INDIANAPOLIS: The Cavaliers’ disturbing inability to win without LeBron James in the lineup continued on Wednesday. This time, however, they were missing more than just their biggest star.
With James on the bench, Kevin Love enjoyed his best game of the season with a season-high 27 points and 16 rebounds in the Cavs’ 103-93 loss to the Indiana Pacers. It’s their first road loss of the season and just their second in 11 games.
Kyrie Irving scored 24 points and passed for seven assists, but the Cavs fell to 4-16 without James in the lineup since he returned to Cleveland from Miami. Coach Tyronn Lue made the decision to rest James on the second night of a back-to-back, but didn’t offer much explanation. James played 38 minutes in Tuesday’s home win against the Toronto Raptors and is averaging 37 minutes a game, up slightly from his first two years back in Cleveland.
“I just decided to rest him,” Lue said. “He needed the rest so we’re going to rest him.”
In addition to James, guard J.R. Smith missed his third game with a sore right ankle and Mike Dunleavy appeared to be a healthy scratch. Dunleavy went into the trainer’s room to get taped prior to the game, signaling he was ready to play, but Lue did not use him.
It marked the third consecutive game Smith has missed with an ankle injury that the Cavs have never classified as serious. Lue said he was hopeful Smith would be ready to play against the Pacers, but now Lue is hopeful to have him back for Friday’s game against Detroit.
“There’s been progress,” Lue said of Smith’s ankle. “He’s been able to get on the floor, shoot, work out a little bit. So I’m hopeful to have him Friday.”
The Cavs trailed for the last 3½ quarters while using lineups featuring Kay Felder, DeAndre Liggins, Jordan McRae and even Chris “Birdman” Andersen. They fell behind by as many as 13, but fought back to close the fourth-quarter deficit to 86-80.
Paul George had 21 points, 11 rebounds and five assists for the Pacers. Jeff Teague had 20 points and eight assists and Thaddeus Young had 16 points and seven rebounds.
The Cavs have not fared well in this building in recent years. Irving has only won here once in his career, but the Cavs were clearly short-handed Wednesday and Irving didn’t help the cause when he fell into early foul trouble. James, incidentally, has missed three of the last five games at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
The Cavs don’t play another set of back-to-back games for two weeks, but Lue wouldn’t commit to a set number of games for James to play in this season. Still, their inability to win without him is at least concerning.
“We can win games without LeBron,” Lue said. “We know that. We got to prove it and show it.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.