COLUMBUS: Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue didn’t enter the preseason with too many goals in mind. In fact, the biggest priority was simply escaping healthy. They did, for the most part. Now they can get on to defending their championship.
Kyrie Irving left in the second quarter of Tuesday’s 96-91 loss to the Washington Wizards at Ohio State with a tight left calf, but no one seems particularly concerned about it. Lue said the calf was bothering him a bit at the morning shootaround, so when it flared again with 8:22 left in the third quarter, Lue pulled him for good.
“Just wanted to be smart about the situation,” Lue said. “He’s fine.”
LeBron James scored 18 points and Tristan Thompson had 14 points and 10 rebounds. James played in just three of the six preseason games, which was a theme throughout October. The limited time, along with J.R. Smith’s prolonged contract negotiations, meant the starters had very little time working together.
The same was true last year when Kevin Love was coming off shoulder surgery and Thompson had his own holdout. It didn’t seem to slow the Cavs much once the regular season started then and no one seems overly concerned about it now.
“We have six days,” James said. “I know Coach is not going to kill us for six days, but we have to get our rhythm in practice. … We’re going to learn throughout the whole season. It’s not going to come together in six days before opening day. It’s a process for us and we understand that.”
NBA general managers selected James as their preseason Most Valuable Player on Tuesday, while also picking the Cavs to lose to the Golden State Warriors in an NBA Finals threequel.
“Thank you,” Lue said. “I love it.”
The GMs also picked the Warriors to beat the Cavs last season.
Smith started at shooting guard Tuesday in his first appearance since signing a four-year contract, although he played just 12 minutes and scored four points, including one 3-pointer. Lue wanted to limit Smith’s minutes in his first game back and now will spend the last week of preseason getting his legs back.
“We’re going to scrimmage a little more and play a lot more,” Lue said. “And hopefully he can get his conditioning through practice.”
Lue treated Tuesday as a bit of a dress rehearsal for the regular season. James, appearing in just his third preseason game, played into the third quarter and exited for good after 25 minutes. Love scored 15 points — all in the first quarter — before departing in the third quarter after playing 20 minutes.
Lue experimented with various rotations Tuesday, using Iman Shumpert as his primary backup point guard before turning to Kay Felder late in the third quarter. Shumpert is being viewed as an option to defend opposing point guards this season, particularly when trying to defend opposing guards baseline to baseline.
Shumpert’s ball handling at times, however, has been suspect and was again against the Wizards when he committed three turnovers. Lue has maintained that his rotation early in the season, particularly at the backup point guard spot, remains a work in progress.
“Just seeing how [Shumpert] handled it, get us into our sets, play with poise,” Lue said. “The first half I thought he did a real good job, the second half I thought the pressure kind of speeded him up a little bit. That’s always going to happen when you haven’t played that position for a while.”
Now that the preseason is over, the Cavs can begin trimming their roster. Lue left open the possibility the Cavs will begin the season carrying only 14 players, particularly since Mo Williams’ contract situation continues to muddy the waters.
The Cavs finished the preseason 2-4.
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.