‘Cavs not a very good team now,’ says James

DATELINE: LeBron James looked at the evidence after Saturday’s demoralising loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder and came to a devastating conclusion: The Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t a very good basketball team right now.

The Oklahoma City Thunder steamrolled Cleveland 148-124 on Saturday to drop the Cavaliers to 3-9 since Christmas Day. The 148 points allowed match the most the franchise has ever given up in a regular-season game.

“I’ve never in my basketball life gave up 148 points, not even probably playing video games,” James said afterward.

“They got everything that they wanted. Inside, outside – they had it moving . ... It’s just a really bad, really bad loss on our part.”

James also isn’t feeling too good about his team’s chances of reaching the NBA Finals for a fourth straight season.

“Playoffs? We can’t even start thinking about that, not the way we’re playing right now,” James said.

The recent struggles have sent the rumor mill into high gear regarding the status of coach Tyronn Lue.

James has always been in Lue’s corner and the team’s ineptitude over the past six games — losses of 34, 28 and now 24 have occurred during the stretch — hasn’t changed his sentiments.

Point guard Isaiah Thomas was disturbed over Saturday’s contest, which saw the Cavaliers give up at least 33 points in every quarter as Oklahoma City shot a scorching 58 per cent from the field.

“It’s embarrassing,” Thomas said. “It’s not acceptable.”

The Cavaliers look to begin a turnaround on Tuesday when they visit the San Antonio Spurs.

And James isn’t counting on a victory that night, he is simply looking to see improvement.

“Just want to keep working on habits,” James said. “I’m just here to get better. I want to get better.

“We’re in a tough spot right now, but we will get better. It could be worse. We could be 15th in the East or out of the playoff picture.” Reuters