While LeBron James continues to rip his teammates for their lack of effort and coach David Blatt says they need to get tougher, one of the more perplexing problems facing the Cavaliers in the early season has been free-throw shooting.
The Cavs enter Thursday’s rematch against the Milwaukee Bucks 29th in the league in foul shooting, ahead of only the Detroit Pistons. Poor free-throw shooting was a big reason for their two road losses to the Bucks and Pistons and the Cavs don’t have many explanations for the struggles.
“If I had the sure-fire answer to that, I would be a genius,” Blatt said. “I guess I’m not.”
The Cavs are converting less than 69 percent of their free throws, a number that continues to trend in the wrong direction. They shot 58, 63 and 60 percent from the line in their past three games after converting 75 percent at the line last season — 18th in the NBA.
“It’s all mental. Free throws are all mental,” said Kevin Love, one of the few who is actually outperforming his career percentage. Love is a career 82 percent foul shooter, but he’s at 87 percent this season.
“We have great free-throw shooters on this team. We should be near the top of the league,” he said. “That’s not going to be a common theme for us. We’re going to make our free throws.”
James has been one of the biggest offenders at the line, converting on just 62 percent after entering as a 74 percent foul shooter throughout his career. He has tinkered with his routine at the line throughout the season and made 4-of-5 at the line in Tuesday’s loss to the Pistons.
Foul shooting isn’t the most important metric in measuring an elite team, but it’s worth noting only one champion in the past five years finished outside the top 10 — James’ Miami Heat were 16th when they repeated as champions in 2012-13. The Golden State Warriors were ninth in the league last season.
“We’ve got to shoot better,” James said. “We’ve got to practice it a little bit more. We’re just out of rhythm as a team as far as shooting free throws and it’s key.”
James has been sharply critical of the Cavs during this brief two-game skid. He said they were a good team, but not a great team after the double-overtime loss to the Bucks on Saturday. He downgraded them again following Tuesday’s loss to the Pistons.
“Like I said before, this whole week we’re not a very good team,” James said. “It’s just that simple. We have the ability to be a great team, but right now we’re not a very good team. We don’t pay attention to details as much, we don’t go out and battle when we’re supposed to, and it’s going to come to a point where every game you’re going to be in a late-game situation or a game where you should’ve won by 10 instead of being a one- or two-possession game going down the stretch.”
The Cavs still have two difficult games remaining this week against the Bucks on national television before hosting the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday. Blatt wants to see the team that won the East last season, because right now he doesn’t.
“We need to toughen up,” Blatt said. “I didn’t think we displayed the kind of toughness that made us a team last year. I didn’t see that the last two games and we need to toughen up. Every aspect.”
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.