CLEVELAND, Ohio -- LeBron James' annual Halloween Party is Monday in Akron, and the timing couldn't be better.

The Cavaliers are playing terrible. They don't want this three-game losing streak and stretch of four losses in five games to become an existential crisis.

A party is a good distraction.

After losing to the Knicks Sunday, 114-95, coach Tyronn Lue said his players needed to "get their spirits right." His team has lost the last two games by 41 points.

Until the Cavs lift their spirits, "it's going to be like this," he said. Perhaps the players will bust out the Ouija board at James' party. A good ghost costume or two might snap them right out of this.

The Cavs are abhorrent defensively -- ranking 27th overall, 30th in 3s allowed (13.8 per game) and 28th in opponents' 3-point field-goal percentage.

Kevin Love and Dwyane Wade said the way to fix it is through "trust." How better to build trust than by dressing like a baby (J.R. Smith, 2015 Halloween party), in drag (Iman Shumpert, 2014), Prince (James, 2015), or like the main characters from Dumb and Dumber (Love, 2016) and dancing the night away in front of teammates?

"Only thing we can do as a group, as unit is take (Monday) off, enjoy ourselves, Halloween party, come in Tuesday and figure out ways to get better each day," said Wade, who like James is in his 15th season with three championships. "That's the only thing you're going to do and we have to get out of it together.

If the Cavs said they weren't concerned after losing 123-101 Saturday night in New Orleans, they can't reasonably be expected to be falling over with worry after the Knicks blew them out 24 hours later.

James was asked if he might take the off day to think beyond the excuses -- the defensive missteps, the Derrick Rose absence that is now over -- to get to the root of why the Cavs are such a mess right now. His answer? No.

"What month is this for me? What is this? October? I'm not about to go crazy over it right now," James said. "It's too long of a season and I've been a part of this too many times so, I'm the wrong guy to ask. I'm too positive right now."

In November of 2014, the Cavs were a new team like they are now. James was back after four years away in Miami. Love arrived from Minnesota. Mike Miller and James Jones were newcomers. David Blatt was a rookie coach.

Cleveland lost four straight that month, and after the third loss, in Washington, James said patience was "my biggest test.

"My patience isn't [endless]. I have a low tolerance for things of this nature," he said.

How could James' patience for losses to the Orlando Magic, Brooklyn Nets, and New York Knicks in the span of eight days gotten so high?

Much of it has to do with that 2016 championship, the one he promised for Cleveland, his third overall. It was why he told cleveland.com during the Eastern Conference semifinals last season that he had "nothing left to prove."

James has gone to seven consecutive Finals. An eighth is expected. With those expectation comes a certain comfort than can look like complacency. Best case scenario, the Cavs are easing into this season the way James first dips his legs into an ice bath each morning in May and June.

Nice and easy.

It's a partial explanation for how teams like the Knicks can bomb 3s (13 on Sunday, making them the fifth consecutive team to make at least that many on the Cavs), score in transition (13-4), and outhustle Cleveland for rebounds (51-40) and second-chance points (19-9).

"I think it's trust," Love said. "I mean, we talk about the communication. I think it starts for us on the defensive end. So much of the time, I mean, you've heard me say over the last few years that it starts there, then we get on the break and we push the pace, but we really haven't done any of that. We got to get stops and push the pace, with that effort, with that communication. We're so much a better team when we're running back down and the other teams struggling, not the other way around. We need to change that.

"A lot of that can be fixed with effort. We have the talent here, that's obvious. On paper, we look great, but now we need to go out there and kind of be assertive and have our will take care of that for us, but right now, we got to figure it out."

James said "all it takes is a win and then things will start feeling better and we'll start feeling better about ourselves."

But first, a Halloween party, where the good times the Cavs haven't had on the court will surely roll.