CLEVELAND -- After a five-day media storm that began with LeBron James' call for another playmaker and continued with a domino effect of headlines -- a rebuffed Carmelo Anthony-for-Kevin Love trade; turmoil between James and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert over money; and Charles Barkley skewering the King’s competitive fiber -- Cleveland won a game Friday.
The Cavs beat a brutal Brooklyn Nets outfit 124-116. The Nets, the worst team in the league at 9-37, were missing five of their top nine scorers -- including their best player, Brook Lopez -- because of either rest or injury, to boot.
It was not the type of game that would make the defending champions excited so much as it could make them relieved. The bleeding stopped, at least temporarily, after they had dropped six of their previous eight games.
“Hell yeah I feel better,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said after the game. “It feels good to get a win any way you can get it. They came out and played hard, and I thought the third quarter we really took control of the game. That’s one win. We’ve just got to continue to keep building on this one.”
It was a brilliant third quarter for the Cavs, as they shot 14-for-20 from the field as a team (70 percent) and outscored the Nets 39-26. Kyrie Irving scored 20 of his 28 points in the period and James scored 10 of his 31. It was the type of flip-the-switch excellence that have some around the team believing the Cavs could very well go 3-0 in their current three-games-in-four-nights stretch and be rolling right along again.
“To change what we have going on right now, to win three games in a row and play well would be really good for us,” Lue said.
The biggest change was in James’ demeanor. While he entered the game having put up back-to-back triple-doubles, he was angry after the loss in New Orleans on Monday and despondent after the Sacramento letdown Wednesday; James was downright chipper Friday. He finished his pregame shooting routine by throwing full-court, looping lob passes to himself and catching them off the bounce to dunk them home. After the game, he blasted music and looked on as his two sons showed off their handles by dribbling basketballs in the cramped confines of a locker room filled with two dozen media members.
It matched his message from shootaround Friday morning.
“I mean, if you got a love for the game, it’s just exciting to play it,” James said. “No matter what’s going on in the season, I think the excitement of being able to compete is always a thrill for me.”
Key word: compete. James claimed he never heard Barkley’s comments from Thursday’s “Inside the NBA” broadcast when he questioned James’ valor, but his shootaround words seemed like an apt retort. “He’s the best player in the world. Does he want all of the good players?” Barkley said, alluding to James’ tirade after the Pelicans game. “He don’t want to compete?”
James addressed it directly after the Nets game.
“He has to do that,” James said. "I mean, it’s good for the ratings. That makes no sense in the world. Ever since I picked up a basketball at age 9 I’ve competed every single time, so you can never question that about me. But that’s Charles. He’s the guy who has to sit on a panel and says stuff like that, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. That means absolutely nothing. I wasn’t even watching last night.”
Indeed, James said he was playing the board game, “Speak Out,” with his family. It’s a game in which participants wear a retainerlike device in their mouths and have to pronounce words and phrases and have the other players guess what they’re saying.
And after a week full of guessing from the basketball world what James’ true intentions were in speaking out, he let it be known clear as day what he was trying to accomplish.
“I think it’s great,” James said when asked about his team’s struggles in January. “Listen, at the end of the day, the road to a championship or the road to success shouldn’t be a bed of roses. That’s not ... that’s never been my road. I don’t think I should expect anything different. So, having bumps in the road, I think it builds character, and I think it’s good for our team. I think it’s good for our individuals as well.”
