Cavaliers' coach Blatt called team meeting over debut loss
It would be an understatement to say Cleveland Cavaliers coach David Blatt wasn't impressed with his team's play on opening night.
Just one game into the 2014-15 NBA season, Blatt held a team meeting ahead of Friday night's contest against the Chicago Bulls. Blatt used the meeting to air out some of the mistakes that occurred during the Cavaliers' 95-90 season-debut loss to the New York Knicks on Thursday.
The first-year coach was critical of his team's ball movement, player movement, effort and sloppy handling of the ball - Cleveland committed 19 turnovers which led to 26 points for the Knicks.
"You all are such nice people, I'm so happy you weren't in the morning meeting (Friday) because your opinion of me might be vastly different right now," Blatt said to the media, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Superstar or not, Blatt gave it to everyone, including LeBron James, who turned in a subpar performance, scoring 17 points on 5-of-15 shooting from the field.
"He just got on us," James said. "He got on us from the time we started our meeting to the time we left. And it's great. For a team like us, we need that. I love constructive criticism. I never took it personal. It's just an opportunity for us to get better, and it definitely put a fire into us."
The Cavaliers brought that fire to the court with them Friday. James scored a team-high 36 points, while Kevin Love chipped in 16 points and hauled in 16 rebounds in a 114-108 overtime win over the Bulls.
Blatt, who signed with Cleveland in June after a successful run as a coach in Europe, received the game ball after securing his first win in the NBA.
"That's his first NBA win," Kyrie Irving said. "He deserves the game ball. It's his first time in the NBA."