The Cavaliers blew a 23-point lead to the Orlando Magic at home on Thursday night, and they nearly lost the game. Isaiah Thomas’ game-winning free throws with 11 seconds saved the day on a night that should’ve been a breeze.
Orlando had this game too.
Elfrid Payton — possibly because of his hair — botched what could have been the game-winning layup with seconds to spare.
After the game, LeBron James said the team is in “Strugglesville.”
So what happened?
The Cavs got extremely sloppy
After assisting on nine of their first 11 baskets to start the game, the Cavs would only get 13 more. Those 22 assists were accompanied by a whopping 19 turnovers, and SIX came from James. The Magic, who own the worst record in the league, finished with 25 assists to 14 turnovers.
The turnovers led to a huge scoring drought for the Cavs. After scoring 67 points in the opening half and taking a 67-47 lead into intermission, Cleveland scored just 37 points in the final 24 minutes. That’s awful, and the Magic have the fourth-worst defense in the league.
As a team, the Cavs shot 45 percent from the field, 29 percent from three-point range, and 67 percent from the line. Yikes. Kevin Love had 12 points on 3-of-10 shooting, James had 16 points on 7-of-16 shooting, and Thomas had 21 points on 6-of-15 shooting.
“Who cares? The Cavs always get their act together by playoff time”
Sure, that’s mostly been the case with James-led teams. But we’ve never seen a team with him at the helm get blown out the way the Cavs have over these last few games.
The Timberwolves gave James the worst beatdown of his career, as he was a minus-39 in a 127-99 loss on Jan. 8. The next game, Cleveland was blown out by the Raptors by 34, and the team dropped its next two games after that before this near-loss to Orlando.
This is a true rough patch not just for James, but for this entire unit.
So what’s next?
A trade may be coming for Cleveland, because it’s hard to believe that its current core can make a legitimate run at the Warriors.
The New York Times’ Marc Stein reported that it’s likely a trade comes ahead of the deadline:
One trusted source pulled me aside at the @nbagleague Showcase last week in suburban Toronto and insisted that the Cavs will "definitely" swing at least one deal before the Feb. 8 trade deadline. But is there really one deal out there that closes this gap?
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) January 16, 2018
Cleveland has a coveted first-round pick in this season’s draft via the Nets to either keep for a post-James rebuild or deal now to go for it all. That’s the only true chip this team has.
SB Nation posed six possible trades for the Cavs to make should they move the pick:
But no trade appears imminent yet, and the deadline is right around the corner.