Near the halfway point of a brutal five-game-in-seven-day stretch, Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue has indicated that he plans to rest certain members of the team during the remaining three games this week.
The decision is in contrast to his earlier preference to wait until the team had clinched the top seed in the conference before pulling players out of the lineup.
Lue has also taken other steps to provide the team with additional rest, including staying overnight after Monday’s loss to Utah and cancelling the morning shootaround on Wednesday for tomorrow night’s home game against the Dallas Mavericks.
“Three (games) in four nights,” Lue said. “Have a game and then leave again and have a back-to-back. So during that three-game stretch I will look to rest guys.”
The Cavaliers are scheduled to play in Orlando on Friday night and Miami the following evening. LeBron James figures to sit out Friday night’s contest, so that he’ll be ready for what’s expected to be a much stiffer challenge against the Heat. Back on December 5, he sat out the team’s other game in Miami, which they lost.
Lue has no set pattern established in the final month, but in addition to Kevin Love, he’s also looking to give some time off to the Cavs’ starting backcourt of Kyrie Irving and J.R. Smith.
