OKLAHOMA CITY — LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love will all play Thursday against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers coach Ty Lue told reporters before the game.
It was a major change of tune from Lue, who less than 24 hours earlier, following Cleveland’s 132-117 win in Indiana, said the Cavs’ Big 3 would “probably” all rest in the nationally televised game on TNT.
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Why the sudden upgrade in status?
“Nothing changed,” Lue said. “It’s just I said I wanted to see how the guys felt, and they feel pretty good. We’re playing some pretty good basketball right now and they just want to keep it rolling. So all three guys say they feel pretty good, and we got a good thing going so why not keep it going?”
In other words, the players likely convinced Lue to let them play as Cleveland has won six of its past seven games.
“I said ‘probably’ I’ll see how they feel,” Lue said. “I just told you how they feel. They want to play.”
Cleveland will be without Iman Shumpert as he misses his second-straight game with a sprained left ankle. Derrick Williams, signed by the defending champs Thursday afternoon to a 10-day contract, will be thrown into the fire immediately and make his debut against the Thunder.
“He can play the 3 and the 4,” Lue said of Williams. “He’s a good defender on-ball. Has athleticism. So, I’ll just try to work him in with that second unit, let LeBron handle it, let him play off LeBron a little bit with [Kyle] Korver and those guys and just see how we can get him acclimated.”
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