LeBron leads by backing Blatt in an important Cavs season

That might be an unhealthy situation for a basketball team or any sports organization, but that’s the way it’s been since he returned to the team following a very successful four-year absence, winning championships and making NBA finals. It’s unlikely but within the realm of possibility the Warriors could be 28-0 when they host the Cavaliers and LeBron James on December 25. The Cavaliers lead the Eastern Conference at 9-3.

“Andy really gave us a lift”, coach David Blatt said.

The other player who haunted the Hawks past year?

James has maintained all season the injuries are no reason for the team not to play well. Matthew Dellavedova played a turnover-less 28 minutes and finished with a game-high +27 plus/minus rating. Of course, because the ball was still in play, he can’t do that.

With Mo Williams even sidelined due to his sore lower right leg, Cleveland was nevertheless rolling from the start.

It was a rare national television game for the Bucks, but Antetokounmpo wasn’t fazed by it after beating the Cavaliers at home in double overtime last weekend.

Under ordinary circumstances, the Cavaliers hosting the Atlanta Hawks November 21 would have been a pretty big deal. Budenholzer appeared to step on the court and bump referee Ben Taylor, prompting the ejection.

“With all the injuries that I had, I had a lot of nights where I was maybe 80 percent and not 100 percent, but I wanted to keep my streak because of the way I started”, Carr, who is now a color analyst on the Cavs broadcasts, told ESPN.com.

The Hawks were banged up going into the game and it got worse coming out.

Love and James both had 11 rebounds. Starting shooting guard J.R. Smith scored 18 points on 7-for-12 shooting with four three-pointers.

The Bucks missed just six shots in the third quarter while Antetokounmpo, Greg Monroe and Khris Middleton combined for 22 of their 31 points to trim the deficit to 86-79 entering the fourth, but they were crushed in rebounding 43-22.

“I feel like I’m getting better each and every day”, Varejao said. “I apologized to my teammates for it”. “He’s playing at a high level right now”. “Hockey sub”, Blatt said. I think we need to understand that. Jeff Teague, the Hawks’ usual starter at point guard, returned after missing two games with a sprained left ankle and scored 13 points. Miami outscored Philadelphia 19-2 to escape, dropping the 76ers to 0-14 this season and handing them their 24th consecutive loss going back to last season. We’ve seen progress in the last few days.

Budenholzer had no excuses for his team’s performance. Let’s just put it this way, good things happened for the Cavs when Delly was on the floor Saturday night. “That’s the task in front of us”.

It’s that understanding that has produced career numbers and a potentially elite scorer (he leads the Spurs with 21.4 points per game) to go along with the elite defender he’s always been.