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Irving unconcerned by Cavs' slump: 'Every journey is different'

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports / Action Images

When it comes to the Cleveland Cavaliers' recent play, Kyrie Irving has a different perspective than teammate LeBron James.

While James issued a wake-up call this week, decrying the Cavs' lack of toughness after an ugly loss to the Denver Nuggets, Irving - who prophetically called Cleveland "the team to beat" during a similar slide at this point last season - remains calm and patient. Like last year, he's confident the Cavs will right the ship when it matters, and that everything else is just noise.

"It just echoes around the same statement of kind of let the world go crazy, and then we figure it out internally and we go from there," Irving told ESPN's Dave McMenamin after Cleveland beat the Charlotte Hornets on Friday. "That's really all it comes down to: not letting anyone else dictate what are the things that we need to do and improve on. And then going out and just doing it.

"With us, we have a very close-knit group, a great culture, and we've just got to stick to it and understand that when it all comes down to it, as professionals we've got to raise our play and just become better. But every journey is different. This team's run (leading up to the playoffs) and season have been totally different. It's shaping out to be different, and it will continue to be. But we've just got to see where the answer lies and just go find it."

Irving may be making that sound more straightforward than it actually is, but given how unstoppable the Cavs looked after flipping the switch last spring, and how they ratcheted up their defense seven or eight gears in the Finals, it's hard not to believe that it's as simple as "see where the answer lies and just go find it."

"We have a lot of pieces," Irving explained, when asked what keeps him confident. "We have a lot of talent. We're probably the most talented team in the league, by far, with just the pieces that we have."

With the playoffs just three weeks off, the rest of the (purportedly flat) world should soon find out how true that is.

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