The Cleveland Cavaliers entered Thursday night's nationally televised matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers reeling. They'd lost six in a row and nine of their last 10, sitting a game under .500 with their stars underperforming and their reserves offering little support, and finding themselves surrounded by static that made the situation on the ground seem downright miserable. The only thing on which everybody seemed to agree — well, beyond the Cavaliers being one of the league's bigger disappointments through 39 games — is that the only way for LeBron James, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving and head coach David Blatt to scatter all this static would be to win some actual NBA basketball games for a change. They did just that on Thursday, beating the Lakers 109-102 at Staples Center.

It wasn't the prettiest win — LeBron had some rough moments there, and Cleveland's perpetually porous defense allowed L.A. to score 61 points on 59.5 percent shooting in the first half, with Kobe Bryant carving up the Cavs to the tune of a career-high 17 assists. But LeBron got LeBron-y in the second half (23 of his game-high 36 points after intermission), the defense tightened (the Lakers managed just 41 points on 41.2 percent shooting in the third and fourth quarters) and Love gutted out a 17-point, seven-board, 37-minute performance through back spasms; and anyway, when you're flailing as wildly as the Cavs have been of late, style points aren't nearly as important as results, and the win offered a much-needed life preserver.

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So with chaos roiling and the buzzards circling overhead, how did Blatt get the Cavs refocused enough to notch their ninth road win of the season? With a little bit of trickery and, according to Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group, a little bit of Dude-and-Walter-style therapy:

The Cleveland Cavaliers were of the understanding that they were on their way to practice on the campus of UCLA on Wednesday afternoon. [...] But what should have been a six-minute bus ride from their Beverly Hills hotel to the campus turned into 10, then 15, then a 20-minute ride.

"I was like, 'Where are we going?'" Tristan Thompson recalled to Northeast Ohio Media Group. "I was confused."

Head coach David Blatt had something up his sleeve. When the bus finally stopped, it was in front of a bowling establishment in Hollywood. To their shock, they learned practice was never in the plans. It was about getting away from basketball and bonding as a team. [...]

"I think it was a surprise for most guys," Kevin Love said. "It just helped so much. We all needed a break from it all." [...]

"[Bowling] didn't seem to affect too many people's jump-shots. This man [J.R. Smith] was throwing a six-pound ball around," Love revealed. "Those events are fun. We were able to go out there and bowl, eat bad food and enjoy ourselves. It had us loose for the game."

Smith, for the record, put up 13 shots on Thursday, including 10 3-pointers, en route to scoring 14 points in the win, so yes, I'd have to agree with Love's analysis that J.R. wasn't impacted by the exertion of the surprise excursion. Then again, 11 years into his NBA career, we've yet to find the element that would deter J.R. Smith from jacking jumpers, and I suspect we never will.

Now, to be fair, taking a group of grown men on a surprise trip to the bowling alley for some wholesome family fun might not necessarily be everyone's idea of a grand time. But given how difficult things have been for the Cavs lately — on the court, in media sessions, in the locker room, etc. — there might have been something to at least shifting the setting of the team's regular interactions, trying to get away from the grind and try to just build familiarity among a still-coalescing group of individuals in a pressure-free setting. From Sam Amick of USA TODAY Sports:

"You know ... I'm just so tired of all this personal stuff," Blatt said when asked how he was handling the criticism. "I'm a coach of a basketball team, and we're all a part of this. A lot of things have been said, and most of them unfairly, not truly depicting the situation. We've been struggling. I readily admit it. [But] within the team, things are fine. Guys are working hard. Guys are very, very much listening and attentive. And you know, we're not out of the mud yet, but we're going to be because we're going to get our team fully stocked and we're moving in the right direction. And all that other stuff, the personal [stuff], I really don't think about it. I don't listen to it, and I don't worry about it." [...]

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