http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2014/12/lebron_james_chill_mode.html
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Press rewind, past the Cavaliers' worst loss of the season on Sunday night, and stop the tape right after their win Friday over the Orlando Magic.
LeBron James had scored 29 points in what looked like a
gritty 98-89 road win, 15 in the fourth quarter. He said a brief dust-up with, and trash talk from, Orlando's Tobias Harris is what set him off.
"I was actually in chill mode tonight, but chill mode was deactivated after that," James said.
Chill mode?
James hasn't said precisely what he meant by it – and there were other things to talk about Sunday following a virtually unexplainable 103-80 loss to the Detroit Pistons at home.
But take the sum of the last two games – those first three quarters Friday in Orlando before chill mode was "deactivated" and all of the quarters from Sunday, and what you get is a star player who seems disinterested.
Fair or not, that's a really,
really bad thing for first-year Cleveland coach David Blatt.
Following the Cavs' 23-point loss to the Pistons on Sunday, and sensing what's going on, a Detroit reporter essentially gave James a chance to stick up for Blatt or bury him.
The reporter had his reasons, and his question basically was, did James feel losses like this one were a "learning experience" for Blatt – a rookie NBA coach – in addition to this young team?
"Uh, that's not an answer for me, man," James said, turning his glare toward the reporter. "Don't try that."
The season is still young, and at 18-12 the Cavaliers have won too many games and have too much potential to emphatically declare this current group a lost cause. It's also a streaky team -- one that's lost four and won eight straight -- and is prone to overreaction in
good times and
bad.
But there's something in James' body language, in his indifference in team huddles, in the things he says and doesn't say, that suggests he has not yet warmed to Blatt. And may not.
At minimum, two recent home losses, and James' reaction to them, are either startling or telling.
Detroit came into The Q winners of six games out of 29. It had once lost 13 straight. Things were so bad, the Pistons simply dropped Josh Smith – one of their most talented players – from the roster, because the headaches he caused made the losing even worse.
Three different times in the fourth quarter,
that Pistons team led the Cavaliers by 27 points. Boos cascaded from the stands in the third and fourth quarters.
As for James, he
registered 17 points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists. Yes, he nearly corralled a triple-double. But he also had seven turnovers. And shot 5-of-19.
The turnovers – Piston defenders were just taking the ball from him while he was dribbling. Or he'd throw a pass that simply had no (or very little) chance of getting through.
On one turnover, the ball bounced off James' leg, across midcourt, for what would be an over-and-back call against the Cavs. There was 8:40 left and Cleveland trailed by 26. James jogged after the ball for a bit, but with no Piston truly close enough to the ball, he watched it roll out of bounds.
It was going to be a turnover either way. And the game was over. James' body language screamed, "why bother?"
Kyrie Irving (bruised knee) didn't play, and of course Anderson Varejao (torn Achilles tendon) is out for the year. But both of those players were in uniform when the Atlanta Hawks bombed the Cavs by 29 at home on Dec. 17.
Blatt said the Atlanta game was embarrassing. James
scoffed at the idea. That wasn't even two weeks ago.
Then, as it was last night, the Hawks took (and made) wide open three after wide open three. The Pistons set a franchise record with 17 three-pointers on 31 tries.
How does that happen, twice, within such a short time span, to a team that has James and Kevin Love?
"You know, we're going through a few things right now," Blatt said. "We've lost some pretty important players. ... At that point that you have to be more competitive, and more determined, and fight your way through that or else this happens. It's not an excuse, it's just an explanation for your question. That's the reality of it. We didn't fight enough to battle the difficulties that we've had."
James called himself "very careless" with the ball, and said "we've got to have a little more sense of urgency."
He said "we're not a very good team as far as on the court" and "we're just not very good in every aspect of the game that we need to be to compete every night."
No names, other than "I." But no "urgency" either from James, even though he used the word.
"Don't discredit what they did to us, they beat us pretty good," he added.
Keep in mind, this is James' worst loss to a bad team in his 12-year career, according to ESPN and ELIAS.
