CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Jarrett Jack stood in front of reporters and spoke softly and sternly.

"It's unacceptable,'' the Cavaliers starting point guard said Wednesday night at The Q.

That is one thing everyone connected with the Cavs can agree on.

In a performance that almost defies description, the Cavaliers embarrassed themselves for three quarters and managed to lose, 119-108, to a Los Angeles Lakers team that had lost seven straight games and finished this game with five healthy players.

Oh, some of the sting was taken out after Cleveland cut a 29-point first-half lead to 114-108 after two free throws by rookie Anthony Bennett with 1:17 left in the fourth quarter. But a 3-pointer by Steve Blake, playing with a ruptured ear drum suffered at Minnesota on Tuesday night, restored the Lakers lead to 117-108 with 56.7 seconds left and the Lakers held on to snap a seven-game losing streak and improve to 17-32. Rookie Ryan Kelly scored a career-high 26 points.

C.J. Miles led the Cavs with 27 points and led the fourth quarter charge, but on this night he did not have enough help as the Cavs lost their sixth-straight game to fall to 16-33.

By the time Miles entered the game early in the second quarter, the Cavs were down by 26 points, soon to be 29, at 50-21. He said he tried to bring the kind of energy, pace and spacing that clearly were missing. But he also made an interesting observation about how the Cavs continually find themselves in these situations.

"I just think we get discouraged too easily,'' he said quietly. "It's been hard, and it's going to be hard. There have been nights where we played our hardest and played our best basketball and haven't been able to win games, and there have been nights that we didn't play good basketball and won games.

"Lately, with everything that's been going on, it's just like our mental focus…take anything that's bothering you or any frustration and leave it out there. if you don't want anybody to talk about you, prove them wrong.''

The Cavs have been the subject of much controversy this past week, and last night's game is not going to calm any of that. Rumors surfaced about Luol Deng and Kyrie Irving being unhappy, and Dion Waiters being asked to leave practice because of a bad attitude.

Waiters actually was part of the group that brought he Cavs back in the fourth quarter, along with Miles, Bennett, Anderson Varejao and Matthew Dellavedova. Starters Deng, Irving and Tristan Thompson each played just four minutes in the second half. Jack played seven.

"If I were the coach, I would've played that second group,'' Irving admitted.

Jack tipped his hat to his teammates who closed the gap but acknowledged they had too much of a deficit to make up.

"That's on the guys out there that allowed that deficit to be created,'' he said.

The still unanswered question is why this continues to happen over and over again. The Chicago Bulls came in minus Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer and Kirk Hinrich and beat the former teammate Deng and the Cavs, 98-87 on Jan. 22.

"It has nothing to do with a team that has their guys or doesn't have their guys,'' coach Mike Brown said. "I'm moreso upset with the fact that we didn't come out and play the right way to start the game and we got ourselves in a hole.''

In the visiting locker room down the hall, the Lakers still couldn't believe they'd won this game.

They started the game with eight healthy players, then lost Nick Young for the second half with a twisted left knee. Jordan Farmar, just back from a torn left hamstring, played 33 minutes but cramped up after coming out with 9:39 left in the fourth quarter. Chris Kaman and Robert Sacre fouled out in the fourth quarter, but Sacre had to remain in the game and the Lakers were assessed a technical foul with 3:32 remaining. A technical foul would have been called on each of his subsequent fouls.

Steve Nash, who returned on Tuesday at Minnesota after missing 34 games with nerve damage in his back, sat out the game to rest but returned in uniform near the end. He would not have been allowed to play once Sacre was allowed to stay in.

"It was crazy,'' Sacre said.

"I don't think you'll ever see anything like that again,'' Kaman added.

Unfortunately for Cavs fans, they were talking about the Lakers. No such promises can be made about the Cavs.