LeBron James on Cavs Struggles: ‘We’re fine. It’s a long season’

The Cleveland Cavaliers were beaten 123-101 by the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday night, marking their third loss in four games, but the early skid is not too concerning for LeBron James.

“I’m fine,” James said after finishing with 18 points, eight assists and five rebounds while filling in at point guard again as Derrick Rose continues to be sidelined with a sprained left ankle. “I’m fine, and we’re fine. It’s a long season. It’s way too [early to judge].”

It’s the early portion of games that have been the most problematic. The Cavs have been outscored by 44 points combined in the first quarter of their past four games, allowing their opponents to score an average of 33.8 points in the period.

James believes the trickle-down effect of Rose’s injury has thrown Cleveland’s lineups off-kilter, hurting the Cavs both defensively and offensively.

“We’re out two starting point guards,” James said of Rose and Isaiah Thomas. “So I’m not overlooking what’s going on. I wasn’t overlooking if we had success. I’m not going to overlook if we had a couple games off. I’m not getting too high and getting too low. I’m an even-keel guy. I understand this is a long process. We played some different [lineups]. Like I told you guys, we played some crazy lineups that we haven’t even played in practice. So we’ll continue to get better. There’s going to be some games where we don’t look as good unfortunately, but that’s all part of the process, and we just have to be patient with it until we can become full-strength.”

Source: Dave McMenamin of ESPN