LeBron James has Cavaliers skipping on-court introductions to focus on game

Al Horford was a minus-26 for the game. It goes to show that the teams that know you best are your worst enemies and have an edge – not only emotionally, but strategically.

This time it’s Cleveland sitting atop the standings in the East after snapping a two-game slide with a 115-100 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday.

The Cavs most recent was a 104-99 loss to the Pistons in Detroit, and as a result cancelled practice Wednesday and instead opted for the film room.

“We’re coming ready to play”.

“Well, he was frustrated”, Blatt said. I don’t think that’s fair to the situation.

“There are times during the year that you have to take stock and say hey, wait a minute, this needs to be better or this needs to be corrected”.

The Cavs answered the challenge.

Dellavedova has done an excellent job starting for the injured Mo Williams for the second straight game.

James is hard on his teammates.

Four-time NBA MVP James rejoined Cavaliers for a second spell in 2014 after previously playing for the franchise between 2003 and 2010.

The Miami Heat wasn’t fazed. The Cavaliers ended up winning the game 109-97 but that was not the story.

James has tried to get his team to focus more early in the season and one development has been that the Cavs have not been partaking in pregame introductions.

“Well, you just have to be professional”.

“As a player, especially when you feel like you’re not done, that you can still play, it’s tough”, he said. You may be mad at that guy for a few days or whatever the case may be, but it never affected what we did out on the floor.

Now in their second season together with the Cavaliers, they are preaching the same things. When we don’t turn the ball over, we share the ball offensively, we got the ball popping, and we defend at a high level, we’re a pretty good team.

All three of their losses this season have been on the road.

The fact that the Cavs have the record they do while Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert have yet to play a game is impressive.

I have no idea what James was thinking there; the only thing that makes remote sense is that he thought Atlanta wouldn’t be able to inbound the ball as quickly as they did.

Blatt added, “Believe me, it’s not that I don’t want to play Andy Varejao. I do”. They’ve been a truly dominate team when they are on their home-court and there’s no real reason to believe the Magic will be the team to change that.

“Absolutely, absolutely”, Blatt said. “To have a guy or guys like that on your side, it’s a big advantage”. James said after the game, according to ESPN.