LeBron took to Twitter to attempt to clarify his blow-up. That’s a bleak scenario for the game’s best player. He last took a game off on December 26.
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James and Kyrie Irving scored 29 apiece for the Cavs, who had the last shot in regulation and plenty of opportunities in the extra five minutes.
James reached his breaking point Monday after the Cavs lost to a 18-27 Pelicans team that was playing without Anthony Davis. Cleveland has lost five of its last seven, and the loss to New Orleans is made even worse by the fact that James posted a triple-double, while Kyrie Irving had a career night with 49 points. They clearly miss shooting guard J.R. Smith, who is out for the rest of the regular season with a fractured thumb, though lack of defense also has become a concern. More specifically, James wants management to add another playmaker, but with the Cavs current roster construction, it’ll be tough to bring in another piece without a major shakeup.
Irving scored Cleveland’s first six points in overtime to give the Cavs a 113-111 lead, but Patty Mills got a second chance after badly missing a 3 and knocked one down to make it 114-113.
Cleveland hosts Sacramento on Wednesday as well as Brooklyn and Oklahoma City later this week.
That scenario, however, is far from a given. Granted, San Antonio’s victory against the Warriors came on the first night of the season, but its win against Cleveland came without Tony Parker and Pau Gasol in the lineup. Guess what? All of those were road games, and all were the second games of back-to-backs, following home games.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, Nicolas Batum converted a four-point play and hit another three-pointer in a span of 31 seconds down the stretch as the Charlotte Hornets toppled the Brooklyn Nets 112-105. All of the others are in the Naismith Memorial Hall Of Fame (six of them as players, with Satch Sanders inducted as a contributor).
Enter Robinson, the 5-foot-9 dunking machine, who offered to share his phone number over social media so James can recruit him directly. Kyrie Irving is playing 3.5 minutes more than he was last season. “I think it’s that they don’t boast and brag about what they accomplish”, he said. “I’m not. Yeah, we won [the championship], but f–, you know what, let’s see if we can do something”. We’re a top heavy team.
Hornets coach Steve Clifford has often lamented his team’s fourth-quarter difficulties, but he was pleased with how his team found a way to make plays down the stretch. That seems impossible, but that’s how freaking thin the Cavaliers are right now. In that case, however, Curry had a bruised lower leg and was walking with a limp.
But James is already looking ahead to that impending showdown with the Warriors, and he doesn’t like what he sees.
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Both teams are doing their part as they sit atop the East and West, respectively. “It’s my last time saying it”.
