Cavs: Even with winnable game at Wiz, opening slate is rough for J.B. Bickerstaff

The Cleveland Cavaliers play at the Washington Wizards on Friday, which should be a winnable game, but even so, new head coach J.B. Bickerstaff has a rough slate of games right away.

In their first game out of the All-Star break and first one with J.B. Bickerstaff as their new head coach, the Cleveland Cavaliers are on the road at the Washington Wizards. Bickerstaff took over for John Beilein this week, who for some reason, is still with the organization after he was re-assigned to an unspecified role.

Though Washington is a team the Cavs beat early on in the 2019-20 season and are only 20-33, star guard Bradley Beal is going to be extremely motivated to take the Wiz to the postseason after being an All-Star snub, and he and the uptempo Wiz, whom have a fairly impressive 13th in offensive rating, per NBA.com, will be a challenge coming out of the break.

More from King James Gospel

• 3 possible starting lineups for Cleveland Cavaliers in 2023-24
• The Cavaliers may have snagged a hidden gem in Craig Porter Jr.
• 4 players the Cavaliers should pursue in 2024 free agency
• 6 players Cavaliers might replace Jarrett Allen with by the trade deadline
• This stat is one to keep an eye on for Cavaliers’ Max Strus in years ahead

The Cavs did not have Andre Drummond in the last meeting between these two teams, but Cleveland got completely cooked by the Wizards in that one last month, of which KJG’s Corey Casey detailed, and the Wiz were scorching hot from three-point land.

The Cavaliers’ best bet in this game, especially with Ian Mahinmi and Thomas Bryant questionable due to reported right foot soreness, is to get Drummond/Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson/Larry Nance Jr. inside-out and/or high-low offense going.

Cleveland can’t let Beal, Rui Machimura, Isaiah Thomas and Jordan McRae turn this into a track meet. The Wiz have played at the league’s fourth-fastest pace this season, per NBA.com, and with this one on the road, Darius Garland needs to get the bigs going early and often for the Cavaliers.

To me, Drummond should be able to feast inside, but Washington’s role/bench piece pieces such as Troy Brown Jr., Isaac Bonga, Moritz Wagner and Shabazz Napier could be the difference.

Washington has the second-highest scoring bench in the league, and though teams are often galvanized by a head coaching change, I’d go with the Wiz here and also pick them to cover the spread below, courtesy of The Action Network. The overwhelming majority of public bets are coming in on the Wiz at The Action Network, too.

Washington is currently three games back from the Orlando Magic for the Eastern Conference’s eighth seed, for reference, and as Hoops Habit’s Collin Loring hit on, could definitely end up in the postseason.

Looking past Friday’s game for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are 14-40 thus far, the opening slate for Bickerstaff then includes a home-and-home with the Miami Heat. Miami, even perhaps without Tyler Herro (reported ankle injury), will be a huge test, and on Saturday, that meeting will be a road back-to-back, so it’s unclear if Love will play, I’d imagine.

Then on Wednesday, even with them being a completely different team on the road this season, Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers’ size will be an awful matchup for Collin Sexton and the Cavs.

From that point, Cleveland goes to New Orleans to take on Brandon Ingram, J.J. Redick, Jrue Holiday, Zion Williamson and the now high-octane New Orleans Pelicans.

Then from there, the Cavs come back home to play Malcolm Brogdon, Victor Oladipo (who is getting healthier), All-Star Domantas Sabonis and the Indiana Pacers, who are so hard-nosed and move the ball so well, as evidenced by them leading the league in assist-to-turnover ratio, as noted by NBA.com.

Following that one, Bickerstaff and the Cleveland Cavaliers play host to the Utah Jazz, a top four team in the better Western Conference, then one of the best overall teams in the league in the Boston Celtics, followed by Nikola Jokic and the ever-deep Denver Nuggets on March 7 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

Those first nine games, which feature seven of nine matchups against current playoff teams, are going to be a rude awakening for Bickerstaff, but for Cavs fans and ultimately Bickerstaff, it’s all about the growth of the young pieces.

Maybe we’ll see some Kevin Porter Jr. at the 1 in this slate of games at some point, though, which would be interesting.

Bickerstaff said that he wants to see that at some point in this closing stretch of the 2019-20 season, and at this point, that experiment couldn’t hurt with the team focused on the future, anyway.