The Cleveland Cavaliers lost another game on Wednesday, and they lost to the Indiana Pacers, and they’re now 3-5, and this is totally fine. There’s definitely nothing wrong with the Cavaliers. LeBron James is about to call The New York Times to tell them, “I’m actually not mad at all.”
The Cavaliers have fewer wins than the Suns — THE SUNS — right now
Basketball is dumb as hell and Cleveland isn’t turning things around.
Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
But OK, for real, what the hell.
The Phoenix Suns won another game on Wednesday, and they beat the Washington Wizards, who are supposedly a good team. The same Suns lost by 48 — FORTY-EIGHT — points in their season opener, and then by 42 — FORTY-TWO — in their third game. They fired their coach, told their best veteran Eric Bledsoe to stop showing up, and then rattled off four wins in five games.
Those Suns are now 4-4, while the Cavs can’t break .500. It’s a small sample size, but it’s also eight games. That’s 10 percent of the season.
(Sorry, Suns, to only use you as a device to show how bad the Cavaliers are right now. Cleveland is the biggest story right now, but keep playing well and there will be pretty of love to spread around, I promise!)
The Cavaliers apparently have no desire to play defense
They have allowed, in their last six games, 124 points, then 114, 123, 112, 112, and 114. That is pretty horrid, even when you account for the NBA’s quicker pace. Their defensive rating is 109.8, fourth worst in the league, coming into the evening. It’s going to get worse after this horrid performance against Cleveland.
I wrote that the Cavaliers were hot garbage a few days ago, and I will confirm that yes, they are still hot garbage. I don’t know why J.R. Smith can’t shoot worth a damn right now, or why Jae Crowder has been so bad. I’m not surprised that Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose aren’t great — Rose was actually the only non-LeBron player who was good offensively on Wednesday, but his defense is still painful — but there are roles that the Cavaliers can fit them into and have them be productive. In theory, at least.
But, uh, they probably should play defense. This is no single player’s fault. It’s a team-wide effort that is embarrassing, lackluster, and deserves to be scorned. If they get out of this slump, that’s fine. They’ve done it before. They’ll probably do it again. Come April, I guess this won’t mean anything if they’re a top playoff seed rolling through the Eastern Conference.
That still won’t mean this is anything but a dumpster fire right now.
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