Cleveland Cavaliers: What we learned in LeBron James’s homecoming

The recipe for success is there.

The Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t a good offensive team without Kevin Love. That’s not a secret. But, there is a path to offensive viability if they protect the ball and grab offensive rebounds.

Cleveland was able to stay in this game because of their second chance points and points off of turnovers. Tristan Thompson was able to grab 10 offensive boards as the Cavs were able to grab 26.6 percent of their misses. These extra offensive possessions led to 17 second chance points, per ESPN.

Furthermore, the Cleveland Cavaliers only turned the ball over three times compared to the Lakers’ 15 giveaways. The Cavs were able to turn this into a 12-point advantage as they were able to turn the Lakers’ 15 turnovers into 15 points.

Cleveland is a poor shooting team right now, but they can mitigate that a little by winning these two categories every night. The Cavs were able to do that Wednesday night and had a shot to steal a game against a much more talented opponent.