Isaiah Thomas says Cavaliers don’t make in-game adjustments, Tyronn Lue says that’s untrue

The Cavaliers are in a tailspin, and Isaiah Thomas isn’t biting his tongue when he identifies a problem.

That included an apparent shot at Tyronn Lue and his coaching staff after Cleveland turned a 21-point lead into an 18-point loss against the Magic yesterday (a game Lue left early due to illness).

Thomas, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN:

“We got to do better,” Thomas said. “We got to adjust throughout the game. They made adjustments, and it worked, and we just kept getting hit with the same thing, and we made no adjustments. And that’s been one of our biggest problems all year, is adjusting. Teams are not just going to allow us to continue to score and continue to do things at a high level. They’re going to make adjustments, and we have to do the same thing, too, and we’re not that good at that right now.”

McMenamin:

Ty Lue when informed of Isaiah Thomas’ critique of the Cavs coaching staff’s inability to make in-game adjustments: “That’s not true”

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) February 7, 2018

Cleveland’s biggest immediate problem: Thomas. He’s playing terribly as he returns from his hip injury while still shouldering a huge load. It’s destructive.

The Cavs’ best option might be letting Thomas play through these struggles. As long as they won’t trade the Nets pick, Thomas righting himself is their best bet to adding a star to complement LeBron James. If that requires mid-winter losing, so be it. The spring/summer upside is worth the reward.

But that path gets harder to traverse as Thomas keeps pointing the finger elsewhere. Which happens first, the Cavaliers tiring of Thomas’ blame game (if it hasn’t happened already) or Thomas playing well enough to justify the complications he brings?