed and make it look good at the end. We can’t do that. If we’re serious about who we’re supposed to be, then we can’t do this.”
The Cavs are 3-12 in games without James since the start of last season, including 0-2 this year. James was dressed and active, but watched the game from the bench. He had seen enough by the fourth quarter, departing for the locker room with 5:42 to play and the Cavs trailing by 27.
“He gives us everything and he’s one of those guys of very few that really makes everyone on his team better and makes everybody play at a high level,” Kevin Love said. “Yeah, we definitely missed him tonight.”
Asked about the effort and energy level, Lue named only Richard Jefferson and Timofey Mozgov as guys who fought hard.
“That’s about it,” Lue said.
Kyrie Irving scored 28 points and Love had 12 points and five rebounds. Jefferson scored 10 points while starting in place of James, all in the second half after he didn’t get a shot off in 16 minutes during the first half.
The Cavs trailed for the game’s final 40 minutes, although they pulled within 59-54 on a 3-pointer from Matthew Dellavedova in the final minute of the first half. Otto Porter made three 3-pointers to double the Wizards’ lead within the first two minutes of the third quarter, and the Cavs never recovered. Lue pulled the starters minutes later.
“Our top leader wasn’t playing. That’s another opportunity for guys to step in and relish that opportunity,” Irving said. “But our intensity level just wasn’t there.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs.