NEW ORLEANS: For only the second time since the start of last season and the first time since Tyronn Lue took over as head coach, the Cavaliers have lost 4 of 6 entering Monday’s game at New Orleans. LeBron James, however, doesn’t believe they’re in a slump.
Two of those losses were against the two teams with the best records in the NBA. The others were at Portland and Utah, two places the Cavs haven’t won since James returned to Cleveland.
“It don’t even feel like we’ve lost four out of six, to be honest,” James said. “We’re still first place in our conference, we’re still one of the best teams in the league. It’s not a big issue. It’s things that we’ll iron out."
James will play Monday night against the Pelicans despite playing 45 minutes in Saturday’s overtime loss to the Spurs. He believes brief absences by Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love disrupted some of their rhythm recently, as did incorporating Kyle Korver. James is almost single-handedly responsible for getting Korver acclimated to the Cavs.
Korver has received 99 passes in his six games here. James has thrown 43 of them. It makes sense, since James is running the second unit and Korver hasn’t played much with the starters. But the numbers are still lopsided.
“It’s just a smart quarterback, that’s all,” James said. “If a guy’s open, he has a hot hand, you gotta try and get it to him. It’s a reason why Roethlisberger tries to throw the ball to Antonio Brown a lot, right?”