Another day, another sloppy defensive effort from the Cleveland Cavaliers. In Monday night's game against the Spurs, they were dominated on both ends on the floor, losing the game 103-74. What might be bigger than the blowout itself, is that LeBron James left the game in the third quarter due to injury. LeBron was hit with an elbow on the back area and was on the floor in pain for a little while. He was able to make it to the bench under his own power but went back with the training staff to do more test. But you can't miss the beat down the Spurs handed the Cavs and the losing keeps coming for the Cavs.
Same day, same defense
The headline for the Cavs tonight has been the same headline for the past few months, bad defense. The Cavaliers were atrocious on defense allowing the Spurs anything the wanted inside and out. Kawhi Leonard led the way for the Spurs, scoring 25 points and winning the matchup between himself and LeBron James. The Cavs allowed the Spurs to shoot 54 percent at halftime, and they continued to shoot well as the game wore on. Lamar Aldridge and Pau Gasol both chipped in with 14 points, and Cleveland struggled inside again, as their personnel couldn't matchup with San Antonio.
To add to that bad defense, the Cavs were terrible on offense as well. They shot 37 percent from the field and an awful 15 percent from three point range.
All of the Cavs starters were minus in the plus/minus category, showing that tonight was just a bad night all-around for Cleveland. LeBron was the high scorer for Cleveland with 17 points, but this is a game the Cavs would want to forget, as they were decimated on both sides of the floor.
LeBron's injury
LeBron James sustained his injury when he was attempting to grab a rebound.
Spurs forward David Lee grabbed the board, the inadvertently swung his elbow and it hit James' upper back or neck area. He tried to shake it off, but the pain was too much, as he fell to the floor. It looked like it might be a simple stinger, as those kinds of injuries can make even the strongest players to succumb to the pain.
Even with the rest LeBron sparingly gets, he has been playing a lot of minutes this season. He is in the top five in minutes played in the NBA, and when your body is this fatigued, you are going to be more susceptible to injuries. With the game really out of reach, people will start to question if head coach Tyronn Lue should've rested his starters. But people can look in hindsight all they want, he wanted to see if they could master a comeback, and they couldn't. Lue shouldn't be under scrutiny for resting his starters at all.
The Cavs fall to 6-9 in March. Is it time to press the panic button in Cleveland. With nine games left in their season the Cavs need to figure it out quickly. The officially are the two-seed in the east, and things don't look promising for the defending champs.
