LeBron says injuries are slowing the Cavs' 'process'
When LeBron James played for the Miami Heat, more than one observer characterized the team as being much less concerned with regular season success than postseason dominance.
Now back in Cleveland, James' Cavaliers hold their best record through 34 games since his return in 2014, but injuries are starting to pile up.
"It can (wear on you)," James told ESPN's Dave McMenamin after playing through illness in Wednesday's 106-94 home loss to the Chicago Bulls. "It's just tough. It's slowing up our process because of what we're trying to build."
Kyrie Irving missed his third straight game Wednesday with a hamstring issue, Kevin Love sat out due to a bad piece of fish, Mike Dunleavy has an ankle injury, J.R. Smith is out until at least March, and Chris Andersen is gone for the season.
"Obviously, we're trying to build it with a lot of our guys out just on the injured reserve list right now," James said. "Guys just got to continue to get better. Step in."
Role players aside, keeping the core of James, Irving, and Love on the court hasn't been easy over the past three seasons - with the notable exception of last spring's title run. Irving missed 29 games in 2015-16, and Love was lost for most of the 2015 playoffs.
That's why metering James' minutes is more important with every passing campaign. To date, the 14-year veteran has rested for just three games this season. Still, he played 37 minutes against Chicago, scoring a game-high 31 points. He said he wouldn't have it any other way, but sounds frustrated by the injuries.
"We can't make any excuses," he said. "But it slows our process down just a little bit. We're not able to practice the way we would like to. We're already a team that don't practice much, and now we only have eight (healthy) bodies. It's even harder for us to get better every day on off days. That's the part for me that kind of eats me alive. I'm all about putting in the work when no one is around and things of that nature, and we can't do that right now."