NEW YORK _ He said it with disdain in his voice, the defensive coach for so many years acknowledging what has become apparent through the first quarter of this season. The Cavaliers' identity is built on their offense right now, nothing else.
Tyronn Lue is trying to turn that. The defensive effort was evident in Wednesday's 126-94 dismantling of the New York Knicks, the second time in as many games the Cavs remembered their defensive principles. The offensive explosion with this team is always looming and surfaced again Wednesday with a season-high 22 3-pointers. The defensive effort comes and goes.
LeBron James scored 25 points, passed for seven assists and grabbed six rebounds and Kyrie Irving scored 28 points and passed for six assists. Tristan Thompson grabbed a season-high 20 rebounds, one shy of his career high, and Kevin Love had 16 points for the Cavs, who shot their way to a sixth consecutive win at Madison Square Garden and their eighth win in a row overall in this series.
The Knicks are vastly improved this season, but they're not yet ready to compete with the league's elite.
Kristaps Porzingis scored 12 points and Carmelo Anthony managed just eight points, the first time this season he failed to reach double figures. Brandon Jennings scored 15 points and Courtney Lee had 12 on a night the Knicks were playing the second half of a tough back-to-back. They played at Miami on Tuesday.
Lue was asked before the game about the identity of this team and he never hesitated in pointing to the offensive side. They proved it again by shooting 53 percent from deep.
"It comes easy for those guys," Lue said. "And when it comes easy we tend to get caught up in the just back-and-forth instead of getting stops and taking on that tough grind-it-out game. When you got guys like Kyrie, Bron and Kevin who can score so easy, sometimes that just [becomes], 'Oh, you scored, but we know we can score the basketball.' So now we got to get back to playing Cavaliers basketball on the defensive end."
The Cavs led the entire night and were never really challenged. The Knicks shot just six free throws through the first three quarters and shot 40 percent from the floor. The Cavs led by as many as 17 in the first quarter and 34 for the game.
James' big night was his first back in the Garden following a feud with Knicks President Phil Jackson. James took offense to Jackson's use of the phrase "posse" to describe him and his business partners and fired back. James said Monday he had no interest in a clear-the-air sitdown should Jackson want one, but Jackson told CBS Sports he didn't want one anyway.
Jackson stopped short of apologizing for the remark but did say he was out of line by speaking about a player on another team.
"The word itself carries connotation. And I just don't understand that part of it, the word," Jackson said. "So I guess word choice could be something I would regret. But talking about other teams' players, that's out of the box."
James didn't want to talk anymore about Jackson on Wednesday. Asked if he had seen Jackson's comments to CBS Sports, James said he had not and he wasn't discussing it again.
