LeBron James had good intentions when he shoved coach David Blatt back toward the bench to keep him from getting a technical foul during Tuesday night's 107-100 loss to the Phoenix Suns.
The Cavaliers fell to 19-20 with the loss. Kevin Love was benched in the fourth quarter, J.R. Smith took 19 shots, and Kyrie Irving had eight turnovers.
It isn't just the casinos that are agape at how this is playing out — the Cavs were 4-15 in their past 19 games against the spread coming in to Tuesday — so are league scouts, executives and rival players.
They see players appearing to run different plays than the bench calls, see assistant coach Tyronne Lue calling timeouts literally behind Blatt's back during games, and hear Cavs players openly talking about coaching issues with opposing players and personnel. Not once, not twice, but frequently over the past several months.
While the shove wasn't as bad as it looked, what's going on behind the scenes appears to be ugly.