Cavs Fall To Spurs On The Road, 114-102; Three Takeaways From Another Frustrating Loss

Well, another clunker for Cleveland.

On a night that featured a historic moment for LeBron James, the Cavaliers fell short to the Spurs by a final score of 114-102 to suffer their second-straight loss. It is the tenth loss out of their last twelve contests and it continues a downward spiral for the squad. While many argue that it is just the January blues for Cleveland, this author would like to suggest that we are living in the Twilight Zone.

Let’s take a look at another frustrating Cavs loss with our three takeaways from the game.

1. History For The King- The Cavs had one bright spot on Tuesday and that came by way of the face of the franchise, LeBron James, James was only in need of seven points heading into the clash with San Antonio to reach 30,000 career points. James achieved the milestone within the first quarter, as he hit a mid-range jumper from just inside the three-point line to eclipse 30,000 career points. As the first quarter came to a close, the fans in San Antonio recognized James’ historic achievement with applause while LeBron’s teammates embraced him with hugs. The first to meet James with open arms? His long-time best friend, Dwyane Wade.

Though it was an ugly game for most of the night, it was nice to be able to celebrate an awesome moment for the greatest player in Cleveland Cavaliers history and one of the greatest players of all-time.

2. No Love- It’s gotta be hard being Kevin Love, in all honesty. Despite having another great season for the Wine and Gold, Love is being heavily criticized by teammates and even some fans. For a guy who is usually a double-double machine, it’s almost puzzling to find where all of this hate originates from.

However, Love cannot worry about where and why the hate is coming his way.

Tonight was an off-night for Love, who only mustered up ten points. He did finish with eleven rebounds for a double-double but it really wasn’t pretty. It appeared as if something was bothering Love on the floor and he was far from within rhythm with his teammates. That’s super concerning if this becomes a trend, considering he is one of the only consistent parts of this Cleveland team.

3. JR Smith, Where Are You?- Does anyone in Cleveland know where JR Smith is? It appears that is the question we should all be asking in Northeast Ohio, as our beloved Swish is nowhere to be found.

Instead, we have a shell of a former sharpshooter who cannot even add some value on the defensive end. We have a player who is afraid and hesitant to take the difficult shots. We have a player that is struggling to graze the double-digits in the scoring department.

Quite frankly, JR Smith is in a terrible funk and it is not clear if he can get himself out of it. He went 0-for-4 tonight from the floor and didn’t score a single point. For someone that’s known as instant offense, that’s the scariest thing about Smith’s funk. If he was struggling on defense, there would be some leeway given to Smith. But that’s not the case. Smith can’t score, defend, or add quality minutes. It’s time to figure out what to do at the two-guard.