The Cleveland Cavaliers lost the last three games of the NBA Finals in June as the Golden State Warriors went on to win the NBA Championship.  It’s assumed that the Cavs would enter this season healthy and hungry to not fail this time around but LeBron James says they’re still lagging behind the Warriors.

“We haven’t done anything,” an exasperated James said after the Cavs lost their second straight game, 104-99 to the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday. “We didn’t win anything. We lost. We lost in the Finals. So that’s enough motivation for myself. I think we need to understand that. Like, we lost in the Finals. We didn’t win. And the team that beat us looks more hungry than we are. So it shouldn’t be that way.”

The loss brought Cleveland’s record to 8-3 — good enough for the top spot in the East but not on the same level as the Warriors, who improved to 12-0 with a 115-110 victory over the Toronto Raptors..

“We’re too relaxed and too nice,” James said. “We’re just too nice.”

“It’s not always about being Iron Man,” James said. “It’s a mental toughness as well — going out and doing your job, doing it at a high level and preparing that way before the tip even happens. So we got some guys who’ll do it and some guys that don’t do it consistently enough.”

“You can’t play down to the competition at this point because we’re not better than no one in the league,” James said. “We got so much work to do at this point. We shouldn’t feel entitled. That’s what I continue to say.

“We’re not entitled to a win. We’re not entitled to being the Eastern Conference champions. That’s last year. It’s a totally different year, and until we figure that out, we’re going to continue to put ourselves in positions to lose basketball games.”

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source: ESPN