CLEVELAND (AP) - Still missing a few key players, the defending NBA champions are also now down a coach.
Cleveland’s Tyronn Lue will miss Monday’s game against Miami with an unspecified illness. The second-year coach has been battling a bug for most of the week and will stay home and rest while the Cavaliers host the Heat.
Lue skipped the team’s morning shootaround for the second time in a few days. He called assistant coach Larry Drew a few hours later to inform him that he would not make the game. Drew said the team does not have a diagnosis for Lue.
Drew, who previously coached Atlanta and Milwaukee, will take over Lue’s head coaching duties.
During the team’s visit to Atlanta on Friday, Lue said he never wants to miss any time if he can help it.
“I want to be here to support the guys and if I can’t go, I can’t go,” he said. “I’ve full confidence in Larry Drew and Jim Boylan, those guys, and (Mike) Longabardi to take over, but I’m always going to try to give it everything I’ve got to make it.”
Drew said he wasn’t sure how much he would play newly signed center Andrew Bogut, who signed with Cleveland last week.
Lue is in his first full season as Cleveland’s coach. He took over when David Blatt was fired midway through last season and guided the Cavs to the NBA title.
At 42-19, the Cavs entered Monday’s game with a three-game lead over Boston for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Cleveland has been playing without All-Star forward Kevin Love (knee surgery) and guard J.R. Smith, who has been out since undergoing thumb surgery in December.
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