LeBron James scored 25 points and the Cleveland Cavaliers gave Tyronn Lue his first win as head coach with a 114-107 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night. “And it’s a tough game to come in and play”. Or would you keep Fisher and not try to get better coaches like Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich type coaches who can coach but are not afraid to tell their players when they are being unprofessional and not afraid to speak their mind?
Another Cleveland Cavaliers head coach was sacked in the middle of the season as David Blatt was relieved last Friday despite the team having the best record in the Eastern Conference. It wasn’t the way we wanted it to go and we took it hard.
“We’re not in good enough shape to play the style we want to play”, Lue told reporters after Saturday’s loss to Chicago. Blatt had been head coach since he signed a four-year, $20 million contract on June 20, 2014.
Lue played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association after being a first-round pick of the Denver Nuggets. J.R. Smith added 18 points for Cleveland, which was favored by 10½ points.
LeBron James just missed his first triple-double this season, finishing with 26 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists.
Elsewhere: Sacramento Kings 108, Indiana Pacers 97: Red-hot DeMarcus Cousins scored a career-high 48 points and grabbed 13 rebounds as the surging Kings won their fifth in a row. The offence never really recovered.
Replacing Blatt is Tyronn Lue, a former player and assistant for the Cavs. Fisher and Lue were teammates with the Lakers in the late 1990s, and Fisher says Lue focuses heavily on developing player relationships.
James realizes the public believes he was a factor in Blatt’s firing, but said he stopped caring what people think long ago. You guys asked me early on why I was so frustrated. We got to change. “I talked to the guys about just being able to focus on the moment and the process”.
The loss capped a turbulent 24 hours in Cleveland.
James said he had nothing – nothing! – to do with Blatt’s dismissal, but any human blessed with brain cells and eyesight knows that can’t be true.
James said the Warriors “like the floor wide open for Steph (Curry), for Draymond (Green) to create plays and they like to get a lot of movement”. “It’s unfortunate what happened yesterday, and as a team we just have to focus on what’s now, what’s now in front of us with the coach that we have now and we’ve got to continue to get better”.
