Cavaliers' Frye: 'We suck right now'
Cleveland Cavaliers big man Channing Frye is keeping it real.
"We suck right now," Frye said following his team's 117-115 loss to the Atlanta Hawks Sunday afternoon, according to ESPN's Dave McMenamin.
Cleveland trailed by as many as 16 points in the second half, yet had a chance to win the game late after Isaiah Taylor missed a pair of free throws. Frye took a fairly clean look from behind the arc to steal the victory in the final seconds, but it clanked off the front of the rim, dropping the Cavs' to 4-6.
Cleveland's defense was once again problematic against a Hawks squad that had won just a single game before arriving at Quicken Loans Arena. Atlanta shot a stellar 11-of-25 from 3-point range, and faced little resistance when putting the ball on the floor to attack the basket. Much of that was thanks to the absence of an injured Tristan Thompson, who's Cleveland's best interior defender.
Atlanta had five members of its rotation (Malcolm Delaney, Ersan Ilyasova, Miles Plumlee, DeAndre' Bembry, and Mike Muscala) out of action, and despite riding an eight-game losing streak, still managed to get whatever it wanted on offense, with the Cavaliers continuing to show a lack of urgency on the other end.
Through 10 games, Cleveland owns the league's worst defense by allowing 111.7 points per 100 possessions. Their six losses have come against opposition currently owning a combined record of 25-30, with this recent stretch once considered one of their easiest of the entire campaign.
The Cavs have already beaten the Milwaukee Bucks, at least, and will look to do so again Tuesday when Giannis Antetokounmpo and co. pay them a visit.