Kevin Love was sitting at his locker stall slouched over in a frustrated state following Gordon Hayward’s game-winning jumper that handed the Cavaliers their second straight loss in as many nights.
Love lacked vigor and spunk, which is rightfully so after banging with the frontcourt of the Utah Jazz for 38 grueling minutes. The way he looked at his locker is equivalent to how the Cleveland Cavaliers have played in three of their four regular-season games.
For the second consecutive contest, Cleveland was flat. They were lifeless, absent of pride and lacked motivation for much of the game. Someone apparently missed a payment on the team’s energy bill.
Their power is momentarily shut off.
Cleveland didn’t get its first lead until there was 5:25 left in Wednesday’s 102-100 loss to Utah. This is a young Jazz team still trying to figure out how to play this game. The Jazz was not supposed to be the team executing down the stretch.
Hayward’s step-back game-winner over the outstretched arms of Tristan Thompson displayed poise and a sense of urgency, two things currently not present with this Cleveland group.
It may only be four games in and yes, their chemistry still needs time to materialize, but there’s no excuse for not showing up. It’s starting to become problematic.
“We should have never been in that position in the first place,” Thompson told Northeast Ohio Media Group of Hayward’s shot. “Our energy level was terrible the whole game. We didn’t start picking it up until the last eight minutes probably. So we have to live with the results.”
Our energy level was terrible the whole game.
Thompson makes his living off of hard work and doing the little things that helps a team win. For a player of his work ethic, it’s extremely difficult for him to watch this team give a lackadaisical effort.
He’s puzzled, and he can only shake his head in disapproval.
“I can’t put my finger on it but we got to figure it out collectively as a group,” he said. “It can’t just be one or two guys. It has to be all of us collectively as a group, figuring out what it takes to play 48 minutes of hard basketball, playing with some heart, some balls and being ready to fight.”
The fight came too little too late. They’re not playing the game the right way.
David Blatt’s motion offense is predicated on spacing and ball movement, which should lead to plenty of assists considering the weapons on this Cavaliers team. On Wednesday night, six assists were all they could muster up. It tied a franchise low for a game. The final score was 102-100.
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