After the Cleveland Cavaliers were absolutely demolished by the Toronto Raptors 133-99 on Thursday night, LeBron James accomplished a new first for his career: losing back-to-back games by 25-plus points.
LeBron James' teams had never lost back-to-back games by at least 25 points ... until losing last night. pic.twitter.com/1ryXNjBP3Z
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) January 12, 2018
The 33-point loss was the biggest of the season for the Cavs, and came just a few days after they lost by 28 points to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
LeBron was obviously frustrated, as he showed during the game, when he was seen chewing out his team on the bench -- something Kyrie Irving apparently found interesting.
Oh... Hey, @KyrieIrving. 👀 pic.twitter.com/aKzQ5MTNyB
— Stadium (@WatchStadium) January 12, 2018
And again after the game, The King voiced his displeasure with how his team has been playing lately. Including the loss to the Raptors, the Cavs are now just 3-7 in their last 10 games, and have fallen 6.5 games back of the Boston Celtics for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. In fact, they're now closer to the ninth place Philadelphia 76ers in the standings than they are to first.
The reason for their poor play? The Cavaliers are "fragile," according to LeBron. Via The Athletic:
"We in a funk," James said. "Once again, we're back to the beginning of the season. Just got to find a way to get out of it. … We're so fragile. I don't know where it kind of went wrong or what happened to switch back, but we've got to try to pick it back up and find it."
Interestingly, this is not the first time LeBron has used the word fragile to define the Cavaliers after a bad loss to the Raptors. He did so back in 2014, saying "we're a very fragile team right now" following a 17-point loss to Toronto.
Of course, they were able to figure things out and make the Finals that season, and very well could do so again this time around. However, according to Elias Sports, no team in the history of the league has ever won the Finals after losing consecutive games by 25-plus points during the regular season.
What does consecutive 25-point losses mean for the Cavaliers? No team has gone on to win an NBA title after losing consecutive games by 25 points that season, and only one team has even reached the Finals ('73-74 Bucks). More from @EliasSports at https://t.co/zy7fgAN15c pic.twitter.com/jZ3IRXvlQh
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) January 12, 2018
Only the 1973-74 Milwaukee Bucks even made the championship series after suffering two such defeats during the regular season, and they lost in the Finals to the Boston Celtics.