The season of the Cleveland Cavaliers continues to be marked by turbulence. While Kevin Love finally returned on Monday after a long injury break, coach Tyronn Lue is now absent for an indefinite period instead. The one constant in the team remains LeBron James.
It wouldn’t take long to find the right headline for the Cavaliers this season – LeBron James delivered it on Monday morning when he was asked to respond to Coach Tyronn Lue’s cancellation: “If it’s not one thing, it’s another,” James said. The Cavaliers just can’t get any rest this season.
The coach is struggling with chest pain, a previously unknown disease. According to ESPN, he also coughed up blood several times. However, both he and the team expect Lue to return before the playoffs, perhaps as early as next week. Currently, there is not much left to do but wish the coach a quick and smooth recovery.
In the meantime, James said seriously, “It’s like losing one of our best players. Lue] sent me a text message tonight in the middle of the night:’It’s your show,’ he just wants me to do what I do,” said the former Associate Head Coach on Monday.
“We will change a few things, we will add something, but first and foremost we will simply keep what we have done so far. I don’t want to confuse anyone,” Drew said. Not much further, he could have added.
The Cavs have probably experienced more turbulence this season than any other team, certainly more than any other good team. The respectable 41-29 balance sheet deceives a little bit – internal mutinies and quarrels, violations and of course trades, everything has already happened. By the deadline, almost half the team in Cleveland got mixed up.
Since then, however, absolutely no peace has returned, which is primarily due to injuries. That’s why James first avoided the demand from cleveland.com about how important the return of Kevin Love on Monday after a 21-game break had been: “It helps us to have another player at all.
The hospital is still lavishly filled: Rodney Hood, Cedi Osman, Larry Nance and Tristan Thompson are still missing. We’re not even close to knowing how good we can be,” James explained.
It’s great to have him back,” the King said with a little delay, “his basketball IQ and his experience with us will make him fit right back in. His throw means the enemy’s big men can’t clog the zone.”
The latter also showed itself in the important 124:117 victory against the Bucks. Love played a solid 25 minutes in which he scored four of his nine threesomes and was the second option behind LeBron. The game intelligent Love also had some good scenes (4 assists). His conclusion at the first game since the 8. February was accordingly also quite positive.
“I told the staff that I was fine and that I wanted to come back to play as many games as possible,” Love said, “In a few situations it was a bit too casual, but I accept the win in the first game after my comeback, of course.”
Some of these will follow in the next few weeks. Cleveland is currently in third place in the Eastern Conference, although hardly a sheet of paper fits between places 3 and 8. And even if you wouldn’t be afraid to go into the playoffs as a nominal underdog, the home advantage would also be welcome in Ohio, at least in playoff round one.
That’s what Love is needed for, that’s what the others are needed for – Hood, Nance and Osman could return this week, only Thompson is likely to suffer even longer injuries. But of course almost everything stands and falls with James during the rest of the season. As practical for the Cavs that this also in its 15. season in the midst of all turbulences constantly dominates as ever.
Maybe even a little more: His triple double (40 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists) was already James’ 16th. Triple-Double of the season, he has never recorded so many in one season. It was also the third triple-double in the last four games. At the age of 33 James is also on course for career highs with the assists (9.0) and rebounds (8.7).
Perhaps even more impressive: James is also on course to play all 82 games for the first time in his career. That’s not necessarily a good sign – it certainly doesn’t speak for the depth or quality of the rest of the Cavs squad. If James didn’t put on his show every night, Cleveland would certainly not be a candidate for home advantage in the first playoff round.
Only he separates Cleveland from teams like the Bucks – and he wants to keep it that way: “I’m always in attack mode, no matter who’s standing next to me on the court. I’m not going to hit every throw every night, but I know I can involve others and somehow influence the game. Nothing will change.”
At least that’s something you can count on in Cleveland. Probably the only one.