TORONTO: The dinner conversation among players during the early hours of Sunday was more subdued than usual.
All the jokes and laughter were replaced by a sting of disappointment after the Cavaliers lost to the Toronto Raptors in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals Saturday night, suffering their first loss of any significance in six weeks.
But one loss doesn’t incite panic or even erode confidence.
“We the south are going to be OK,” Richard Jefferson said Sunday, playing off the “We The North” slogan the Raptors love so much. “We’re going to be just fine.”
Jefferson put on a 10-minute comedy act Sunday, poking fun at himself for being the oldest player on the team and joking about how sweaty good pal Channing Frye gets during games and how much Frye wants to be like him.
Both Jefferson and LeBron James made it clear they weren’t disrespecting the Raptors — James reiterated again Sunday how well they played in Game 3 — but no one seemed overly concerned about one loss. The Cavs take a 2-1 series lead into Monday’s Game 4 back at Air Canada Centre.
“They’re the No. 2 team in the conference for a reason. They were chasing us all year for a reason,” James said. “That’s why I don’t really get involved into what everybody else talks about, because I knew it was a tough team that we were playing. They won as many games as they won because they were a tough team. We have to be a much better team [Monday] and I don’t think our confidence is shaken at all.”
Players addressed the media before attending a film session to pick apart Game 3. There was plenty to chew on. Even without seeing the film, Jefferson twice mentioned some of the uncharacteristic things the Cavs did such as J.R. Smith biting on DeMar DeRozan’s pump fake on the first play of the game.
Coach Tyronn Lue watched the film himself and thought he should’ve done a better job getting the ball in James’ hands when Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love were struggling so badly.
Irving and Love shot a combined 4-of-28 and totaled 16 points. James stuck with them and played through them despite the struggles because it was a formula that worked well throughout the postseason, but Lue thought after watching the film he should’ve put the ball back in James’ hands.
“I think I should have called more plays to make him dominant,” Lue said. “I think we continued to run plays that had been effective and working throughout the course of this series, knowing that Kyrie and Kevin could get going at any time. I should have put the ball in LeBron’s hands a little bit more to let him create and let him draw double teams. So that was more on me.”
James had the ball in his hands plenty last season and often initiated the offense, but he relinquished a lot of the ball-handling duties this year back to Irving. James didn’t believe one poor performance was enough to get him to change the Cavs’ approach after it had been effective for so long.
“It’s been a huge part of our success. We’re not going to go away from it just because of one game,” James said. “It happens; the ball doesn’t go in sometimes. But we can’t lose confidence in those guys. They helped us get to this point.”
Prior to the Game 3 loss, the last Cavs loss that mattered was April 9 at the Chicago Bulls when Irving also played poorly in the fourth quarter and took the blame. The Cavs lost their season finale, but no one of significance played in that game and the outcome had no impact on playoff seeding.
“A lot of us all went out to dinner together [after Game 3] and that’s the first time in a month the dinner conversation wasn’t joyous and excited and having fun,” Jefferson said. “It was a night where we were just kind of talking about the things that we needed to do. We were trying to keep our minds off of it, but you could see that everybody was a little off.”
James vowed the Cavs will be better Monday night.
“The ball has kind of been taken out of my hands a little bit. I’m OK with that,” he said. “But there is a point in time where you say, ‘OK, some of the guys are not going, maybe let me see if I can get it going. But [Saturday] night just didn’t happen that way. We’ll have a better game plan going into Game 4.”
Jones suspended
Cavaliers forward Dahntay Jones was suspended one game for a low blow on Raptors center Bismack Biyombo late in the fourth quarter of Game 3.
Raptors coach Dwane Casey was fined $25,000 for criticizing the officials after the Raptors’ victory.
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.