Cavaliers hold team-meeting as several players question Kevin Love's Illness

What's the story?

The Cleveland Cavaliers held a team meeting and some of the players questioned Kevin Love’s illness.

In case you didn't know...

The Cavaliers are an appalling 29th in the league in defensive rating as per NBA.com. After the 148-124 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Cavs have allowed teams to score in triple digits in 10 of their last 11 games. They have a record of 1-6 against top three teams in both the conferences.

The heart of the matter

Cleveland Cavaliers big man Kevin Love left after playing just 3 minutes in Saturday’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder due to illness. But according to some reports, some of his teammates questioned his rationale.

The Cleveland Cavaliers held an emotional team meeting prior to Monday’s practice, where several players challenged the legitimacy of Kevin Love leaving OKC loss on Saturday ill and missing Sunday’s practice, league sources tell ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 23, 2018

Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com reported after last Monday’s loss to the Golden State Warriors “multiple players acknowledged growing discontent and a strong sense of concern that unlike past seasons, the team does not have the capability to fix its problems and get back on the championship track.”

The defensive issues for the Cavs are more than apparent now and Love has not helped much on this end of the floor. Opponents are shooting 5.8 percent better from the field than their normal averages when he has been guarding them, per NBA.com. This was one of the primary subjects of Monday’s meeting.

“We could easily get bounced early in the playoffs if they started next weekend", LeBron said. "Haven’t even began thinking about the postseason.”

What's next?

The Cavs have lost the last 9 of their 12 games dating back to the Christmas day loss to the Warriors. It doesn’t get any easier for them as they play the 4th seeded San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday.

Author's take

The Cavaliers surely need to make some sort of trade to improve themselves defensively and provide stability to their roster if they want themselves to have any chance of reaching the NBA Finals for a 4th straight year.