Cavs need to find ways to get LeBron rest

The Cleveland Cavaliers need to rest LeBron James periodically to keep him fresh for closing quarter.

LeBron James played 44 minutes in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Game 1 loss to the Indiana Pacers and it may have cost them the game.

In fact, if Lue can’t whittle down the minutes of a 33-year-old 15-year NBA veteran who played the 3,026 total minutes in the 2017-2018 regular season (more than any other player), it may cost them a championship.

With a final score that read 98-80, it hardly seemed worth it to keep James in for all but four minutes of regulation. Of course, in the playoffs every possession matters but so too does keeping your feature player fresh enough to take over the game when there’s blood in the water.

Despite a poor showing offensively, the Cavaliers were admirable in their attempts to battle back from 19-point deficit set at the end of the first.

The Cavs would close the gap throughout the game and the Pacers only held an 8-point lead heading into the final frame.

Unfortunately, the Cavaliers were blasted 25-15 in the final quarter.

James, who averaged 7.5 points per game in the fourth quarter during the regular season (third-highest in the NBA), would make just one of his three field goal attempts as Rodney Hood (5 points) and J.R. Smith (4 points) joined him as the Cavaliers’ source of fourth quarter scoring. He finished the quarter with four points as he hit two free-throws with 5:50 left on the clock.

Though Hood (50.0 percent shooting from the field) and especially Smith (54.5 percent shooting from the field) were efficient throughout the game, James should have been able to have a bigger impact. That’s especially true in the fourth quarter given James’ penchant for taking over late and when Kevin Love (9 points on 8 field goal attempts) wasn’t aggressive  — he didn’t even take a field goal in the fourth quarter.

The question is, though, why didn’t James take over? The answer likely starts and ends with his minutes.

James, who will guard everyone from Darren Collison to Myles Turner and is the Cavaliers’ primary playmaker, scored 24 points while having 12 assists, 10 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block. His point total and assist total are team-highs, as were his field goals made (7), field goals attempted (17), free-throws made (10) and free-throws attempted (14).

The do-it-all forward is what I consider the sun of the team’s solar system, with everything orbiting around his greatness. Without an All-Star level playmaker beside him, even more responsibility falls on James.

However, in making a deep playoff run, the Cavs will need to practice keeping James fresh throughout the game. Why they need to is obvious (on both ends frankly), as a fatigued LeBron is too passive and doesn’t give all-out effort.

Why they can’t has a lot to do with their lineup decisions.

Their bench features sharpshooters J.R. Smith and Kyle Korver, two players at their best beside James. Smith is more apt to create for himself off-the-dribble but the fact remains that he’s at his best when James is targeting him behind-the-line.

Jordan Clarkson and Jose Calderon also come off the bench. While Calderon simply isn’t a volume scorer, his basketball IQ has paid dividends for his teammates’ numbers on the offensive end. One such players is Clarkson, a offensive-minded guard who doesn’t play at a pace, mentally or physically, that allows him to consistently be the primary playmaker when James sits.

That said, if those two shore up their offense and play better than their showing on Sunday (6 points and 2 assists combined), they’ll go a long way towards helping James get his rest. Smith, who scored 15 points on 6-11 shooting, has been playing well as of late and Korver will be reliable once healthy.

If those four can come in and play around Love or Larry Nance Jr., James will be able to rest consistently.

Playing Jeff Green in the second unit and starting Nance Jr. is also plausible.

Green, a forward best described as a “jack of all trades, master of none” as a point-forward in place of James gives the Cavs another player who can be a ball-handler, passer, threat to attack the rim in transition or halfcourt and inside-outside threat. A player who can defend multiple positions.

He doesn’t need to do all of these things at an elite level — although he’s certainly a powerful dunker — but he’s intrinsically valuable as a backup to James if he can be a “poor man’s LeBron” for the second unit.

A role he held at the beginning of the season.

To be honest, if the Cavaliers execute and handle business, James’ rest will come naturally. If not, Lue needs to consider giving James at least ten minutes of rest per game by bringing Green off the bench in order to have his franchise player fresh when a game is in reach.

Not just every possession but every game matters in the NBA.

Related Story: The Cavs need defensive playmakers to win it all

*All stats gathered from www.basketball-reference.com and stats.nba.com