LeBron James, Kyrie Irving Deny Exchanging Words Following Loss to Blazers

LeBron James' Cleveland homecoming has gotten off to a surprisingly rocky start, and failure to mesh with incumbent star Kyrie Irving may be a big reason.    

Continue for updates.

Updates from Thursday, Nov. 7

LeBron James and Kyrie Irving Speak on Exchange

Chris Haynes of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer has the latest from LeBron and Irving on their reported dispute:

ESPN's Dave McMenamin has more:

"

Kyrie Irving: "I've never been on a closer team in my career."

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) November 7, 2014"

Blazers Blast Cavs, LeBron and Kyrie Exchange Words After the Game

The Portland Trail Blazers crushed the Cavaliers 101-82 on Tuesday night. Following that disappointing loss, James and Irving reportedly exchanged words in the locker room about the direction and flow of the offense, according to ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst.

While Windhorst categorized the discussion as "healthy," James was clearly unhappy after the game based on his comments to the media.

"There's a lot of bad habits, a lot of bad habits been built up the past couple years," LeBron said. "When you play that style of basketball, it takes a lot to get it up out of you."

Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com added specifically what James discussed with Irving: "LeBron James challenged Kyrie Irving to be a better playmaker following the Cavaliers' blowout loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday, league sources told Northeast Ohio Media Group."

It is entirely possible that James was alluding to Irving's dominance of the ball. As the go-to player for the first three seasons of his NBA career, the Duke product grew accustomed to the offense going through him.

Per ESPN's Skip Bayless, shooting a high volume of shots is basically in Irving's DNA:

Also, despite LeBron's presence, Windhorst believes Irving is reluctant to adapt, according to ESPN's First Take:

The Cavs are currently 1-3, which is shocking for a team that boasts elite talent such as James, Irving and Kevin Love. Cleveland was tabbed as the preseason favorite to win the Eastern Conference, but that may have been presumptuous.

A 102-100 loss to the Utah Jazz on Wednesday couldn't have done much to improve the locker room mood, but there are still many games left to be played. James took to Twitter to calm down a panicky fanbase: 

The expectation that James, Irving and Love would be able to mesh immediately was probably unrealistic. All three of them will have to sacrifice something in order to have team success moving forward, and LeBron is clearly hopeful that his point guard will embrace that.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter