ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue left the bench in the middle of the second quarter of Tuesday’s 116-98 loss to Orlando because of an undisclosed illness and didn’t return.
Team officials would only say that Lue had “an illness” and declined to elaborate. It is the second time this season that an illness has stopped Lue from coaching. He got sick before the start of the Cavaliers gamed on Dec. 21 game against Chicago and didn’t coach at all.
Assistant head coach Larry Drew took over for Lue with just over six minutes left in the second period on Tuesday night.
“He (Lue) said he wasn’t feeling well and was going to go back (to the locker room) for a second and he would be back,” Drew said. “We went in at halftime and checked on him and he seemed to be doing a little better, but I guess he just wasn’t feeling well enough to come back for the second half.”
The Cavaliers led by as many as 21 points in the second quarter, but got outscored 65-31 in the second half with Lue in the locker room.
“Him (Lue) being out is an excuse and I’m been around too long to make excuses like that,” Dwayne Wade said of the Cavs poor second half. “We’re the ones playing and we just got our (butts) whipped. Plain and simple as that. We got our (butts) whipped.”
