"It's great to have bodies," James said. "Obviously, in the playoffs, you go down to what, eight max? And if somebody gets in foul trouble, you go to nine. You're not playing back-to-backs. You have two days in between. You're able to lock in."
"It's like when you don't have bodies. It's tough," James said. "The f---ing grind of the regular season. We're a top-heavy team. We have a top-heavy team. We top-heavy as s---. It's me, [
Kyrie Irving], [
Kevin Love]. It's top-heavy."
As he has done for several weeks, James continued to call for a backup point guard or playmaker to be added to the mix to help lessen the load for him and Irving, in particular. James played 44 minutes against New Orleans, racking up 26 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds for his fourth triple-double of the season. Irving played 42 minutes and scored a season-high 49 points.
He said he has already voiced his thoughts about the roster to general manager David Griffin face-to-face. Realizing how it could look to call for a point guard with Felder and
DeAndre Liggins on the roster, James said it would not be fair to expect either of those young players to fill such a significant role on a title-contending team.
There were several motivating factors in James' sounding off.
Mo Williams didn't report to training camp, leaving the Cavs without a veteran backup at point guard.
J.R. Smith's thumb injury, which could sideline him for several more months, left Cleveland without one of its most reliable two-way players.
However, the timing of playing both Golden State and the
San Antonio Spurs within a week's time seems to have opened James' eyes even more to the disparity in talent between the Cavs and some of their fiercest championship competition.
"They've got bodies," James said of San Antonio when asked about the Spurs' beating the Cavs without
Pau Gasol or
Tony Parker. "They've got bodies. For the most part, all championship-contending teams has got guys that are ready to step in. Knock on wood, what if Ky goes down? For two weeks. Let's say two. What if I went down for three weeks?"
James defended Lue for feeling the need to play him and Irving for heavy minutes.
"What else are we going to do?" James said. "You saw the game. Kyrie had to do that. And I tried to mix in my plays. We didn't have no choice. ... We got what we got."
wtf
come on man
