Isaiah Thomas downplays Monday’s team meeting

According to Isaiah Thomas, the Cavs’ reportedly tense Monday team meeting has been overblown.

According to Thomas, the meeting — which he reportedly instigated — made into more than it was. He says that he didn’t call out Kevin Love and that there is “no bad blood” between them.

“I asked him a question about where he was and it was never clarified and that’s all it was,” Thomas said after Saturday’s team practice.

“I approached him about the situation, and it got out of house like it shouldn’t have been. It was not what the world was trying to make it, some kind of been between me and him. It’s never been that and I’ve never been that guy, to do that.”

Thomas was asked about the meeting again and again said that the meeting was about clarifying the situation and not personally attacking Love. He also said he believes the meeting will help the team’s communication and that, on and off the floor, communication was the team’s biggest problem.

“There was nothing to bash him about. We just wanted to know where he was and why he didn’t play,” Thomas said.

As for his play, Thomas again downplayed his struggles. He admitted that he’s not playing as well as he’d like to yet, but said that has more to do with having to play in a new system on a new team and having returned in the middle of the season. He also said no one in the organization has talked to him about his shot selection, something that’s reportedly annoying teammates.

“I’m not panicking, and I don’t think anyone in the locker room is panicking,” Thomas said. “I will find out how to use my strengths with this team and vice versa.”

Thomas also didn’t agree with arguments that he’s the cause of the Cavs’ recent struggles and pointed out that the Cavs still had a bottom-five defense back when they won 19 of 20 games in November and December. (Fact check: the Cavs had the league’s 11th best defense over that stretch, per nba.com/stats, but had the league’s 27th ranked defense on the day the run ended.)

“It’s going to work out,” he said. “It’s just going to take some time.”