Jarrett Jack stood in front of a reporters and spoke softly and sternly.
“It’s unacceptable,” the Cavaliers starting point guard said Wednesday night at The Q.
That is one thing everyone connected with the Cavs can agree on.
In a performance that almost defies description, the Cavaliers embarrassed themselves for three quarters and managed to lose, 119-108, to a Los Angeles Lakers team that had lost seven straight games and finished this game with five healthy players.
Oh, some of the sting was taken out after Cleveland cut a 29-point first-half lead to 114-108 after two free throws by rookie Anthony Bennett with 1:17 left in the fourth quarter. But a 3-pointer by Steve Blake, playing with a ruptured ear drum suffered at Minnesota on Tuesday night, restored the Lakers lead to 117-108 with 56.7 seconds left and the Lakers held on to snap a seven-game losing streak and improve to 17-32. Rookie Ryan Kelly scored a career-high 26 points.
C.J. Miles led the Cavs with 27 points and led the fourth quarter charge, but on this night he did not have enough help as the Cavs lost their sixth-straight game to fall to 16-33.
By the time Miles entered the game early in the second quarter, the Cavs were down by 26 points, soon to be 29, at 50-21. He said he tried to bring the kind of energy, pace and spacing that clearly were missing. But he also made an interesting observation about how the Cavs continually find themselves in these situations.
“I just think we get discouraged too easily,” he said quietly. “It’s been hard, and it’s going to be hard. There have been nights where we played our hardest and played our best basketball and haven’t been able to win games, and there have been nights that we didn’t play good basketball and won games.
“Lately, with everything that’s been going on, it’s just like our mental focus…take anything that’s bothering you or any frustration and leave it out there. if you don’t want anybody to talk about you, prove them wrong.”
The Cavs have been the subject of much controversy this past week, and last night’s game is not going to calm any of that. Rumors surfaced about Luol Deng and Kyrie Irving being unhappy, and Dion Waiters being asked to leave practice because of a bad attitude.
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