LeBron James and James Jones led a players-only meeting after their Cleveland Cavaliers lost 103-99 to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night.
James and Jones were dissatisfied with the team’s effort. The Cavs were up by two with under eight minutes left and faded down the stretch, falling behind by nine points and eventually losing by four.
“It’s all mindset,” James said via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “It comes from within. I’ve always had it; my upbringing had me like that. It’s either you got it or you don’t.”
James believes the team’s mindset was problematic and that they haven’t had the consistency this season. Coach David Blatt felt the team faltered down the stretch because of fatigue due to so many players missing the game (they were missing Timofey Mozgov and Matthew Dellavedova in addition to Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert, who are out long term).
“I thought that we got tired for obvious reasons. Very short-handed. Thought our guys played hard and I thought we ran out of gas,” Blatt said. “I thought fatigue played a big part of that, I really did.”
James disagreed with Blatt and said the short roster was not an excuse for the loss. However, he did compliment the coach for the second time in a week.
The Cavs are 11-4 on the season but 3-3 over their last six games. All four defeats have come on the road.
It’s great that LeBron and Jones are trying to get the team more focused, but the pressure isn’t on yet. They still lead the conference for the top seed in the playoffs, and it’s not even December yet. They don’t need to be peaking for another five to six months.
