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LeBron: Cavs 'forgot' Lue's play during crucial possession vs. Spurs

Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports / Reuters

Mental mistakes have haunted the Cleveland Cavaliers during their recent backslide.

The clearest example of this disorganization came in Saturday's overtime loss to the San Antonio Spurs. James threw a bullet pass across to the weak-side corner with the Cavs down three, but Kyrie Irving was late on the rotation and the ball squirted out of bounds.

James leered daggers at Irving following the play, then admitted in the postgame scrum that his team forgot the play call from Tyronn Lue.

"As a ball club that's trying to win a championship, we can't have you go from a timeout to the court and forget what you're supposed to do," James told Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. "It's that simple."

Lue confirmed James' diagnosis, that Irving would have been open had the play been run correctly by all who were involved.

"We watched it on tape, Kyrie would've been open," Lue said. "Danny Green had no clue what was going on but we didn't execute it right.

"There was confusion at the beginning, with the first part of it, but then Tristan (Thompson) has to come up and set the hammer. He kind of stopped in the middle of the paint because I guess the way (LaMarcus) Aldridge was guarding him or whatever. But we didn't execute it cleanly."

Irving admitted that there was a "miscue" on the play with him and Thompson.

Saturday's result was the Cavs' fourth loss in their last six games. The reigning champions will look to get back on track in their visit to New Orleans on Monday.

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