Why do the Cleveland Cavaliers kind of suck right now?
The team dropped its fourth game in a row last night. The Cavs blew an early 18 point lead and ended up losing by 17 at home. There was no stopping the Toronto Raptors in the second half, as the team scored 110 points on Cleveland's home court. LeBron James was reasonably upset at the teams loss, and its second straight poor performance. Going into this season the Cavaliers had high expectations, and justifiably. The Cavs not only added the best basketball player in the world (4-time league MVP and 2-time champion), but also acquired another star in Kevin Love. Those two along with all-star point guard Kyrie Irving and a cast of well known role players, led many to believe that Cleveland would be in the title discussion at the end of the season. That very well may still be true, but it is not the case right now. Cavs fans have had to watch a not so impressive team to start the season.
There are a couple reasons the Cavs have gotten off to such a shaky start. One is the defensive play. Cleveland has been very poor defensively. On the eye test alone the Cavs have looked very bad on that end of the floor. Pick and roll defense has stood out, as it seems every time Kyrie and Love are asked to defend a pick and roll together they get burned.
Cleveland is no more impressive statistically. Allowing opponents to shoot almost 48% from the field and 35% from three. That puts them at 25th in the league in terms of opponents points per game. It does not help that they also allow 40 rebound per game landing them at 22nd in the league in that category.
So the defense is a huge problem, but another one is the lack of experience. The "other" two stars in Cleveland's new big three have zero playoff experience. This means both players have not played any meaningful NBA basketball games. This is an adjustment for a guy like LeBron, who just played with a core of guys that made it to four straight NBA Finals. However, not an excuse for the Cavs slow start.
The best player in the world should start acting like it and lead his team to some victories. While LeBron seems very comfortable taking shots out the court, he should focus on taking more on the court. James' passive play of late seems even more immature than his younger teammates. If he wants his team to succeed and have home court advantage come playoff time, he should step up his own play.
The man wanted to come home. Now he must display to his hometown exactly what they have been missing the pasts four years: the best basketball player on earth.
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