Statistically speaking, LeBron James played one of the worst games of his entire 15-year NBA career during the Cavaliers’ 127-99 blowout loss to the Timberwolves on Monday night. He scored just 10 points against Minnesota—his lowest point output since 2007—and worse, he registered a plus-minus of -39, which is the worst plus-minus he has ever recorded. Plus-minus, for those NBA fans who might not be familiar with the term, is a stat that is used to illustrate the difference between the number of points a player’s team scores versus the number of points the opposing team scores when he’s on the court.
LeBron is typically a stickler for stats. In fact, just hours before the game on Monday, he put up an Instagram post highlighting the incredible stats he’s put up so far this season.
But after the Cavaliers’ 28-point loss to the Timberwolves, LeBron was, not surprisingly, in no mood to talk stats. He was asked what went wrong for his team, and he had no problem giving Minnesota credit for coming out ready to play.
"They put a good one on us," LeBron said.
But when someone specifically mentioned his awful plus-minus for the game, LeBron completely downplayed it and said he doesn’t "give a damn" about stats like that. He—correctly—pointed out that the Cavaliers have won games in the past despite his low plus-minus numbers, and he let it be known that he didn’t have any time to devote to discussing the role his low plus-minus may have played in the outcome of the game on Monday.
"I don’t care about no damn plus-minus," LeBron told reporters. "I’ve won a game and had a bad plus-minus before, so what does that matter? I don’t give a damn about no damn plus-minus."
LeBron wasn’t the only Cavaliers player left searching for answers after the game, either. Kevin Love was also dumbfounded by the team’s performance.
"I don’t know what tonight was," Love said. "It was just ugly."
He can say that again.
A lot of the Cavaliers’ recent games have been ugly, too. They have lost six of their last nine contests and now sit in the third spot in the Eastern Conference. They’ll look to get back to their winning ways with road games against the Raptors and Pacers later this week.
