All the reasons the Cavaliers' three-game losing streak matters
In NBA A to Z Diaries, Insiders Sam Amick and Jeff Zillgitt will provide insight, analysis and revelations from around the league in a free-flowing attempt to make sense of this 2016-17 season. The latest entry looks at the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers and their three-game losing streak.
So much for the NBA’s regular season being rendered irrelevant.
Just one night after Kevin Durant’s Golden State Warriors fell in double overtime to the Houston Rockets and looked so very human while doing it, the reigning champion Cleveland Cavaliers did the same in a 111-105 loss to the Chicago Bulls that marked their first three-game losing streak of the season.
And with that, a widely endorsed narrative is officially dead.
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When Durant left Oklahoma City behind and signed with the Warriors in July, there were cries far and wide about how he had ruined the regular season. It would be the Warriors, the Cavs team that beat them before Durant arrived, and everyone else of lesser repute groveling at their feet. Wake us up in May, in other words.
But there is real intrigue here on both sides of the league’s ledger now, the most recent of which was this LeBron James v. Dwyane Wade affair that – much like the Warriors-Rockets thriller – was as fun as early December games can get. Yet while the Warriors (now 16-3) took it in stride when their 12-game winning streak came to an end, the Cavs’ situation seems a bit more substantive when it comes to cause for concern.
Make of it what you will, but here are the indisputable facts …
• Cleveland – which fell 118-101 to Milwaukee, 113-94 to the Clippers and then to the Bulls – now has as many three-game losing streaks this season as it had in its championship campaign: one. There’s one key difference, though: They didn’t have Kyrie Irving last time around.
Not only was their All-Star point guard still nearly three weeks away from a return from his knee injury when the Cavs fell to New Orleans, Washington, and Miami in that stretch a year ago, but James didn’t play in one of those games either. This, on the other hand, was a more legitimate kind of losing with a fully stacked Cavs roster falling short.
• Three games is a small sample size no matter how you slice it, but the recent drop-off has been on both ends of the floor.
The Cavs’ scoring is down significantly (99.6 points scored per 100 possessions in the three games, compared to 109.6 for the season), and their defense is on the decline too (113.9 points allowed per 100 – which is ranked 28th in that stretch – compared to 105.1 for the season).
• Other than J.R. Smith’s in-game hug with the Bucks’ Jason Terry at the start of this streak that went viral and was deemed "embarrassing" by Cavs coach Tyronn Lue, the Cavs’ super sub has hardly been seen nor heard from of late. In fact, since coming back from a sprained right ankle seven games ago, Smith has missed 37 of 50 shots in all (26%), 31 of 43 three-pointers (27.6%) while failing to score in double digits during that time. He has 18 combined points during the losing streak (on six of 18 shooting, all on threes).
Cavs coach Ty Lue calls J.R. Smith's behavior 'embarrassing'
• Turnovers are a major problem, too, with Cleveland last in the league in the three-game stretch (19.3 per game, compared to 13.8 for the season). James is the guilty party on this front, having racked up 20 during that span while posting a minus-35 plus-minus rating combined in the losses.
“We’ve just got to get out of the honeymoon stage,” James told reporters after the loss to the Bulls. “That’s (the media’s) headline for tomorrow. I know y’all are going to use it. How do you do that? You’ve got to play the game the right way. You’ve got to battle every night like we ain’t won nothing. Last year was last year. And after ring night, it was over with. Now it’s a new season, and everybody is gunning for us every night. And we have to understand that, so the honeymoon stage is over. It’s time to play some real ball.”
• The schedule doesn't let up from here, as the Cavs face off against their Eastern Conference Finals foe, the Toronto Raptors, on Monday and the Knicks (winners of seven of 10) on Wednesday. From there, it's a home-heavy stretch leading up to their Christmas Day showdown against the Warriors.
As early season evidence goes, the odds are pretty good that none of these struggles will matter come playoff time. Far better to do this now than, say, while up 3-1 in the Finals. But if nothing else, it’s more than enough to make you realize that this regular season – contrary to popular belief – is as relevant as ever.
Follow NBA Insider Sam Amick on Twitter @sam_amick.