TORONTO _ For the Cavaliers' Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson, the lulls seem to arrive like clockwork.
"January and March we stink," Thompson said. "January every year we get that losing record. Then in March we'll have three losses and everybody will be like, 'Isn't it too late to get it together?' Then we get it together."
While the Cavs have lost five of their last seven going into Thursday night's game against the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre, Love laughed at the predictability of the Cavs' slumps.
"It seems like every year at that same time," Love said. "Maybe it will happen in March again and we'll be good for April."
Of the previous three seasons Thompson and Love have played alongside LeBron James, those generalities apply only to the most recent one. The Cavs went 11-6 and 13-3 in January and 11-4 and 11-5 in March in 2014-15 and 2015-16, respectively. In 2016-17, they were 7-8 in January and 7-10 in March.
But newcomer Isaiah Thomas doesn't like it nonetheless and is determined to change things even though he's just three games into his Cavs career after returning from a torn labrum in his right hip.
"I'm still trying to get back in the thick of things, getting my rhythm, get everything back for me individually. But at the same time as a leader, we can't have lulls," Thomas said after practice Wednesday at Air Canada Centre. "I know everybody says, 'Well, this happens to this team and they've been to three straight Finals.' But that's not acceptable. I'm going to do my part to show these guys it's not acceptable."
With the Cavs coming off their worst loss of the season, a 127-99 setback at Minnesota Monday, coach Tyronn Lue made his players sit through a film session of the entire first quarter, which included the Timberwolves jumping out to a 20-4 lead.
"Our pace was so bad, we weren't getting shots in the paint," Love said. "Defensively you can't really tell on there, but communication was lacking. Physicality was lacking.
"It's not just like they were picking apart plays. They let the whole quarter run. The 20-4 run was pretty indicative of how we were playing on both ends."
The Cavs said the lack of effort was glaring.
"It's not so much him getting on guys' tail and chewing guys out, it's more just, 'Here, just watch it and see what you see,'?" Thompson said of Lue. "We have a lot of high-level IQ players and we know right from wrong and we know what we can do better. It's good to watch it and reflect. It's an eye-opener."
That was also reminiscent of the past. Last Dec. 4 the Cavs entered a game against the Raptors on a three-game losing streak, but a shocking-yet-revealing film session and one good practice in Toronto prompted marked defensive improvement in a 116-112 victory the next day.
"We've got to play harder on both ends, we've got to push the pace offensively, we've got to pressure up defensively and take teams out of what they want to do," Thomas said. "Teams are doing whatever they want to us at that end of the floor.
"We watched film and you could just see it. He doesn't even have to say anything. Film doesn't lie and we just gotta be more physical. We've got to be the aggressor at both ends of the floor. When we do that we're a tough team to beat, no matter who we're playing. When we don't and we let teams do what they want offensively, it's tough, especially when you're not hitting on the offensive end. You're in a lose-lose situation when you let things happen like that."
Jae Crowder said the Cavs are worried about the wrong things.
"We're worried about making shots, worried about things other than playing hard. We can't control all of that. The things we can control we've got to control and be better to see a consistent difference in our approach and outcomes in games," Crowder said.
Thomas said when the Cavs tied a franchise record with 13 consecutive victories starting on Nov. 11, they were playing good defense.
"We just gotta get back to that," Thomas said. "I think once you see it on film, you kinda look at yourself in the mirror, like, 'I can give a little more.' Once everybody does that we'll be fine."
