What did we learn from the Cleveland Cavaliers’ preseason opener?
It may only be the preseason, but the 2014-15 NBA season is officially underway as we prepare for the regular season coming at the end of October. On Sunday night, there were plenty of headlines as the Cleveland Cavaliers hosted Maccabi Tel Aviv from Israel.
David Blatt, the man now coaching Cleveland on the sidelines, happens to be Maccabi’s former coach before leaving for his opportunity in the NBA this past summer. Blatt led Maccabi to the Euroleague Championship last season.
Another story line from Sunday night’s game was not only LeBron James’ first game back in Cleveland, but also the debut of Kevin Love and Shawn Marion (among others) in Cavaliers’ uniforms.
The Cavs’ starting lineup was rather predictable for their first preseason game, but it was interesting nonetheless to see who would get major minutes off the bench. As it was in Miami, James Jones looks to be out of Cleveland’s rotation. Jones clocked out with 11 minutes played, and he probably got lucky with that much time. During the regular season, with lineups and rotations cemented, Jones will likely watch the Cavs succeed from the bench.
From Cleveland’s starting five of Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, James, Love, and Tristan Thompson, no one specifically had such a great game, but that’s how it should be, and something we all need to get used to. When you have this much talent playing at the same time, there’s no way all five can average the numbers they may have last season. There’s just not enough time to match those numbers.
If this tells you anything, Irving was Cleveland’s highest scorer with 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting along with 5 assists in 25 minutes, which was also a team-high.
If this tells you anything, five Cavs scored in double-figures, and that didn’t even include Love. Joe Harris was apart of that group, along with the four starters aside from Love. Saying that, this is preseason, so take everything much more lightly than you would a regular season game. But who knows, maybe Harris becomes the Cavs’ sixth man and brings consistent scoring off the bench…or not.
One thing that could be taken a little less lightly is the fact that Cleveland won 107-80 over Maccabi, a well respected European team even without Blatt holding things down.
The Cavaliers, who undoubtedly went through a major revamp of the organization in adding as much talent to the roster as they did, looked pretty good in their preseason opener overall. Aside from the past week (not even) of training camp, most of these guys haven’t played together before. As any avid basketball fan knows, chemistry is huge in this sport. If you know how your teammates play, know their hot spots, their cold spots, you’ll win a lot of games. Before the offseason that has led us to this point, it would be more likely to see these five (Sunday’s starters) on the blacktop together, playing pick-up games with fellow NBA talent rather than in a professional game. Thanks to some loyalty and the hunger to win, some of the league’s top talent will play together for much more than 82 games, we presume.
Revisiting chemistry, the Cavs looked to have a good amount of it Sunday. There were some blunders, as there should be before a season begins. But the half-court touchdown passes we’re used to seeing from LeBron and Love were on full display against Maccabi, a great sign that this team will be just as exciting–if not more–than the LeBron-led Heat were. It already seems apparent that those Wade-to-James lobs we all enjoyed will be in Cleveland this season, replacing Wade with Love and Irving.
Many have questioned whether the Cavs would be able to contend for a title this season with the lack of a defensive presence in the post. While it is something to think about, the Cavs seemed fine against Maccabi defensively all around. Maccabi only managed to shoot 32.5 percent from the field, and 25.8 percent from three. Again, this was only one preseason game. Don’t make much of anything yet.
Just having games on the schedule honestly gets me excited, and Cavs fans must be fired up to see their team on the floor, LeBron and all.
There will surely be flaws to this team, as there are with every team, old or new. The Cavs, putting rust aside, looked very good in their preseason opener on Sunday. Moving forward, they’ve got to continue to build up that chemistry and trust in each other heading into the regular season, where the league has high expectations for them.
Like I’ve already mentioned multiple times, don’t make much of a preseason game. However, there is one major thing you can make of the preseason: while it’s not the regular season, it is basketball, and that’s all that really matters.
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