CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Cavaliers brought a three-game winning streak into their matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies at Quicken Loans Arena Monday night, but that string of positive results came to a surprising end against an undermanned foe.
With only eight healthy players able to play, the Grizzlies (38-25) were like a proverbial wounded animal that came out aggressive and earned a hard-fought 106-103 win over the Eastern Conference-leading Cavaliers (44-18).
“When you know teams are chasing you or teams want to try and build a couple weeks in a row off of a win against you, I don’t think there’s anything that needs to be said,” Cavaliers small forward LeBron James said.
“Every team, they get up for us, no matter who it is, no matter what their record, no matter if it’s on their home floor or our home floor. They get up to play us. I don’t think anything needs to be said. It’s all about competing at that point.”
Since Tyronn Lue took over the coaching duties in mid-January after the firing of former head coach David Blatt, the Cavaliers have made a concerted effort to push the pace of play and get into transition, and subsequently, their offensive sets quicker than normal.
However, no matter what tempo the Cavaliers played with Monday, they never got in sync for very long, as the Grizzlies had an answer. The Cavaliers committed 25 turnovers, and that led directly to 30 points for the Grizzlies.
Also, Memphis held advantages in points in the paint, 54-52, and fast-break scoring, 24-18.
“I think that happens a lot when you have teams that have won championships and are always going to The Finals,” Lue said of complacency. “I’ve seen that, but we’ve only been to The Finals one time, and we lost, so I can’t see how we can be like that. When you have the San Antonio Spurs or the Lakers back in the day when the Lakers were great, the Miami Heat when they went four straight times, then you can kind of get bored with the process and looking forward to the playoffs, but we haven’t reached that point yet.
“I don’t think so. I just think we’ve hit a couple tough patches when we lost a couple games, but we’re playing great. If we can continue to compete for 48 minutes and play hard and play the right way, I can live with the results.”
Despite questions of chemistry and locker-room issues, the Cavaliers hold a two-game lead over the Toronto Raptors for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, and enjoy an 11-game advantage over the Indiana Pacers in the Central Division standings.
Including tonight’s game against the Sacramento Kings on the road, the Cavaliers have 20 remaining in the regular season to work on whatever potential issues exist within the locker room before the playoffs get underway next month.
“It’s tough,” Cavaliers power forward Kevin Love said. “In some ways, I think we wish we could fast forward, but in a lot of ways, you also have to respect the process. Anything can happen between now and what, April 16th, April 17th when the regular season ends. We have to manage and put in the work in order to get better because we do need to get better these last six, eight weeks.”
