Cavaliers at Nuggets
Early signs of unrest are plaguing the Cleveland Cavaliers as they enter Friday’s road contest with the Denver Nuggets. The addition of LeBron James hasn’t led to a smooth on-floor transition and standout guard Kyrie Irving isn’t meshing well with James during a 1-3 start. “There’s a lot of bad habits been built up the past couple years,” James told reporters. “When you play that style of basketball, it takes a lot to get it up out of you.”
The Nuggets are experiencing struggles of their own with three straight defeats, the first to shorthanded Oklahoma City and the last two to Sacramento. Cleveland lost to Utah on a buzzer-beater on Wednesday in a contest in which it had just six assists, including none by Irving. “You just can’t explain that,” James said. “There’s no way you’re going to win a basketball game like that, just having six assists … we just can’t win like that and we got to figure out a way to help each other and not make it so tough.”
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, FSN Ohio (Cleveland), Altitude (Denver)
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (1-3): Irving had 34 points in the loss to Utah but made it clear he isn’t concerned over the lack of assists. “No, no, no,” Irving told reporters. “We have great players on this team. Sometimes things happen in the game and you have to take it.” The 30-point outing was the 25th of his career and he is averaging 22 points but just 3.8 assists as he tries to find common ground with James. “It sucks right now,” Irving said. “For us, we’re still young and I’m still learning what’s going on.”
ABOUT THE NUGGETS (1-3): Denver was routed by Sacramento on Wednesday and is aware it needs a much-better effort against James and his teammates. “Talent-wise we’re fine,” guard Arron Afflalo told reporters. “But it’s been proven year-in and year-out that talent isn’t the end-all, be-all. You have to have some cohesiveness, you have to have game plans that work with the group that’s on the floor and hopefully we can get that all together.” Forward Wilson Chandler was even more succinct: “Basically in a nutshell, we were too soft on defense. We can’t point fingers. It was everybody all the way across the board.”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Cleveland swept last season’s two meetings with PF Tristan Thompson averaging 18.5 points and 15.5 rebounds.
2. Denver PF Kenneth Faried is averaging just seven points over the last three games on 9-of-26 shooting.
3. James scored 31 points against Utah to score 10 or more points for the 576th consecutive time, passing Karl Malone for the third-longest streak in NBA history.