CLEVELAND: They blew a nine-point lead in six minutes along with most of their lead in the standings, then were blown out on the road against a sub-.500 team. They lost three of four about the time rumors over Kyrie Irving’s future in Cleveland began surfacing.
All of that, however, is nothing compared to what lies ahead, at least according to Irving and LeBron James. No, this isn’t adversity. This is the dog days of February and March. The real adversity won’t hit until April, May and June.
“I’ve been in this so long and I know what’s ahead,” James said. “This will not be the most adversity that we face. Can you even call that adversity, a two-game losing streak? I don’t think so.”
Irving’s poor defense and propensity to dribble too much has come under fire again in recent days. The Cavaliers’ pick-and-roll defense has suffered in recent games while guards get to the lane too easily against him. Then a report from ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith surfaced Monday that Irving wants out of Cleveland.
Talk of Irving wanting out dates back to the losing years prior to James’ return. Those around Irving began talking of his exit strategy as far back as his second season in the NBA, although it all vanished after Irving signed a five-year extension to remain in Cleveland. Now, at least briefly, it has returned.
“There’s nothing to really address,” Irving said. “I know what we have and the opportunity we have in order to be something special. … All that other stuff, what everyone is going to say … it has no effect on my life or what’s going on. It’s all about winning and winning a championship for Cleveland.”
As for any adversity the Cavs might face, to this point they have created a lot of it for themselves with their refusal to often play a complete game. After the Miami Heat lost in their first NBA Finals appearance together, James said they returned the next season angry.
This team has more California cool than anger. They squandered the late lead to the Toronto Raptors when Kyle Lowry scored a career-high 43 points, then watched John Wall blitz a lethargic defense Sunday in a blowout loss to the Wizards.
The same was true in Monday’s 100-96 win over the Indiana Pacers. The Cavs waited until the final seven minutes before returning to an attacking, aggressive defensive style that ultimately won them the game. But they waited until the end to do it.
“We’ve done it all year,” Kevin Love said. “I do not know [why]. We’re very talented and sometimes we get away with being so talented, but if we could just sustain and turn it on and keep it on we’re so much better.”
James has seen it before. He referred to it as putting themselves in “dark spots” and then having to fight their way out. It happened in Miami, too, when the Heat had to win Games 6 and 7 against the Boston Celtics in the conference finals to advance. They also fell behind 2-1 on the road at Indiana before coming back.
It even happened last season when the Cavs were down 2-1 on the road at Chicago in the second round and facing a daunting 3-1 deficit before James drew up the play and made a remarkable corner jumper at the buzzer to steal Game 4 and swing the momentum of the series.
“We shouldn’t have to get to that point sometimes, but hey, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes,” James said. “It’s not a book that you can read and say, ‘Hey, this is exactly what is going to happen.’ You have to be able to adjust no matter what type of game or situation that will be going on. And we’re a team that, we put ourselves in dark spots and we have to build our way out of them.”
That’s what James wants to see: The Cavs building habits. The right habits. Habits they can fall back on when they’re trailing a series and on the road in the playoffs. That hasn’t always been the case, at least not through the first 58 games. It would seem foolish to expect a drastic change now.
“When our backs are against the wall, that’s when we tend to play harder,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. “It’s annoying, but when you have a team like we have with great individual players, they can turn it on at any point in time.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.