Cleveland Cavaliers: After tough loss, team-first mindset is a positive

The Cleveland Cavaliers had a tough task on opening night at the Toronto Raptors, and they lost, but their mindset after the loss was a positive.

Kevin Love and the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Toronto Raptors by 12 in their first game of the 2018-19 regular season. It was a game where Cleveland played far from their best basketball, as they shot just 40.0 percent and had just one more assist than turnover. A few players, namely Cedi Osman and Jordan Clarkson, did really well, but this team is not about individual statistics.

In post-game interviews, the key cogs on this Cleveland roster impressed me with their mindset following a loss. The leader of the team, Love, struggled in this game, as he finished with 21 points and eight rebounds, but shot just 5-of-18 from the field and had a hard time getting in a rhythm. He had five personal fouls, too.

He vocalized that lack of feel with reporters after the game, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.

"“That rhythm wasn’t there tonight,” Love said. “You could tell that game action wasn’t there for me tonight. Thought I got a lot of really, really good looks on the offensive end. On the defensive end, just our switches and closing out, my attention to detail wasn’t there.“I told Ty (Lue) after the game, I said, ‘That’s on me and I apologize.’ We all have to be better and I think we know it.”"

Love knew he was off, and with him making this team go and being the guy that will make the others better, he knows that it’s on him when a loss and/or an “off night” happens.

Fedor demonstrated how now it’s Love’s turn to fill that role, as LeBron James used to.

"“Some nights, Love will play like an All-Star, receiving a bulk of the credit. Other nights, just like Wednesday against the revamped Raptors, Love will be forced to accept the criticism. The same happened with James.”"

Cedi Osman, who had a really good outing with 17 points on 50.0 percent shooting from the field, to go with 10 rebounds and four assists, was anything but satisfied. He’s not for getting stats and not getting wins.

When Osman was asked by play-by-play announcer Fred McLeod if he was pleased with his own performance, Osman responded by saying “I mean, I’m not because we lost” (h/t the Cavs’ Official Website).

Based on his body language and with how much passion he has for the game, the guy wants to win games, not put up numbers and be a part of giving W’s to opponents.

For a guy that could eventually be “the” guy, that was encouraging.

Osman, Love and even though he struggled last night with turnovers and shooting over length, Collin Sexton could eventually form a pretty nice trio of scorers that could grow into good leaders for Cleveland as well.

It’s good to see the Cleveland Cavaliers’ key pieces shouldering blame when things go south. That’ll make the W’s much more of a team-centric focus on the other end of the spectrum.