The Cleveland Cavaliers lose to the Chicago Bulls as Tyronn Lue makes game debut as the new head coach....Cleveland fans boo the team and its new Black coach after the game, a gesture that may have racial undertones....Lue says that team morale is crucial, and his hiring follows the hiring of new Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson, who is also Black...Lue replaced former coach David Blatt....By www.clevelandurbannews.com editor-in-chief Kathy Wray Coleman
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| New Cleveland Cavaliers Head Coach Tyronn Lue (left) and former head coach David Blatt, who was fired on Jan, 22 and replaced with Lue, who is Black and was promoted from associate coach |
Fans at the Quickens Loans Arena in Cleveland were so upset that they booed the team as it headed for the locker room after the game, a gesture, said sources, that might have racial undertones since Lue is Black, and Blatt, who had no NBA coaching experience when he was hired in 2014, is White.
LeBron James got 26 points, and 13 rebounds, but only shot 11-of-27 in totality.
J.R. Smith posted 17 points, Kevin Love scored 14 points, and Kyrie Irving only got 11 points.
As a whole the Cavaliers shot 37 percent from the field Saturday night, a dismal outcome for a team that is number one in the Eastern Conference, and of which made it to the NBA Finals last year, losing the championship title to the Golden State Warriors.
The Cavaliers were down by as much as seventeen points during the third quarter.
Simply put, the team missed too many free throws, and did not shoot well, Lue said.
Lue said that while winning is important his immediate concerns also include team morale, and "getting our spirit together."
Paul Gasol led the Bulls with 25 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists.
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| President Barack Obama (center) at the Oct. 27, 2015 game in Chicago, Illinois between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Chicago Bulls |
It was the second match- up between the Cavaliers and the Bulls since the Oct. 27, 2015 game that the Bulls also won, but only by two points, 97-95, a game that drew President Obama to the United Center arena in Chicago, Illinois.
The Cavaliers had compiled a 30-11 record going into Saturday's game, and under Blatt, who, in spite of behind the scenes turmoil and chaos, tabulated an 83-40 record in his one and a half seasons with the team as its head coach.
Lue, 38, is also a retired NBA player who played for a decade as a point guard. He was drafted out of the University of Nebraska with the 23rd overall pick by the Denver Nuggets in 1998 and was traded shortly thereafter to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Following the Lakers he played for seven other NBA teams, and ended his playing career with the Orlando Magic in 2009, the same year he was hired as an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics. There he coached for four years until 2013 when he was picked up as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers, though a year later, in June of 2014, he joined the Cavaliers as an associate coach, the highest paid assistant coach in the NBA.
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| Hue Jackson |
Jackson, like Lue, is also Black, and the fifth head coach for the struggling Browns in seven years. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).
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