CLEVELAND: Twenty thoughts for 20 free throw attempts in Friday’s 124-116 win over the Brooklyn Nets…
1. We all know LeBron James is calculated and measured with everything he says. Yet in the midst of a difficult stretch of losing this week, James threw a hand grenade into the storm.
2. After hearing him talk following this win, now it’s fair to wonder just how much he intentionally wanted to stir the pot just to see how his teammates and the organization would react. He already said the start of the new year has been lousy. Now he said he likes it that way.
3. “It’s great,” James said Friday. “Listen, at the end of the day, the road to a championship or the road to success shouldn’t be a bed of roses. That’s never been my road. I don’t think I should expect anything different. So, having bumps in the road, I think it builds character and I think it’s good for our team. I think it’s good for our individuals as well.”
4. Hmmm.
5. James and Tyronn Lue both disagreed with Charles Barkley’s comments from Thursday night when Barkley said James doesn’t like to compete because he keeps asking for more help despite already having the highest payroll in NBA history.
6. “Inappropriate. Whiny. All of the above,” Barkley said on the popular TNT studio show. “The Cleveland Cavaliers, they have given him everything he wanted. They have the highest payroll in NBA history. He wanted J.R. Smith last summer, they paid him. He wanted (Iman) Shumpert last summer. They brought in Kyle Korver. He’s the best player in the world. Does he want all of the good players? He don’t want to compete. He is an amazing player. They’re the defending champs.”
7. Shaquille O’Neal, James’ former teammate, checked Barkley on the “compete” comment while James and Lue dismissed it.
8. “LeBron is the ultimate competitor,” Lue said. “He wants to win and when you want to win you want to get more guys in and make the team better. Everyone wants to make the team better and you’re always looking for ways to do that. I said it before, Golden State won 73 games last year and they go and add Kevin Durant. You always want to get better if you can. Right now we’re not at that point where we can right now so we have to play and go with what we have right now. As far as him not being a competitor because he wants more players that doesn’t make sense.”
9. James said he was unaware of Barkley’s remarks because he didn’t watch the show; he was playing games with his kids.
10. “He has to do that. I mean, it’s good for the ratings,” James said. “That makes no sense in the world. Ever since I picked up a basketball at age 9, I’ve competed every single time. You can never question that about me. But that’s Charles. He’s the guy who has to sit on a panel and say stuff like that. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. That means absolutely nothing.”
11. James, incidentally, admitted he got a call from the league about all of his cursing during his rant Monday night.
12. James did have the best line of the day at shootaround Friday morning. As he was talking about his player ballot for the All-Star game, it was mentioned to him that some players turned in goofy ballots. “There’s always goofy votes. Donald Trump is our president.”
13. Kevin Love has been invited to participate in the NBA’s 3-point contest during All-Star weekend, but he isn’t sure yet whether he’ll participate.
14. Kyle Korver surpassed 10,000 career points Friday. Lue acknowledged before the game he’s had a little tougher time figuring out how to use Korver than he thought he would. Korver plays a different style than the Cavs are accustomed to and Lue is still trying to figure out what lineup works best for him.
15. Korver was left out on the court for 19 straight minutes during Wednesday’s overtime loss. Lue consistently plays Korver for long stretches, even a full quarter at a time.
16. “Just having him on the floor, you gotta pay attention to him,” Lue said. “And that opens up the floor for Kyrie, LeBron, to get to the basket and get driving seams. But we just want to get him into a flow and get him into a rhythm. In Atlanta he was playing 27 minutes a game, so we want to try and get his minutes up, around 26, 27 minutes, so, we just kind of (tinkering) with it to see how it goes and how the flow of the game goes for him. We’re all just trying to figure it out.”
17. As most coaches this week, Lue wore a bow tie Friday in honor of Michael Goldberg, the former executive on the coaches union who died this week. Only one problem: Lue doesn’t know how to tie a bow tie. He had to call in radio analyst Jim Chones to help him because Chones wears them routinely.
18. “Hey Chones, I need you,” Lue joked before the game. “I’m all on the internet. I keep trying. I can’t do it. I can’t get it right.”
19. The Cavs surrendered 43 points to the Nets in the fourth quarter, the third time this season the Nets erupted for 40-plus points in the fourth quarter. They lost all three games. James thought the defensive schemes were in order during the fourth, the Nets just made shots. They also scored 20 points in the final 4:48 while he rested.
20. The Nets are atrocious, but it doesn’t matter at this point. The Cavs just needed a win – any win – to start to feel good about themselves again. The task Sunday against Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder will be a little stiffer. Talk to you Sunday from the Q.