CLEVELAND: Twenty-one thoughts for 21 shots by LeBron James in Monday’s 90-82 win over the New Orleans Pelicans…
1. LeBron James left the locker room with a Ziploc bag of Airborne and Tylenol PM. Kevin Love left during the fourth quarter because he’s been ill for days and Kyrie Irving was back in street clothes because of a hamstring injury that initially wasn’t believed to be that serious.
2. The Cavs’ Big Three have been reduced to the Wounded Three. Yet they still managed to gut out a win against a Pelicans team that entered riding a four-game winning streak.
3. Tyronn Lue said Love has lost 10 pounds the last two days with what they believe to be food poisoning. Love believes he got it from eating a piece of sea bass on the team’s flight home from Charlotte on New Year’s Eve. Lue ate two pieces of it and said he felt fine.
4. Love still managed to score 12 points and grab 11 rebounds in 24 minutes, but he struggled badly. He shot 5 of 19 and missed all seven of his 3-point attempts.
5. “We didn’t think he was going to be able to play,” Lue said. “He came out there and gave us 24 strong minutes, which we needed. Just his presence on the floor was big for us and for him to gut it out the way he did was big for us.”
6. Teams have choices in who prepares the meals they take on planes. Love told me last year he’ll sometimes ask the hotel to make a special meal for him and send it ahead on the plane, but since Lue also had the sea bass, that doesn’t seem to be the case this time. Teams can also have meals catered from area restaurants, but no one wanted to say where they got the meals for this trip.
7. James muddled through his usual 39 minutes despite feeling under the weather. He shot 9 of 21, missed all four of his 3-point attempts and committed four turnovers. But he grabbed seven rebounds, passed for six assists and finally seemed to establish a little rhythm in the fourth quarter.
8. “Can’t have any excuses no matter what’s going on with the team,” James said. “Has to be next man up and when guys’ numbers are called they’ve got to be ready to go. As ugly as it was tonight, just got to find a way to get through it and we did that.”
9. The sage C.J. Miles once said during his time in Cleveland, “The greatest thing ever invented is yoga pants. The worst thing ever invented is shootaround.”
10. Lue has cancelled morning shootaround at least twice now this season. He did it Monday in part because he’s running out of healthy bodies, but admitted he might do it more moving forward.
11. Lue is trying to manage the workload on a veteran team expected to play deep into the postseason. He rarely holds full practices anymore and now is even scaling back on shootarounds, the merits of which can long be debated. Young teams, such as the Cavs teams a few years ago, need all the practice days and shootarounds they can get.
12. Veteran groups such as this, however, know their body and know what needs done. Channing Frye said at least seven players showed up to Cleveland Clinic Courts anyway on Monday, either for treatment or to lift or to get shots up or to do cardio or some combination of it all. Frye said the unwritten rule for players is guys consistently playing under 20 minutes a game need to get in the gym and get shots up to stay ready. Guys with more consistent roles have a little more freedom in their schedules.
13. Rather than holding shootaround, Lue just brought the players in early for a walkthrough prior to the game. He expects to hold a typical shootaround Wednesday morning prior to the game against the Bulls.
14. James Jones played less than eight minutes and his final line is nothing exciting: three points and an assist in 7:36. But he seemed to provide a real spark when necessary in the third quarter. The Cavs trailed 63-58 when Lue put him in searching for a spark. No one outside of Frye could make an open shot and that just happens to be JJ’s speciality.
15. He immediately made his first 3-point attempt and followed it up with a nifty defensive play when he poked the ball away for a turnover. Then he found James on the next possession for the assist. Suddenly the Cavs were within 65-63 and showing a little life. Jones, incidentally, is now 15 of 24 on 3-pointers despite rarely playing.
16. “One of the greatest shooters I’ve ever seen,” James said. “And from that aspect (of rarely playing), I think he’s the greatest shooter ever. The one he missed, everybody was standing up. We don’t even think he’s going to miss when he shoots the ball. He’s just a great asset to have, especially with our team right now being so depleted. To be able to have a veteran like that always ready, always sharp. He was the first one on the practice court today just waiting for his number to be called and it was.”
17. I’ll have more on Kay Felder tomorrow, but he has been a different player since his one-day trip to Canton. Can one game in the D-League really make that much of a difference? Felder has been aggressive searching for his shot, attacking the basket and running the offense. It’s far too early to say he has solved their backup point guard dilemma, and he still has a long way to go to earn the trust of Lue and the front office for critical games that really matter, but he’s at least developing.
18. Lue has spoken often about how difficult it is to develop young players in the midst of contending for a championship. Jordan McRae is proof of that. His 20-point game against the Hornets to this point is the anomaly. Try as they might, McRae has mostly struggled badly during his sporadic time on the court and he wasn’t very good again Monday. Felder continues to earn more opportunities. He scored 12 points Monday, including eight in the fourth quarter.
19. “I just think he implemented everything he’s been working on on practice days and off days into game situation,” James said. “He’s learning, he’s watching film. You see him over there with the coaches every day and anybody that can take from what they watch on film and take what they do on the practice court and implement it into a game situation lets you know they have a great growth mindset. His mind is allowing him to go out there and do those things. It’s good for his development.”
20. Felder might be a candidate to start Wednesday if Irving is again unable to go. Lue said there hasn’t been a need yet to do any type of medical testing on Irving’s right hamstring, but this has already lingered longer than expected. Lue originally didn’t believe he’d have to miss any time, but this marked the second game he has missed because of it.
21. Whatever healthy players the Cavs have left will host the Bulls Wednesday at the Q. Talk to you then.