Kyrie Irving Punched In Cleveland Cavaliers ‘Meeting?’ Teammates Blame ‘Uncle Drew’ After Worst Loss Of The Season

While it's still early in the season (10 games for most teams) some teams are already crumbling under the pressure. The Cleveland Cavaliers is one of them.

The East may have three of the top teams, arguably THE top three teams with the Indiana Pacers on top of the heap, the resurging Chicago Bulls with Derrick Rose getting back to MVP form and the Miami Heat simply being the Miami Heat.

The East is top heavy, but the talent curve drops steeply after that. One team that chose not to tank and are going all in for "an extended playoff run" is publicly struggling and has resulted in the blame game being played more than basketball.

In the much publicized 'players only' meeting, the Cavs settled the blame game "like men" which could mean a lot of things. Superstar guard Kyrie Irving was being blamed for shooting them to a loss, and he was seen with a black eye after the players isolated themselves on the locker room. Rumors about teammates ganging up on their superstar surfaced. Cavs guard Dion Waiters talked with the Cleveland Plain Dealer to settle the issue:

"We (are) men. Nobody got into no altercations or anything like that. We got everything off our chests that we needed to. That's that. All the other rumors, man, are rumors. Don't believe it. It's not true. We talked. Everybody talked. Nobody put their hands on nobody. At the end of the day, we're teammates. Like I said, I'd rather fight somebody else on the other team than one of my teammates. That's the way it is. That's the way I was brought up. I feel as though we say we're family, then we're a family and I'm going to look out for you to the best of my abilities. All the other stuff is foolishness.''

Irving eventually matched his career high with 41 points in a win against the Washington Wizards. The absence of Dion Waiters has fueled speculation that he was involved in the alleged fight.