Kyrie, LeBron Shine As Cavs Lose Second Straight

Despite 30-point performances from Kyrie Irving and LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers lost their second straight game against the Miami Heat.

The short-term reaction to the Cleveland Cavaliers losing two games in three days against the Miami Heat is one that will make fans uneasy and lead to plenty of Twitter egg avatars calling for “changes” for a team that is currently leading their conference and has been all season.

The Cavaliers lost to the Heat in Miami on Saturday, and when I say lost, I mean that they were absolutely embarrassed by LeBron James‘ former team by a score of 120-92.

LeBron sat out that game due to it being on the back end of a back-to-back and the end result wasn’t anything too shocking.

Fast forward to Monday night and the Cavs got another shot against the Heat, this time in Cleveland and with LeBron James in the lineup. It didn’t seem to matter as the Cavs lost again, this time in a closer battle by a score was 106-98.

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Although the score would indicate the game was close, the Heat were winning by 15-plus for a good chunk of the second half.

Former Cav Dion Waiters exploded for 29 points in the win, including a shot from near half court that would put the Cavs away for good.

While James and Kyrie Irving scored 30 and 32 points respectively, no other player for the Cavs scored more than nine, but fans did get to witness Kyrie pull off another spectacular layup.

https://twitter.com/NBA_Skits/status/838920977023176705

This seems like a daily thing for me now; watch Kyrie embarrass someone with a series of dribble moves, execute some sort of reverse layup that dangles from his fingertips, then I re-tweet the first video of it that pops up on my timeline.

The Miami Heat are currently the hottest team in the NBA. They have the best record of any team since Jan. 15 and two recent wins over the Cavs boost not only their confidence, but their chances of reaching the playoffs.

The Heat are currently the ninth in the East and only 1.5 games behind the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons.

Now back to the Cavs.

Losing back-to-back games in early March is never a cause for concern, especially since Kyrie and LeBron are still playing extremely well and the team is missing two starters.

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What is a concern is Andrew Bogut breaking his leg after logging only 58 seconds of game time.

Bogut will miss the remainder of the season and now the Cavs are back in the same position they were a week ago, missing that low-post defensive presence that would have filled their most noticeable void.

It’s an interesting loss for the Cavs, mainly because it is still considered a loss even though Bogut never played a full minute in a Cavaliers’ uniform — but it’s a loss, nonetheless.

However, it doesn’t change the situation the Cavs are in. Losing Bogut won’t help Kevin Love or J.R. Smith come back from their injuries any faster nor will it help the Cavs get more consistent bench scoring.

Losing back-to-back games is never ideal but it is important to keep in mind that the Cavs are not even close to full strength and the Heat are the hottest team in the NBA.

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The Cavaliers will go to Detroit and take on the Pistons on Thursday, giving them two days of rest and time to gameplan for the upcoming week.