Say what you will about David Blatt: His team’s offense is stagnant; its defense is wildly inconsistent; and he hasn’t coaxed the most from his players. Fine. But it’s clear the Cleveland Cavaliers first-year coach understands the value of camaraderie. The day before LeBron James and company dispatched of the Los Angeles Lakers, Blatt surprised them for a few rounds of bowling in lieu of a scheduled practice.
Chris Haynes of Northeast Ohio Media Group has the details:
The Cleveland Cavaliers were of the understanding that they were on their way to practice on the campus of UCLA on Wednesday afternoon.
The team was reeling, coming off of losing its sixth straight game and a grueling practice was the anticipation. But what should have been a six-minute bus ride from their Beverly Hills hotel to the campus turned into 10, then 15, then a 20-minute ride…
Head coach David Blatt had something up his sleeve. When the bus finally stopped, it was in front of a bowling establishment in Hollywood. To their shock, they learned practice was never in the plans. It was about getting away from basketball and bonding as a team.
This is a tidbit easily glossed over amid the Cavaliers’ month-long on-court struggles. It’s not like they dominated the lottery-bound Lakers 24 hours later, either. But that Blatt is currently willing to sacrifice strategic progress in an effort to build team chemistry speaks volumes of his oft-questioned leadership.
The players certainly appreciated their coach’s gesture, and spoke of its effectiveness after defeating the Lakers:
“I think it was a surprise for most guys,” Kevin Love said. “It just helped so much. We all needed a break from it all…”
“I was happy,” Kyrie Irving said about going bowling after registering 22 points. “One thing that’s never seen on camera and I consistently say it, this is the closest team that I’ve been on. We always have fun whether we’re getting ready for a game or a practice or we go bowling, it’s a team activity that we just personally enjoy.
“We enjoy being around one another and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Obviously there’s things we’ve got to fix out there on the court, but relationship wise, we couldn’t be any better.”
Irving has preached that sentiment since before the season, but Cleveland’s in-game demeanor has hardly supported it. What does are efforts like Love’s against Los Angeles.
Though we’d never condone a guy fighting through injury to play when he should be resting, that the sharp-shooting big man did so on Thursday undoubtedly sent a message to his teammates. Though he was noticeably bothered by nagging back pain from the opening tip, Love still contributed 17 points and seven rebounds in 37 gutsy minutes.
His toughness was never more obvious than when he made a perfect defensive rotation to take a charge on Jeremy Lin in the fourth quarter. Moments earlier, Love had to be helped from his chair on the sidelines by Matthew Dellavedova:
Sacrificing your body for the good of the team while in obvious pain? That’s commitment, and something hardly lost on Blatt and James after the game. From Jill Painter Lopez of Fox Sports:
“You have instances during the season where you feel you got closer and I think what Kevin did tonight, playing through injuries, he could have easily sat down for the rest of the game. He toughed it out,” James said.
“I said, ‘Whatever you got. Whatever you can give.’ He did that. He knocked down a 3, he battled on the glass, and even with his back basically feeling like he couldn’t play no more, he took a charge. Those are moments in a season where you know your team is taking a step forward. To have one of your big guys do that, that was huge…”
“That was the play of the game,” Cavaliers coach David Blatt said. “Everyone is asking me again. Kevin Love is doing a lot of things that he hasn’t done in the past, and he’s doing them well. Again, I take my hat off to him for his performance.”
The little things matter in basketball. For so much of 2014-2015, the Cavaliers haven’t done them – make the extra pass, one more defensive rotation, or an effort to pick up a teammate as he’s struggling.
Blatt’s surprise bowling outing and Love’s resolve aren’t enough to fix what ails Cleveland, but could certainly represent a start towards doing so. For a supposed super-team so obviously out of sync, that’s more than enough to glean measured optimism that the Cavs can still turn their wayward season around.
What do you think?
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