Failed expectations cost Blatt

January 22, 2016 at 8:24p.m.

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (AP) — The Cavaliers weren’t connected on or off the floor under coach David Blatt.

On Friday, he paid the price for that lack of unity.

Blatt was fired by general manager David Griffin, who didn’t think the title-chasing Cavaliers were handling expectations well or acting like a championship team under the second-year coach. Despite Blatt taking them to the NBA Finals last season and a current 30-11 record, Griffin sensed his team was going in the wrong direction.

“Sometimes you can win games in the regular season and get worse,” Griffin said at a hastily-arranged new conference at the team’s practice facility. “We were regressing over a period of time. There’s a lack of connectedness and spirit that I just couldn’t accept.”