Wade rallies Cavaliers to cut out 'slippage' in current skid
Dwyane Wade hopes he can inspire his teammates with some verbal duct tape.
After winning 18 of 19 games between Nov. 11 and Dec. 17, the Cleveland Cavaliers have now managed just one victory in their last four games - a nail-biting 115-112 win over the floundering Chicago Bulls. While it's not exactly full-on panic mode in The Land right now, Wade is imploring the Cavaliers to figure out their issues before they get worse.
"Sometimes, when you're winning as much as you're winning, you have slippage," he told ESPN's Dave McNemamin after Cleveland lost 109-95 to the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday. "We've had some slippage, and we've got to figure out a way to nip it in the bud before it becomes: 'We in a rut, and we've got to get ourselves back out of it.'"
Wade had just five points off the bench in Wednesday's loss and finished a minus-20 in 19 minutes of action. The Cavaliers were undone thanks to a throwback performance from 40-year-old Kings guard Vince Carter, who dropped a game-high 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting.
It was Cleveland's second consecutive defeat after they also lost to the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day.