LeBron James says “I need to do more” after Nets loss
By Jared Kungle
Cleveland Cavaliers star forward LeBron James had a sit-down with head coach Tyronn Lue after the Cavaliers’ disappointing 122-101 loss to the Miami Heat last week. The conversation, according to James, made him realize what he needs to do throughout the remainder of the season to help prepare the team for the playoffs.
“I just need to do more,” James said, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “Just need to do more, and I have been able to do that, except for tonight, for the most part.”
These comments came after the Cavaliers’ 104-95 loss to the 20-51 Brooklyn Nets. In the game, James scored 30 points while shooting 81% from the field, which is his fourth-most accurate shooting performance in his 13-year career.
Despite an impressive performance, The King was held scoreless in the fourth quarter, and the Cavaliers walked out of the Barclay’s Center without a win
Lue’s meeting with James was a direct cause of his halftime antics with Dwyane Wade when the Cavaliers were down 21 to the Heat, and focused on the 31-year-old’s leadership.
“I just told him we can’t have that, being down like we were and him being the leader,” Lue told Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. “Just me being a competitor, I didn’t like it. We had a long talk about it. It was good. He understood, he apologized, and he’s been great.”
On top of sending the wrong message to his teammates by not warming up at halftime against the Heat, James has been sending out cryptic tweets all season, the most recent being “unfollowing” the Cavaliers on twitter.
Though he claims unfollowing the Cavs was just to prepare himself for the playoffs, his social media foolery has led some to question his desire to play in Cleveland. To add salt to the wound, James told Howard Beck of Bleacher Report he would “take a paycut” to play with “The Brotherhood,” which includes Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, and Wade.
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After his comments came out, James did some damage control by saying it is unrealistic. “I don’t know how realistic it would be,” James said. “I would definitely be cool if it happened, but we don’t know how realistic it could be to have us four.”
In his last four games, James is averaging 28 points, six assists, and six rebounds, including a masterful triple double against the Denver Nuggets where he point up 33 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists in 33 minutes.
With ten games remaining on the schedule, it is time for the Cavaliers to find consistency to roll with into the playoffs, and it starts with the players around James. Against Brooklyn, the team shot just 36 percent from three, which is something they will have to polish up on if they want to return to the NBA finals.