CLEVELAND: Tyronn Lue blew out the candles on his first anniversary as a head coach on Sunday. Ask him, however, and there should be a few more candles on the cake.
“Feels like six years,” Lue said Saturday before the Cavs lost to the San Antonio Spurs in overtime.
Indeed, in his first full calendar year as coach, Lue took over a volatile situation after David Blatt’s firing rocked the NBA. He criticized his stars, got them to play faster, dealt with cancer battles facing both his mother and grandmother, won Cleveland’s first championship in 52 years and became one of the highest paid head coaches in the NBA. And that was just within the first six months.
The Cavs’ 30-12 record entering Monday’s game at the New Orleans Pelicans is identical to last season. They went 30-11 under Lue through the first half of this season just as Blatt went last year. But there is a full belief in Lue after he engineered a comeback from 3-1 behind to beat the Golden State Warriors that lacked with Blatt.
In fact, LeBron James this week feigned amnesia when asked to compare the first half of this season to the first half of last season. James often brags about his incredible memory — he can recite play sequences from years ago — but not on this topic.
“I don’t remember the first half from last year,” James said. “I don’t even remember what was going on.”
Lue was so obsessed with fixing the offense last season — finding Kevin Love’s comfort zone, quickening the pace, etc. — that he didn’t have time to focus on the defensive end, which has been his trademark for years. He acknowledged recently the Cavs are not a good defensive team, something the numbers bear out.
The Cavs have slid to 15th in the league in both defensive rating and defensive field-goal percentage. Some of their problems have been self-inflicted, such as turnovers and poor shot selection leading to easy fastbreak opportunities for their opponents. But Lue believes the numbers can change when the postseason begins, when the Cavs can lock into one opponent and devise appropriate schemes.
“We’ve never been a great defensive team. That’s not who we are,” Lue said. “When we get to the playoffs and we’re able to put in schemes and stuff to stop different teams, we’re a lot different and we’re a lot better. On a night-to-night basis, it’s tough for us defensively. We have to play with effort, play hard and try to cover for our mistakes.”
As for his anniversary, Lue said it doesn’t feel like it has been a full year. Counting the playoffs, he is 73-31 all time and his .702 winning percentage ranks as the best in Cavs history. But Lue believes in this instance, two halves don’t add up to a whole.
“It’s still been broken up,” he said. “I wouldn’t consider it a full year like going through September all the way through to June like we did last year. Halfway through and halfway through is not really the same.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.