LeBron, Cavaliers struggle again, get thumped by Trail Blazers

Preaching patience in Cleveland is going to grow tiresome.

It's an unfortunate necessity three games into the 2014-15 season, though, as LeBron James and company have been slow to find their groove. They have a new head coach and a lot of new faces, so it shouldn't be surprising, except that the degree to which they've struggled unquestionably is.

The Portland Trail Blazers held serve with the Cavaliers in town on Tuesday, emphatically defeating the would-be contenders 101-82 with a thorough two-way performance. Damian Lillard (27 points, seven assists) was fantastic, Wesley Matthews (21 points) came up big and Robin Lopez (19 points on 8-of-11 shooting) helped exploit a lack of Cavaliers' rim protection.

Defensively is where the Blazers really made hey, and that's not exactly their calling card. The Cavs managed to shoot just 36.5 percent overall and get to the line but 14 times, with the offense oft looking static and confused.

David Blatt's system isn't a simple one, and after an embarrassing opening loss to New York, the Cavs seemed to simplify things against Chicago in an overtime win. That wasn't necessarily the case Tuesday, with James in particular seeming unable to get on the same page with his teammates. James shot just 4-of-12, and while he added seven assists to his 11 points, he also turned the ball over three times and the team was outscored by 15 points in his 35 minutes.

Kyrie Irving (3-of-17, nine points) struggled as well, and Kevin Love (22 points, 10 rebounds) was the team's only reliable weapon. The team as a whole had just 18 assists, continuing a troubling trend that sees Cleveland rank 17th in the NBA in assist rate so far.

An 82-game season is a long time for a team to figure things out. If they don't grow impatient with the process, the offense will come, and the schedule is fairly light for the purposes of learning over the next two weeks. They'll get there, just maybe not as quickly as they'd like.