Cleveland Cavaliers will 'get the ship righted,' says Warriors head coach Steve Kerr

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has seen this before with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Oftentimes it's January, the dog days of the regular season, when players are itching for the All-Star break. Last season it happened in March, just weeks before the playoffs. Heading into Monday's marquee matchup against the Warriors, the Cavs are going through their annual regular season stumble, which Kerr doesn't expect to last.

"Yes. I am very aware that they have LeBron (James)," Kerr said with a smile prior to tipoff Monday night. "Every year, every year. We've played them in the Finals three straight years and I guarantee you there was a moment like this in all three seasons -- at least one, sometimes more. So we know. He's always going to get the ship righted and what happens now has nothing to do with what happens later."

That's good news for Cleveland, which has lost four of five games and seven of the last nine, a slide that started on Christmas Day with a narrow defeat against the Warriors.

Head coach Tyronn Lue expected some of these challenges. The schedule set up for a tough grind early in the month, playing eight of nine games away from Quicken Loans Arena. In the midst of that, Lue needed to shuffle his lineups, trying to incorporate All-Star Isaiah Thomas, who only participated in a few scrimmages prior to his season debut on Jan. 2.

"When players are on minutes restrictions then you know you can't really do what you want to do," Lue said. "It's different, lineups change and he can't really sit out for too long. You gotta get him back in, but then he's playing with the second unit, so it's just a combination of things. But there's no excuse. It's a great problem to have and once he gets back to being IT and 100 percent as far as playing wise, I think he'll be fine."

But how long will that take? And is that a logical explanation for the Cavs' fading offense and continued defensive issues? What about those back-to-back blowout losses against Minnesota and Toronto?

Kerr has gone through something similar. At the start of the 2016-17 season he was trying to fit Kevin Durant into the Warriors' fabric.

Even though the Warriors didn't suffer many head-scratching losses along the way and didn't have extended stretches of poor play like their rival is currently going through, Kerr felt it took time for Durant to get comfortable in a new system, around new teammates.

"It's a good challenge because you know you're working with a good player," Kerr said. "Just a matter of time. For us, there were some conceptual things that we were trying to teach KD about the way we play as opposed to his last team with OKC. Just different stylistic dynamics. But more than anything it's just reps. The more Kevin played with our guys the more comfortable he felt. It's just time. I felt like with KD it took a couple of months and it felt like maybe right around this time last year that he really got comfortable. That was a good two or three months. I think that's what it takes: familiarity more than anything."

Thomas has played just four games after missing all of training camp, the preseason and the first few months while trying to recover from a torn labrum in his right hip.

The Cavs don't practice much on off days. Thomas still doesn't have his legs and isn't moving exactly the way in which he's accustomed. All of that has made this process a bit more bumpy, raising questions about whether the Cavs are vulnerable, whether they have vacated their throne in the Eastern Conference.

But the Cavs aren't panicking. Lue said Monday that the Cavs aren't currently the best team in the East, but "will be" by the end of the season.

For now, they are staying patient, trying to keep focused on the big picture. And don't count Kerr among those that buy into the Cavs suddenly having a pile of crippling problems that will cause them to fade.

They are three-time conference champions, armed with plenty of postseason experience and boasting a plethora of talent. And, as Kerr said, the Cavs still have James, who has the ability to single-handedly steer the Cavs back on course.

"I know he's better now than he was four years ago," Kerr said. "That's insane when you think about that because that should've been his prime -- four years ago. And he was already an MVP and a champion. But he's better. He's a better shooter, better player. He keeps getting better."

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