LeBron James earned a significant accolade on Tuesday night by passing Jerry West to become no. 19 on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. More important to LeBron, of course, is his team’s performance which resulted in a 100-94 loss to the Detroit Pistons.
Sure it’s still early in the season, but LeBron is thinking long term and big picture. When he looks across the way and sees the passion and consistency the Golden State Warriors are playing with, it’s only a reminder that his team is not playing with the same urgency.
From Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
“We haven’t done anything,” an exasperated James said after the Cavs lost their second straight game, 104-99 to the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday. “We didn’t win anything. We lost. We lost in the Finals. So that’s enough motivation for myself. I think we need to understand that. Like, we lost in the Finals. We didn’t win. And the team that beat us looks more hungry than we are. So it shouldn’t be that way.”
“We’re too relaxed and too nice,” James said. “We’re just too nice.”
James said the toughness the Cavs lack isn’t necessarily physical.
“It’s not always about being Iron Man,” James said. “It’s a mental toughness as well — going out and doing your job, doing it at a high level and preparing that way before the tip even happens. So we got some guys who’ll do it and some guys that don’t do it consistently enough.”
“You can’t play down to the competition at this point because we’re not better than no one in the league,” James said. “We got so much work to do at this point. We shouldn’t feel entitled. That’s what I continue to say.
“We’re not entitled to a win. We’re not entitled to being the Eastern Conference champions. That’s last year. It’s a totally different year, and until we figure that out, we’re going to continue to put ourselves in positions to lose basketball games.”
“It’s got to come from within sometimes,” James said. “Words can only go so far. At some point, they need to become actions. Like I said before, this whole week, we’re not a very good team. It’s just that simple. … We have the ability to be a great team, but right now, we’re not a very good team.
“We don’t pay attention to details as much. We don’t go out and battle when we’re supposed to. And it’s going to come to a point where every game, you’re going to be in a late-game situation or a game where you should’ve won by 10 instead of being a one- or two-possession game going down the stretch.”
Seeing the Warriors come out to a boisterous 12-0 start to the season can’t be encouraging to LeBron. Golden State is playing as if they were the ones who lost in the Finals, and to paraphrase LeBron’s thoughts, the Cavs might just be expecting to be back there next June.
The Cavs shouldn’t feel entitled, but the fact is they’re head and shoulders the most talented team in the Eastern Conference. When the time comes, assuming they’re at full strength with Iman Shumpert and Kyrie Irving, it’s fair to assume they’ll be ready. Cleveland started last season with a 19-20 record before finishing 34-9, but that was after trading for Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith, and Timofey Mozgov.
In the end, the Cavs should be just fine, but LeBron understands that settling for just fine won’t make for a different outcome should they have the opportunity to face Golden State again next June.
