Any energy boost for James and the Cavs in their first game since head coach David Blatt was abruptly sacked on Friday – to be replaced by associate coach Lue – was quickly snuffed out by the Bulls, who scored the last 13 points of the opening quarter to take a 21-14 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.
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Lue addressed the media on Saturday, saying that despite a 30-11 record, the defending Eastern Conference champs lost belief in themselves after this week’s blowout loss to the Warriors.
LeBron James said he did not play a role in the recent firing of former Cavs head coach David Blatt, newsnet5.com’s partners Ohio.com and the Akron Beacon Journal reported on Saturday. That one, to me, elevated all of the coach firings totally into the theater of the absurd.
“I just talked about playing the game the right way, having more spacing, playing with more pace”, he said. However, Griffin insisted the team had issues despite being relatively successful on the court, and James concurred.
“It’s a make or miss league and tonight we couldn’t make any shots”, James said.
“That’s not my concern”, James said. But we do know he and James and he and the rest of the players have an affinity for each other and a close relationship.
“I don’t think we’re in good-enough shape”, Lue said. He was an National Basketball Association neophyte who somehow believed his 22 years as a coach in Europe meant something, a guy who sometimes made substitution mistakes, called timeouts at the wrong times, didn’t hold his star players accountable and was keeping the greatest team in the history of the world from reaching its potential. I wasn’t a huge fan of Blatt, but I thought they would have fired him after the NBA Finals loss last season, not in the middle of this one.
“I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to serve as the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers”, Blatt said. I’ve stopped that a long time ago in my career… King James complained and since the team is so loyal to him, they decided that they would rather keep him happy and cut ties with their coach. “He will coach me and push me, and I’ll listen to everything he has to say and go from there”.
Lue will make his debut this morning (Singapore time) when the Cavaliers host the Chicago Bulls. “It just happened to be me”.
This is especially true in Cleveland, where the Cavaliers have so much individual talent, that the technical aspect of coaching isn’t as prevalent as it would be in many other places. He was previously an assistant coach on Doc Rivers’ staff with the Los Angeles Clippers.
“Me and Bron were friends before when I played”.
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“What’s next, (Spurs coach Gregg) Popovich loses two games in a row and we’re going to get rid of him after 17 years?”
