James leads Cavs past Timberwolves for Lue’s first

Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue, left, talks with J.R. Smith during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Phoenix Suns, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016, in Cleveland.

New Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue continues to reiterate that he wants his team to push the pace and they’ll next face an opponent willing to do that, albeit a lowly one.

The Cavaliers on Friday fired coach David Blatt and promoted Lue from his associate head coach title even though they led the Eastern Conference with a 30-11 record at the time.

There has been a two-pronged approach to Lue’s first days at the helm.

“You start to notice those things, but as you continue to catch a second wind, a third wind, it will get better”, Love said. Zach LaVine scored 21 points while Andrew Wiggins added 20. “I saw him running, can’t remember who it was, one of their big guys”.

As a player, he played 11 seasons and appeared in 554 games. When you get that first win it’s very special.

Against Phoenix there was only ever going to be one victor after the Cavs reeled off 12 unanswered points at the start of the third quarter to open an unassailable lead.

Center Tristan Thompson returned to the starting lineup and had 19 points and 12 rebounds for the Cavs, while guard Kyrie Irving had 17 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

If its words that work for you, consider this quote from Lue about what the feeling is like between teammates when they win a championship together: “It’s just a bond that you just can’t describe”.

“I don’t think we’re in good enough shape”, Lue said.

When Lue tried to speed that pace up Saturday, all three of his stars asked out of the game early because they were exhausted.

“Not really being anybody, getting a chance to perform on the big stage in the NBA Finals going against at that time the MVP, one of the top three best players in the NBA and just having the chance to come out of nowhere and try to take on that challenge”.

“And I’m not the owner of a team, I’m not the GM of a team”.

“That’s what the coach wants and that’s what we’re doing”, he said.

Lue thinks the players need to be in better shape to play at the tempo he would like. “KG doesn’t play a lot (14.5 minutes), but in those first 6-7 minutes, he does such a good job talking and teaching the young guys what to do”, coach Sam Mitchell said.

Garnett left Saturday’s game against Memphis in the first half and didn’t return.

“We have flashes where we were great”, Towns said. This is a lot more like the new head coach would like to see, but this also needs to happen against teams that find it easier to enforce their will on teams.