Isaiah Thomas says Cavaliers don’t practice; could explain team’s struggles

The Cavaliers are looking more like a “mistake by the lake” rather than “all together” at this point in the season. The team is 2-8 in its last 10 games and are third in the Eastern Conference standings trailing the Celtics and Raptors.

A lot of the Cavaliers players have expressed frustration with the team’s inability to win consistently as of late, but guard Isaiah Thomas attributed some of his personal recent struggles to their lack of practice. (Yes, we’re talkin’ about practice).

Thomas, who has played five games this season after recovering from a serious hip injury, said he’s still trying to get back into NBA shape.

After the Cavaliers’ 118-108 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Monday, Thomas said the teams lack of practice is affecting his conditioning to put up big minutes in games.

“That’s the only thing that’s gonna help me because we don’t practice,” Thomas told reporters. “Only thing that’s gonna help me is getting reps, running up and down the floor, getting my hip, getting my body accustomed to taking a beating and to running up and down the floor, getting in basketball shape.”

Maybe that lack of practice and conditioning is starting to catch up to the Cavaliers.

Over the last two weeks, the Cavaliers collectively have looked sluggish. In the first 31 games of the season, the Cavaliers shot 48.4 percent from the field and 38.2 percent from beyond the arc. But the team’s accuracy has tanked over the last 10 games. Since Dec. 21, the Cavaliers have only hit 42.5 percent of their field goal attempts and 32.6 percent of their three-pointers.

There’s still plenty of time for Cleveland to climb the Eastern Conference standings, but the Cavaliers aren’t allowing themselves much room for error. As of Wednesday, the team is 3.5 games behind the Raptors and 7 games behind the Celtics.

Maybe coach Tyronn Lue should consider scheduling a little more practice.

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