Cavaliers fall flat after LeBron questions the team's mental toughness

After the Cleveland Cavaliers blew a nine-point lead late in the fourth quarter of Friday's loss to the Toronto Raptors, LeBron James ripped into his team, calling into question their mental toughness.

If James' words were meant as a challenge, it was one the Cavaliers failed. The Eastern Conference leaders were roundly smacked 113-99 by the Washington Wizards on Sunday.

Having played 40 minutes in the loss on Friday, and with a back-to-back starting up on Monday, the Cavaliers gave James the day off for rest.

Without their leading man in the lineup, Tyronn Lue's squad simply folded.

With Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving taking the reins, the Cavaliers looked directionless.

Aside from Irving, who led the way with 28 points and six assists, the Cavaliers struggled to generate clean looks. They tried 28 threes (making just eight), but only Irving connected on more than one-third of his tries.

Love took up the mantle as the second scorer, and to his credit, he punished the Wizards' small ball lineups in the first half, but Love faded once matched-up with Markieff Morris, finishing the game with just 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting.

On the other end, with Irving handling so much of the playmaking duties, John Wall viciously ripped apart Cleveland's seventh-ranked defense - just as Kyle Lowry did on Friday when he hung 43 on Cleveland's guards.

Wall repeatedly shed his man and forced Cleveland's defense to collapse en route to 21 points, seven rebounds, and 13 assists in 29 minutes of work. He was one of five Wizards to finish as a plus-20 or higher.

Perhaps in a show of discipline, Lue yanked his starters midway through the first quarter after they let a nine-point halftime deficit balloon to 19. That only made matters worse. Washington ran the lead up to 29 against Cleveland's bench before rendering the entirety of the fourth quarter meaningless.

A forlorn James could hardly watch. Having hoped to be proven wrong, his teammates proved him right - they do lack mental toughness.