Cavaliers Final Pre-Season Game: Three Things to Watch

The Cleveland Cavaliers take on the Memphis Grizzlies tonight on ESPN. This will be the Cavs final pre-season game before Opening Night next Thursday against the New York Knicks. The Cavs have looked good this pre-season, even though five of their top 6 players have missed games. Only Dion Waiters has played in all the games. Kyrie Irving, LeBron James, Kevin Love, Anderson Varejao and Tristan Thompson have all missed games.

James is missing tonight’s game as well. Giving him over a week of rest and practice before opening night. Other key players could play minimally. While rest is good for some of the older players, of which James is, the starting five have not had a ton of court time together. That could cause problems early in the season, especially the big match-up with the Chicago Bulls on Friday.

Here are Three Things We Are Watching For Tonight:

Kevin Love’s Shooting

Love had an off game on Monday against the Chicago Bulls. Love was 2 – 10 from the field including 0 – 5 from the three point line. Love played 35 minutes and despite his poor shooting still posted a +/- of +3. He did contribute 13 rebounds and 3 assists.

Love’s performance against the Bulls is especially concerning given the Bulls place as the Cavs primary competition for the conference. The Bulls front line of Joakim Noah, Pau Gasol and Taj Gibson may be the best the Cavaliers will face but Memphis’ is close. Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph are bruising, big and physical. The Cavs need an interior presence on offense and Love seems to excel playing inside out instead of settling for deep shooting only. How he fairs tonight will give some insight into lessons learned from Monday.

Third Stringers

The Cavs did not play Joe Harris, A.J. Price, Brendan Haywood, Alex Kirk, James Jones and Shane Edwards Monday night. Lou Amundson played less than a minute. Those seven players are competing for six spots at maximum to get the Cavs to the required maximum number of 15.

Jones is a veteran who likely has a spot locked up as the off the bench three point shooter at small forward. Haywood also likely has a spot as he is the biggest, most physical player off the bench. He also has his great contract that can be traded next year. Harris is the young shooter and Kirk is the young big.

That likely leaves Edwards, Amundson and Price on the possible chopping block. Edwards has not had much impact and is the most likely to be cut. Price has shown that he can shoot, a requisite of GM David Griffin. Griff also loves Amundson’s hustle and ability to block shots. The Cavs could cut Edwards and keep the other two or cut more to open a roster spot (Ray Allen hasn’t signed yet).

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Injuries

The most important thing for the Cleveland Cavaliers is to come out of this game healthy. The team has already seen Love injure his neck in a game and Irving his ankle in practice. While the starting lineup, minus James, can use some more time on the court together, an injury would be far worse.

Coach David Blatt will have to be careful with the minutes for his important and veteran players. That means we could see a ton of those third stringers along with Matthew Dellavedova and even Tristan Thompson.

The Grizzlies may be even more concerned with injuries, specifically with Gasol, Randolph and Mike Conley. An injury to any of those three would be disastrous, especially on offense. The Grizz surround their three stars with veteran role players with limited offensive potential including Tayshaun Prince, Vince Carter, Courtney Lee and Tony Allen.

Tonight’s game could be ugly to watch but we know you will be watching because Cavalier fans are a dedicated, passionate bunch.

What will you be watching for tonight?