LeBron James made his much-needed return on Tuesday against the Phoenix Suns on the road after sitting out the past eight games – a span of two weeks.
Unfortunately, his return wasn’t quite enough for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who suffered a 107-100 defeat for their sixth straight loss.
James did his part and looked as though he didn’t skip a beat with 33 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Kevin Love, however, didn’t play in the fourth quarter and ended the night with just nine points on three-of-11 shooting from the field to go with nine rebounds. Kyrie Irving also had a particularly rough night, scoring nine points on four-of-14 shooting and committing a whopping eight turnovers.
Although the Cavaliers eventually chipped away, they were down by as many as 19 points and often looked dysfunctional. Dan Le Batard, who always enjoys watching the Cavaliers play terribly, reacted accordingly:
Love sitting fourth quarter. JR Smith with a team-leading 19 shots. LeBron pushes Blatt. Cavs lose. Fall to below .500. What a feces show.
— Dan Le Batard Show (@LeBatardShow) January 14, 2015
Here’s that push Le Batard was talking about:
It’s a weird gesture, even if James was simply trying to prevent David Blatt from picking up a technical foul. Not to make something out of nothing, but you can get your coach away from the referees without shoving him in the manner James did.
With the loss, Cleveland fell below .500 at 19-20. The good thing is that there is still plenty of time to figure things out and when they do, they will be a frightening team for anyone to face in the playoffs. It’s worth noting that Iman Shumpert is also still out of the lineup and he will surely provide a boost on the defensive end.
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Jim Park is a blogger and editor of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog.
I guess now that the Cav’s are firmly in the Eastern Conference finals, Dan LeBartard is actually the current feces show. But then again, he’s always been feces and his opinions and his show has also always been feces. But then again, look at the old man. What else could he produce other than feces. As they say, feces always runs downhill. And now Dan is in the valley.