WASHINGTON: As Tyronn Lue continues to experiment with his lineups and reserves packages, one of his recent trends has been using Tristan Thompson less and less in fourth quarters.
Thompson has played sparingly in fourth quarters through much of this early season and his playing time has gradually decreased in the past four games, to the point where he didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter of Friday’s win at the Washington Wizards. Lue still believes Thompson is his best interior defender, he’s just tinkering for now and examining what happens when he puts more shooting on the floor. Kevin Love and Channing Frye handled the center duties Friday.
“At times we want to space the floor and get Kyrie and LeBron driving lanes to the basket,” Lue said. “With Kevin and Channing on the floor, they give them that. We needed some scoring, we needed some spacing on the floor.”
Lue began using Love at center more late in the regular season last year. He isn’t a rim protector or shot blocker, but Love’s defensive play in the post has been noticeably better this season. He is comfortable in his role now, picking his spots of when to play inside and went to space the floor.
Love grabbed a season-high 16 rebounds on Friday, including 10 in the third quarter. He took on four Wizards during one sequence in the second half, grabbing his own rebound twice following misses and finally getting to the free-throw line after a foul call.
Lue didn’t like the way Love began the game defensively Friday, but he liked the way he finished.
“Defensively, he’s been great and also rebounding the basketball we know what he can do, but he’s being aggressive,” Lue said. “He’s running the floor, getting early and deep steals. He’s posting, being strong with the basketball, offensive rebounds. He’s been great for us all year and defensively he continues to get better and better.”
Love said Lue went to him early and said he was going to use Love in different lineups. Love suggested last season he could be a better fit with the second unit to take better advantage of his passing ability out of the post. He excelled in Minnesota with his passing and hitting wings cutting to the basket, something that hasn’t been used much during his time in Cleveland.
“Wherever he puts me out there, whether I’m playing the 4 or the 5, or playing in the small ball unit or I’m the focal point — I just want to be able to help the team and I thought [Friday], especially in that fourth quarter, that group did a great job.”
Drenched king
The Cavs pulled a sneak attack on James in the locker room Friday after he became the youngest player to reach 27,000 points in his career. They told him Lue had reached a career milestone and they were going to sneak attack him with water bottles after he addressed the team. Instead, Lue recognized James’ accomplishment and everyone moved in.
James got soaked, including his cellphone, his suede shoes and his clothes to wear home.
“They lied to me,” James laughed. “They rushed me. They got all my clothes wet and everything, but that’s my guys so it’s always great to be able to accomplish something with such a great group of guys.”
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.