The Cleveland Cavaliers continue to sit at the top of the Eastern Conference standings while playing like one of the bottom feeders. The team has been on a roller coaster since coming out of the All-Star break with Tyronn Lue as the new head coach. That was on full display Monday night as the team fell 106-103 to the Memphis Grizzlies. As the team tries to fine tune their issues before the playoffs, LeBron James is making it clear they have a lot of work to do.
The Cavaliers were expected to blow out the Grizzlies with Mike Conley, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol all out of the game. Instead, they struggled from the start despite the game being a home match. Poor shooting and bad passes were plaguing the team all night, and James told the media the Cavaliers have a lot of work to do before they can contend in the postseason.
"I can sit up here and say that we're a team that's ready to start the playoffs tomorrow, but we're not," James said. "We're still learning. We still have things that happen on the court that just, that shouldn't happen."
Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving agreed with James. Both players noted that maturity of the team is an issue at the moment. They have been struggling to gel on the court. On any given night, one of the players will try and do too much and take over. That is causing many of the team's losses. Love blamed a lack of respect for the opponent as an issue as well.
"We just could have done a better job of respecting the game...That was a real bad loss for us," Love said.
The Cavaliers are in win-now mode. The team is looking to get a championship or major changes could be coming. David Blatt was already the first victim of that. Breaking up the roster could be the next move forward. While most of it is pure speculation, rumors have been flying that either Irving, Love or James will be on the move. It is too early to call such a thing, but it is clear the Cavaliers need to do something in order for this season to turn out as expected.
For James, he is certainly not short on motivation. His cryptic tweets have caused speculation that James is not happy with the Cavaliers or he is not happy with his teammates. The franchise star downplayed all of that talk saying his Twitter account was a product of his beautiful mind.
"It's just my mind working, that's all," James said. "I don't know if anything started it. Just my mind working. I got a beautiful mind and I want to use it sometimes in a social manner."
