The Cleveland Cavaliers finally broke a season-long six-game losing streak with a win over the Los Angeles Lakers, but improvement is far from arriving for the team. After making a slew of trades over the past week, the Cavaliers are hoping to start getting back to winning games and contending in the Eastern Conference, but a lot of work is needed. Meanwhile, doubt continues to rise over head coach David Blatt and whether he is truly capable of leading a roster filled with All-Stars. This has caused Blatt to go on the defense over a number of issues.
Blatt seems to be the new escape goat for the Cavaliers. During the losing streak, it was being reported that there was a disconnect between the players and the head coach while locker room issues were beginning to take over. Videos on SheridanHoops.com appeared to show a Cavaliers benched that was disconnected including tension between assistant coaches like Tyronn Lue, Larry Drew and Jim Boylan. Blatt is denying any and all issues regarding the Cavaliers team.
"You know in this day and age if you want to shoot a video from the sideline or from a camera on your phone, you can pretty much create anything you want," Blatt said, via ESPN.com. "You guys know it better than I, I'm not a social media expert, but you can create almost any image that you want if you want. Things are fine, things are great amongst our staff. In the locker room, things are great. We just need to get out there, win basketball games, get everybody back on the same page as we were a few weeks ago when we were rolling pretty good."
Prior to the win over the Lakers, things were getting ugly in Cleveland. The team has lost six in a row including nine out of 10 to fall below .500 and sixth place in the Eastern Conference. Doubt has risen over the future of Kevin Love and whether or not he intends to stick around while LeBron James' injuries are not helping. According to James, the Cavaliers took a big step forward with the win in Los Angeles and he remains hopeful that momentum continues.
