After their 99-94 victory over the Bulls Sunday, the Cavaliers stars told the media that they were happy but unhappy about the division win. During the game, the Cavs seemed to back away from their usual game and let the Bulls pull a little too close during the fourth quarter. According to ESPN, even with his first triple-double of the season, LeBron James made it clear he wasn’t satisfied with the win.
"“I think we settled for a lot of jumpers in the fourth quarter. And those are things that we, as a young team, will have to just learn from and get better with it the next time. So, we controlled the game, but we allowed them to get back in the game because of what we did offensively and that’s a very good team. You know a Thibs [Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau] team is never going to give up and we have to understand every single possession means everything and we can’t take one off.”"
The Cavaliers are looking to lock down the second seed in the Eastern Conference and LeBron and the Cavs are trying to eliminate the final kinks before the playoffs. Coach David Blatt even added to the concern.
"“I thought for good parts of the game we played very, very well. I thought and I believe that our fourth-quarter decision making, execution could have been better, much better. And that’s on me. That’s on me. And we got to improve that. Again, that’s my responsibility.”"
These concerns may have something to do with the fact that J.R. Smith set a league record for three-point attempts (17) without attempting a two-point shot. These concerns aren’t huge and the Cavs made it clear that the good parts of the game were still positive. Kyrie Irving told ESPN reporters that winning is a positive but the performance of the team is unsatisfactory.
"“Obviously we want to continue to have consistency going into the playoffs and finish these games off the right way and take every game as serious as we can. We’re still playing for something in this locker room and that’s to continue to click.”"
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After the game, the Cavaliers didn’t seem to act much differently than a blowout victory. The team didn’t celebrate much and just headed back to the locker room after shaking hands. The big win didn’t seem to mean much to the Cavs, who seemed to be more interested in the flaws of their play than their increased conference lead. This may be a good sign for the young Cavaliers.
With ten days left before the playoffs, trying to fix last minute problems looks to be a top priority for the team. For such a young team, knowing when there is a problem, even during a big win, is much more significant this close to the postseason.
Are you surprised the Cavaliers were not satisfied after their big Easter Day win?