LeBron: 'Fit in' tweet about Love
CLEVELAND -- LeBron James acknowledged after the Cavaliers' 120-105 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday that his tweet late Saturday night was referencing teammate Kevin Love.
The term "fit out" was something Love used during the preseason.
"I'm comfortable and just not trying to, I guess, fit in so much," Love said. "I had a talk with the guys on the plane ride over [to Brazil] and also at different practices off the floor and they told me to fit out, just be myself."
James said the wording was intentional.
"It's not a coincidence, man," James told a small group of reporters after the game.
James initially denied the tweet had anything to do with the Cavaliers when asked with a larger group of reporters present and cameras rolling.
"It wasn't even about this team. It was more about people in general," James said. "It was just a general thought that I had, and obviously, whatever thought I had, people try to encrypt it and Da Vinci Code it and all that stuff. It's just a general thought. That's all that is.
"And people are always trying to fit out instead of fitting in, instead of being a part of something special. And that's all that was about."
Cleveland's rout of Los Angeles was its 13th win in its past 14 games, and Love had a breakout performance, scoring a season-high 32 points on 11-for-18 shooting, including a 7-for-8 mark from 3.
James might have taken exception to Love's recent comments to Cleveland.com following the power forward's second five-point outing in the span of three games in a loss to Indiana on Friday.
"I think it's one of the toughest situations I've had to deal with," Love said.
He also classified his limited role in the offense as that of a "spacer" and added "there's no blueprint for what I should be doing."
James didn't hold Love's comments against him on the court and looked to feed him touches against the Lakers.
"We wanted to keep going to him," James said. "I drew up a few sets for him in timeout. He had the hot hand, and I wanted to keep going to him."
Love appreciated James' efforts.
"It's huge," Love said when asked about James targeting him with passes. "Whether I'm running the floor and ducking in or he's calling a play for me to get it inside or out, he's one of the best in the league at setting guys up. So when I'm on the other end of that and it's a crisp pass coming from him, it's going to be a good look."
It was the first time in five games that Love shot better than 50 percent from the floor. Coming into Sunday, Love averaged just 14 points on 37.1 percent shooting in his past 12 games, yet the Cavs went 11-1 in that span.
Despite James acknowledging his concern with Love, Cavs coach David Blatt pointed a finger at the media for paying too much attention to Love's slump during the team's winning streak.
"You people like to talk about a lot of the things that in, in my mind, are less important," Blatt said. "We win 12 games in a row, and everybody's talking about Kevin's five-point game. I mean, really, who gives a damn? What's important is that the team is winning, and Kevin knows that."
Whatever struggles Love might be dealing with, he restated his commitment to the team after the game when asked by a Los Angeles reporter if he would have any interest in joining the Lakers as a free agent this summer should he opt out of his contract with the Cavs to test the market.
"I'm a Cleveland Cavalier," Love said.
When the reporter followed up to ask if there was any scenario where Love would consider the Lakers, he responded, flatly, "no."
