CLEVELAND: Tyronn Lue was bombarded with more than 800 text messages upon being named head coach of the Cavaliers. A few more performances like Saturday’s against the Chicago Bulls and his next wave of messages won’t be nearly so congratulatory.
The Lue era started terribly slowly Saturday thanks to a clunky offensive performance that ended with Lue calling the Cavs’ entire Big Three out of shape. In fact, Lue and the Cavaliers left their home floor to a smattering of boos from those who remained until the end of the 96-83 loss to the Chicago Bulls.
Lue has been thrust into an uncomfortable position. Cleveland fans — and the entire nation of Israel — are so upset following the firing of David Blatt that there was a palpable tension in Quicken Loans Arena during various parts of Saturday’s loss. It all culminated with the boos at the end of the game. Lue said he didn’t feel a tension in the arena, but he’s prepared for it if it exists.
“I’ve been booed before, along with a lot of these guys,” Lue said. “Every time I go to Philly I get booed. That’s not a big deal. It’s something I’ve got to deal with.”
Lue is dealing with a lot already, most specifically trying to change the offensive identity of this team midseason while reinventing Kevin Love’s role on this team on the fly.
The Cavs rank 28th in the league in pace, or possessions per 48 minutes. Lue wants to get this team playing faster, but he cautioned Saturday that will take time. This team is used to a slow pace that has proved successful.
When Lue tried to speed that pace up Saturday, all three of his stars asked out of the game early because they were tired. That forced him to use 10 players in the first quarter, jumbled his preset rotation and he struggled to recover. LeBron James didn’t dispute the idea the Cavs aren’t physically ready yet to run Lue’s style of offense.
“We played slow basketball up to this point,” James said. “We walk the ball up a lot. … All of us need to do something different as far as our pace and our conditioning. If he wants us to play faster and you want to be out on the floor, you can’t get tired. And if you do, you’ve got to come out. Something that Coach Lue wants us to do and we’ve all got to accept it.”
Lue has his own ideas for how to use Love, too. After a season-and-a-half of Love never really fitting in, Lue sounds committed to re-establishing him at the elbow — the place he was most comfortable during his six years with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Lue has about a dozen sets to run using Love at the elbow, but the Cavs need practice time to learn them. The only time they could use it Saturday was coming out of timeouts and none of them seemed very successful.
Love has believed for a while now he could be successful at the elbow playing with guys like Iman Shumpert, Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith — guys who can cut to the basket. Lue’s initial plan is to use Love in pick-and-roll situations and as a floor spacer when he’s playing alongside James and Kyrie Irving. When Love is in with the second unit, he can be a distributor from the elbow, which he is eager to try.
“A lot of people get caught up in I guess me shooting the ball,” Love said. “But one thing I know I can do is pass, especially in the half court and especially at those elbows. It’s going to take a little bit of time but just getting back into that sort of rhythm and being able to find guys [but] it’s going to be fun.”
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.