LeBron James is still hounding the Cleveland Cavaliers for being mentally weak after their 99-97 loss to Toronto on Friday.
Cleveland led by the Raptors by as many as 14 and by 9 with 5:30 to go, but the team fell apart down the stretch and lost on a Kyle Lowry jumper with 3.8 seconds to go. It is a potentially significant loss, too, as it ensures a season series win for the Raptors, which would give them the tiebreaker with Cleveland if the two teams finish with the same record. After the collapse, James let his team have it during his postgame interview.
“When you lose the way we lost, mental mistake after mental mistake, those hurt more than anything when you can play better mentally,” James said, via Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com. “People get so caught up on the physical side of the game. We lack mental right now, and we’ve got to continue to get better with it.
“A couple of unfocused plays, not following the game plan and it burned us.”
James has harped on a championship mentality ever since he returned to Cleveland, having called out their hunger and their mentality more than once, so this isn’t really anything new. It’s been a year and a half and in his opinion the Cavaliers still don’t have it, which is probably fairly concerning to him.
