CAVS FACING DECISIONS AFTER ANOTHER BRUTAL DEFEAT
Cleveland has lost eight straight on national TV.
CLEVELAND — Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert sat in his usual baseline seat near his team’s basket for much of the first half of this latest debacle.
He was gone before the halftime buzzer sounded, before the Houston Rockets’ lead was up to 26, and before the Cavs were soundly booed off the floor.
Gilbert never returned to his chair in the Rockets’ 12088 win Saturday. Would you?
Cavs fans can only hope he spent the rest of the game plotting how to blow this team up by Thursday’s trade deadline, making one last effort to save the franchise from an early playoff exit and rebuilding oblivion.
Gilbert’s trade assets may be limited — save for the Nets’ No. 1 pick. But since last season, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony have all been traded. None of them to the Cavs.
Cleveland simply is noncompetitive against the NBA’s elite. It’s not supposed to be that way for a team that’s gone to three straight Finals and has LeBron James. But it is.
Cleveland has lost eight straight on national TV since Christmas, and has lost by at least 24 points now four times since Jan. 1. This isn’t a network problem. It’s an opponent problem. The Cavs are finding themselves on the wrong side of inferior too often.
Cleveland trailed by as many as 35 on Saturday, and this wasn’t even the most lopsided loss this season. Hous- ton tied a record for a Cavs opponent with 19 3-pointers (in 51 attempts!).
At halftime, coach Tyronn Lue told ESPN/ABC’s Lisa Salters his Cavs were “soft, weak, no physicality, no toughness, no grit.”
The details of this one don’t really matter. The Cavs are facing an existential crisis.
The trade of Kyrie Irving to Boston for Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder has been a disaster. Thomas, who was 5-of-13 shooting Saturday for 12 points, is nowhere near the player he was before hip injuries knocked him out of last year’s Eastern Confer- ence finals against the Cavs.
He can’t shoot and score like he used to. This team does not have the defen- sive-minded players to make up for his deficiencies on that side of the court.
“Another embarrass- ing loss. Something gotta change,” Thomas said.
But this mess is by no means Thomas’ fault. He didn’t ask to come here, and as he’s pointed out, the Cavs were pretty bad defensively before he played his first game on Jan. 2.
James has always been the tide that lifts all boats. He hasn’t lifted much of anything lately. James posted 11 points, nine rebounds and nine assists in 31 minutes Saturday, shooting 3-of-10. It’s the second time this season James has only scored 11 in a game.
James averaged 23.5 points in January and the Cavs were outscored by an average of 7.1 points while he was on the court.
“I’m lost for words, actually,” James said. “Going 0-8 on national television. They should take us off every nationally televised game for the rest of the season. We haven’t played good ball and we get our butts kicked every time we play on national television, so I’m at a loss for words.”
The big picture here is if the Cavs prove to not be a championship contender, if they fail to reach the Finals with no real signs of getting back there next year, James will probably leave again in free agency.
Then again, Gilbert is already spending $177 mil- lion on this team now, James is here, and the team is nowhere close. Yes, the Cavs still sit in third place in the East, but that’s thanks solely to a stretch in November when they won 18 of 19 while playing the league’s second-easiest schedule.
Since Christmas, this team is 6-12. Kevin Love is out for two months. The body language is bad and the tension in the locker room is worse. The roster pieces don’t fit. Lue started the second quar- ter with Thomas, Dwyane Wade, Derrick Rose, Kyle Korver and Jeff Green on the court.
That’s three point guards, one shooter, and several poor on-ball defenders.
Does Gilbert try to salvage the season, trade the Brook- lyn pick for real value, and shake up a stale locker room for one last run with James? Or hope his front office finds the team’s future in the June draft, and pray a premium free agent chooses the harsh Cleveland winters over some- where warmer?
General manager Koby Altman attended the Duke-St. John’s game earlier Satur- day before coming home for the Cavs and Rockets, if that tells you anything.
“I just think mindset needs to change,” Lue said, referring to the players here now. “I think we need to do things harder.”
The Rockets, winners of four straight and eight of nine, were led by Paul with 22 points. He piled up 11 assists and passed former Cavalier Andre Miller (8,524 assists) for ninth place all time in assists.
Paul didn’t play in the Rockets’ 117-113 win over the Cavs on Nov. 9. Neither did Thomas.
James Harden added 16 points and nine assists. Hous- ton had six players score in double figures.
J.R. Smith scored 12 points for the Cavs but shot 4-of-12. Wade contributed 10 points off the bench and passed Gary Payton (21,813 points) for 31st on the all-time scor- ing list.