The Cleveland Cavaliers lost 114-108 against the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night. Despite a big 4th quarter comeback that saw them take the lead before a Jrue Holiday shot forced overtime, the Cavaliers did not seem pleased about the team’s performance.
Head coach David Blatt, in particular, spoke about LeBron James having to do too much, telling reporters, “We need to give him more help.” That led to an interesting response from shooting guard J.R. Smith:
J.R. Smith laughed when told Blatt thinks LeBron needs more help. "I mean, I had 15 in the first. I don't know what else you want me to do"
— Jason Lloyd (@JasonLloydABJ) December 5, 2015
While Smith is correct that he contributed in the scoring column in this game, that is not the type of response he should be giving. On a team that has repeatedly put itself in the news with meetings and public quotes despite having a good record, any sort of public dispute between a player and coach can be tumultuous.
Meanwhile, LeBron had two different takes on this subject. First, when asked about scoring 23 of his 37 points in the 4th quarter to lead a comeback, he had this to say:
Blatt said #Cavs have to give LeBron more help. LeBron when asked about taking over in 4Q: "Who else was going to do it?"
— Jason Lloyd (@JasonLloydABJ) December 5, 2015
When asked about the injuries to Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert and whether their absence has led to the Cavaliers’ struggles, however, James sang a slightly different tune:
I hope we don’t think that way. It’s never that way. When you get your guys back, you prepare just as you prepare before. There’s only one guy ever in the world that everything will be all right when he comes back and that’s Jesus Christ. Other than that, you can’t bank on nobody being OK.
Certainly, getting Irving and Shumpert back will be important and beneficial for the Cavaliers. Nevertheless, James knows that that should not be used as an excuse for a title contending team and he is doing his best to take that excuse away. If the Cavaliers are to win a title, they will need more help from their role players and this stretch of basketball without Irving and Shumpert is a good time for those players to prove they can supply that help. So far, both Blatt and James seem to think they have not done enough of that.
