CLEVELAND -- Above all else, Cleveland Cavaliers small forward LeBron James wants one thing for the team heading into the postseason: health.
Since the outset of the 2017-2018 regular-season, the Cavaliers have been hampered by injuries, and with less than a month remaining before the beginning of the NBA Playoffs, James is hoping to have a full complement of players available.
“I just want us to get healthy,” James said. “That’s all that matters to me. The standings, it is what it is at this point. We’re 67 games in. We’ve probably yet to have a full team. We’ve had one full team, I think, at home against Portland when I.T. (Isaiah Thomas) first came back.
“That was the first time we had a full team, and then, the next game, because he couldn’t play back-to-backs, we went back to not having a full team. Then, some injuries happened and we haven’t had another full team yet, so I just want us to get as healthy as we can get, so I know, our coaching staff knows and we all know what we can become. The standings don’t matter to me. It is what it is at this point.”
Heading into their 129-107 win over the Phoenix Suns at Talking Stick Resort Arena, the Cavaliers were without the services of power forward Kevin Love (broken bone in left hand), center Tristan Thompson (sprained right ankle), guard Rodney Hood (lower back strain) and small forward Cedi Osman (left hip flexor) because of injuries.
Love has been out since the end of January, while Thompson got hurt in the lead-up to the Western swing. Hood and Osman were hurt in last Friday’s loss to the Lakers at Staples Center.
Then, power forward Larry Nance Jr. suffered a hamstring injury and did not return to the game against Phoenix.
“We all learn on the fly,” James said. “Every game is a learning experience for our ball club and our guys, so I don’t think they’re deferring as much as they did early on. Obviously, they’re just trying to fit in, and they’re doing a better job of kind of getting the rebounds and going.
“I think Larry has done a good job of maximizing the time he’s out on the floor. Jordan is figuring it out as well. With Rodney out the past couple games and George (Hill) still trying to figure it out, they’ve been pretty good.”
After listening to the players over the last few years, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver expanded the regular season by two weeks. However, by doing so, it created an every-other-day scenario for the Cavaliers for a significant stretch of the final two months of the regular season.
But rather than focusing on playing every other day for the next three weeks, James is taking the games as they come.
“There’s no great format, and there’s no bad format,” James said. “It is what it is. The schedule is what it is. Every other day, you’ve either got back-to-backs or three in four nights, I think the Commissioner and scheduling committee did a great job of figuring things out with this season given the conversation that was going on the last couple years, and this is what they felt best fits.”
