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What's the story?
Isaiah Thomas reportedly led the charge against the Kevin Love and questioning the legitimacy of his illness in a recent team meeting. That was before the Cleveland Cavaliers' clash with the San Antonio Spurs. After another loss, head coach Tyronn Lue stated that he could be making a lineup change in the upcoming games.
In case you didn't know
The reigning Eastern Conference Champions have been facing a lot of problems of late. Their defense was always an issue for them and the return for Isaiah Thomas hasn't helped that cause either. The team is 3-7 since Thomas returned. In addition, they have lost 11 of their last 15 games.
Heart of the matter
Earlier reports suggested a lot of finger pointing at Cavaliers' team meeting on Monday, which included Kevin Love being questioned about the legitimacy of his illness against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Later that day, Frank Isola of New York Daily News added that the team's recent addition Thomas "led the charge" against Love.
Love had left the Thunder game, which the Cavaliers lost by 24 [124-148], after just playing three minutes with an illness. He even missed the team's practice the following day.
On Tuesday night, the team flew to San Antonio to play the Spurs after a couple of days of practice, the first time that had happened since training camp in September. But nothing changed. Cleveland lost 114-102 to a Spurs team, that didn't even field veterans Pau Gasol and Manu Ginobili.
Postgame, head coach Tyronn Lue told ESPN's Dave McMenamin that he will most likely make a line-up change but he didn't indicate what it would be.
What's next?
Cleveland is the third seed right now, with a record of 27-19. By the current standings, they are closer to the ninth seed (ahead by 4.5 games) than the top seed (trailing by 6 games) in the East. They have 10 games left leading up to the All-Star break, five at home and five on the road.
Author's take
Unfortunately, the current poisonous nature of things in Cleveland will most likely be rewarded by a Finals trip because of the lack of worthy competition in the East. All this current noise and reports just increases the drama quotient of the regular season but it will most likely not impact the team's Playoff performance in the East.
