Denver Nuggets Show Cleveland Cavaliers Their New Reality: Everyone's Best Shot
CLEVELAND — LeBron James felt the symptoms, but he couldn't be sure of the sources, though he acknowledged that his newborn and the change in weather—specifically the steady stream of snow—could have been contributors.
After skipping shootaround Monday morning, the reigning NBA Player of the Week came to work in the evening feeling achy and weary, the result of a head cold that had lingered with him for a couple of days. Still, he wasn't looking for an excused absence.
"I'm walking," he said, "so I'm in the lineup."
And, anyway, he appeared in much better condition than the team visiting Quicken Loans Arena, the Denver Nuggets, who had lost by 16 in New York the day before, had lost seven of eight overall and had seemed to be losing patience with each other.
The scene around the squad had become so ghoulish that endangered second-year coach Brian Shaw was even mixing in some gallows humor. When asked prior to the game what got the Cavaliers on the right track, he quipped, "it could have been our defense," a reference to the Nov. 7 game that started Cleveland's four-game winning streak.
So, naturally, if you didn't know better, you'd assume an easy victory for the star-studded home side, particularly in light of how well it had moved the ball against Atlanta two nights earlier, even mixing in some occasional defensive intensity.
But you should know better if you'd watched the Heat's struggles with inferior, but energized, opponents over the past four seasons, if you'd ever seen the Twitter hashtag #RSHK for "Random Scrub Heat Killer," and if you'd ever heard an exhausted, exasperated James complain about how he'd watch a player who had excelled against Miami crash to Earth the very next night.
James certainly knows better, after more than 11 seasons as the NBA's most targeted talent.
David Blatt insists he knows better, too, after just nine NBA games, five of which the Cavaliers have won.
And, after this 106-97 defeat—during which Ty Lawson tore up the Cavaliers' first line of defense and a resurgent Arron Afflalo scored a season-high 23 points—James and Blatt made it clear everyone else better learn quick.
Every team will look quicker and stronger against them than on tape.
"We got to play with our back against the wall every game," James said. "I think we felt good about a four-game winning streak. You have a team that isn't playing well this year, you think it's gonna be a cakewalk and that's what happens."
That's what he understands. That's why the 26 points off Cavaliers turnovers irked him so much. The teams each had 15 turnovers. But the Cavaliers scored only 11 points off those Denver offered. The Nuggets ran harder and faster. Often, multiple Cavaliers didn't bother running back.
And a 2-7 team ran out of the city with an unexpected victory.
But not an undeserved one.
They were more motivated, more desperate, as many teams are likely to be.
So, does everyone else in the room get that? When only two other members of the Cleveland rotation—Anderson Varejao and Shawn Marion—have ever played in the playoffs?
"No," James said. "No. And it's a process. It's not gonna happen overnight. I understand that. It's going to be frustrating at times, to know that, going into the game ... you've got to have a sense of urgency every night. Teams want to beat us, teams want to play us, they got up to play us, and it's a different feeling for some guys here, obviously, than in the past. Each game will be a learning experience."
That seems true for Blatt, too. He's had plenty of highs and lows already, with the season not yet three weeks old, and some of his strategies—notably the high minute totals for the three stars, starting with James—are raising some reasonable questions. He's been plenty positive thus far, finding the good even in uneven play and scolding the media Saturday for dwelling too much on what had gone wrong defensively during the 122-121 win in Boston.
Monday, however, he took a decidedly different tone. He said he believed the defensive problems started prior to tipoff.
"We just didn't come with the proper mindset, and with the energy level that we had the other night and we had the last several games," Blatt said. "This is a tough league. If you don't bring it, and if you don't come with, as a minimum standard, the highest level of energy and competitiveness, you're gonna get beat. Or you can get beat. And that's what happened."
He called it disappointing, and said that sentiment should be shared by the team.
Does he believe his squad has come to terms with being targeted?
"Well, if they don't, they better hurry up and figure it out," Blatt said. "Because that's exactly, exactly what's gonna happen."
Did he discuss it with his club, from the start of training camp?
"Assuredly so," Blatt said.
He put none of the blame on James, arguing that James' teammates should have compensated for any oomph their leader was lacking, even as he scored 22 points, with nine rebounds and five assists.
"That was up to everybody else to lift themselves and give more," Blatt said.
The coach said he tried to elevate his team's energy several times throughout the contest, to no avail. The Nuggets dusted the Cavaliers in the fourth quarter with Lawson and Kenneth Faried on the bench, and then Lawson returned to blow by everyone to the basket, leaving James to slam the ball in anger.
"I knew going into this game that this was a dangerous, dangerous game," Blatt said. "And I made that point from the first time we walked in the locker room this morning, that I did not do a good enough job. 'Cause if you're thinking about the last two minutes, when I'm animated and when I'm trying to get them going, then I'm late. I really am. And I tried. Because I knew it was coming, to be honest with you.
"I've been in too many of these situations, just too many. I've seen it a hundred times. And I did not do a good enough job if they didn't respond and come to play. And I'll take responsibility for that too, because I'm surely part of this."
They all are.
They're part of the elite now, as least in terms of expectations.
They need to expect the unexpected from everyone.
"We have to realize, every single night, we have to play at the top of our game," James said.
They need to do that, to match those playing above their heads. That's the trade they made, for the chance to contend along with James.
"I mean, if you can't get up for packed arenas everywhere, and everybody's best shot in the NBA, where you're living out your dream, you might as well go home," Kevin Love said. "That's something that we just have to understand and realize and see the fun in it. That's what is ultimately going to help us later on down the road, whether guys have been there or not."
Wednesday, they'll be visited by guys from San Antonio, guys who have been where they want to go.
You'd figure they'll have no trouble bringing their best for that one.
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