INDEPENDENCE: Cavaliers practice on Tuesday was easy on the legs, but hard on the eyes. Instead of a rigorous workout, coach Byron Scott turned the day’s practice into a film session that lasted more than two hours.
There was plenty not to like following Monday’s dismal loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Cavs apparently went through it all frame by frame.
After it was over, Scott told his players to forget about it and get ready for the San Antonio Spurs, who will carry the league’s best record into Quicken Loans Arena tonight.
“We’re going to throw this game away and focus on tomorrow,” Scott said. “I said my piece as far as some things guys needed to hear. I also said enough of this talk. You’ve got to start doing what you’re supposed to do every single night. It can’t be three or four games where we come out and play hard, then two or three games where we don’t. If you really are serious about winning and getting better as a team, you’ve got to compete every single night. Pretty simple.”
The mood of the players seemed sour. Kyrie Irving didn’t want to reveal much of what was said and done Tuesday and Tristan Thompson said all of the players were angry they lost to a bad, wounded team like the Timberwolves.
“We’re really [ticked] off about the outcome of the game,” Thompson said. “We felt like we let that one slip away from us.”
Scott, however, wasn’t interested in guys getting angry about it 15 hours after the game had ended.
“It [stinks] to be [mad] the next morning when you had a chance to do something about it the night before,” Scott said. “If you don’t like the way you feel this morning, just remember that feeling because you’re going to have a chance to make up for it. We had a chance [Monday] night to make sure we didn’t feel like this. It doesn’t matter after the game.”
The lousy loss and lengthy film session stripped some of the luster and fun off what should’ve been a playful afternoon. Irving and Scott were expected to engage in a 3-point shooting contest to simulate what Irving will walk into during All-Star weekend in Houston.
But after sitting through such a miserable performance, Scott wasn’t in the mood to participate. So the staff rolled out the racks of balls and Irving went around the five stations hoisting 3-pointers while Scott stood by and watched.
In an odd scene, reporters initially weren’t allowed to watch Irving practice. Then after a few complaints, the Cavs brought reporters back into the gym to watch Irving’s first practice run and the gym was again closed.
Irving continues to dismiss any advice Scott could offer him on the contest, poking fun at his coach’s third-place finish in 1988. But Irving did get advice from former Cavs sharpshooter Mark Price, who won the event in 1993 and ’94.
“I’m not taking any advice from Coach Scott,” Irving said. “I know I’m a better shooter than Coach Scott. I believe it, he believes it.”
Scott scoffed at Irving when he told him he wanted advice from Price.
“That’s good. Mark Price won a 3-point contest and I have three championship rings,” Scott told him. “So I got the last laugh in that one. He shook his head, he didn’t say nothing after that. So that was the end of that conversation.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at http://www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.
