CLEVELAND: When the idea of a June reunion with the Golden State Warriors was first broached to LeBron James on Monday morning, the Cavs star bristled. He called it “absurd” and “ridiculous” to be thinking about June in January.
Then the Cavs went out and showed why. Their 132-98 loss to the Warriors was still ringing in everyone’s ears Tuesday. The Cavs were buried under an early avalanche of shots from Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and never recovered, never bothered to dig themselves out.
While they gathered Tuesday for film work and treatment, players and coaches were forced to start looking ahead to the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday. But it will be hard to shake how the Big Three has now faded twice within five days, and against the two best teams in the West.
Folks within the organization left San Antonio last week shaking their heads at how poorly the Cavs’ stars played against the Spurs. They were even worse against the Warriors when Curry outscored the three by himself.
“Against the top teams, you want to play well and we haven’t done that,” James said. “We’ve got to play better basketball.”
James cited the 0-3 record against the Spurs and Warriors this year and threw in the opening-night loss to the Chicago Bulls for good measure. Including the Bulls requires including the Raptors as well, since they are ahead of the Bulls in the East standings. The Cavs are a combined 1-5 against those teams this season.
“Mentally, we’ve got to be sharp. We’ve got to be more sharp,” James said. He mentioned teams like the Bulls, Spurs and Warriors who have players that have won championships and who are “sharp mentally at all times.” He clearly isn’t putting the Cavs in that same category.
“We’re not there yet,” he said. “We’ve got some inexperienced guys that haven’t played enough meaningful basketball games where they can fall back on. When it gets a little tough sometimes, it’s not like they can kind of fall back on previous experiences to try and help them get through it.”
The Cavs returned their top 12 players from a team that went to the NBA Finals last season. The two who didn’t really get to experience it were Love and Irving, who both struggled Monday. Irving at least scored 57 points against the Spurs last season, but was injured in Game 1 of the Finals last spring. Love was hurt in the first round and essentially missed the entire postseason.
James clearly seemed to be pointing his comments at his two stars.
“We’re going to have a lot of bumps, and that’s OK,” James said. “We’ll learn from it and get better from it, but the best teacher in life is experience, and it’s good to go through it.”
Love seems to be fading in this offense just as he did last season.
He is averaging 12.4 points and shooting 37 percent since Irving returned to the lineup. He was averaging 17.6 points and shooting 43 percent without Irving.
The questions about Love’s fit on this team are returning, particularly with how badly he struggles defensively, and Love is short on answers. Asked about his diminishing role, Love offered only, “I don’t know how to answer that.” Nor did he want to discuss the overall issues on offense.
“I’m not going to get into that,” he said.
The Cavs’ rough days aren’t over. They had played one of the easiest schedules in the league (based on opponents’ winning percentage) before getting the Spurs and Warriors within the past few days. This week, they get the Los Angeles Clippers, who have won 11 of their past 12 games, and the Bulls.
“We’re not defeated, it’s not the worst thing,” Irving said. “Of course, everyone else is going to make it seem like it’s the worst thing possible that we got beat on our home floor. But it’s something to learn from and go forward. We’ll be just fine.”
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.