Cleveland Cavaliers: Opener vs. CHA is a fun way to tip off 2020-21

The first half of the Cleveland Cavaliers 2020-21 schedule was released on Friday.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, along with other NBA teams, are currently conducting their training camp for leading into the upcoming season.

For the NBA in general, the 2020-21 campaign is set to begin on Dec. 22, which is right around the corner, clearly.

The upcoming season is going to be condensed a bit, though, with a 72-game, not 82-game slate, and for all teams, the league’s schedule was released on Friday for just the first half of the campaign this time.

That was given how the league will need to adjust accordingly regarding its’ situation with how the novel coronavirus pandemic will impact things, and the league will be releasing the second half of the schedule later on.

There will be no All-Star Game this season, for further context. Albeit in terms of the All-Star Break, if you will, that will reportedly be from March 5-10. When it comes to travel, there’s set to be some instances where teams will play at home/on the road against the same teams in consecutive games, via “series”-type concept to reduce travel if possible, given COVID-19 concerns.

Anyhow, as far as the Cavaliers, though, the beginning of their 2020-21 campaign will start with a matchup I’ll be especially looking forward to seeing. As you can see below in the Cavs schedule release, the Wine and Gold will play host to the Charlotte Hornets on Dec. 23 at 7 PM.

A few other notable games include Cleveland going to the seemingly much-improved Atlanta Hawks on Jan. 2 and the Cavs having a back-to-back series-type slate at the Washington Wizards on Jan. 17 and then on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 18. And in a somewhat odd schedule quirk, Cleveland faces Tristan Thompson and his now-Boston Celtics on the road on Jan. 24, and play host to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Jan. 25.

Anyhow, when it comes to fan attendance initially for the start of the 2020-21 season, though, it will be first limited, given COVID-19 restrictions from the state of Ohio, to only 300 fans in Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and extensive safety/social distancing measures will be exercised.

That was per a Cavs release and as h/t Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz, who noted that tickets “will initially be available to family and associates of players and coaches, Wine & Gold United members and team partners.”

That first game of the Cavs 2020-21 season should be a fun one to watch still, though.

The Cavaliers, who haven’t been in game action since March 10 because of them not having been an Orlando bubble team, in what was a close loss to the Chicago Bulls, will be quite honestly, a fun watch regardless. It’s been what’s seemed like 10 years, from my perspective, since the Wine and Gold were in game action.

This should be a fun way to tip off the upcoming season, too. Collin Sexton, who was Cleveland’s 2019-20 leading scorer with 20.8 points per outing, will get a chance to keep building on how he closed out last season, in what was quite a scoring tear.

Sexton averaged 25.5 points per outing post-All-Star break leading into the hiatus on a scorching 52.8 percent shooting clip, and he was showing growth as a passer, in particular, as well. He had a better 4.2 assists per contest in that stretch.

From there, Darius Garland will get his first chance at redemption after an up and down rookie campaign, too, but him clearly getting fully healthy/being able to work on his game immensely over what’s been an extended offseason will hopefully show early on, also.

In terms of the opponent, Cleveland going up against the likes of Hornets #3 overall pick LaMelo Ball, who has big-time potential as a primary playmaker with incredible passing feel/a tight handle, is something that will have me glued to this one.

Cleveland will need to account for the likes of Devonte’ Graham, who was a remarkable story last season, and had 18.2 points and 7.5 assists per outing, along with Terry Rozier, to go with Ball, for instance. Could we see some three-guard lineup matchups for stretches in this one?

Perhaps some instances with Garland, Sexton and Kevin Porter Jr. could play out with KPJ on the 6-foot-7 Ball at times. Hopefully, Porter, though, is cleared up regarding COVID-19/seemingly potential exposure and/or “other related” stuff in that realm, per a report on Friday, of which can you can view details here, before the season’s outset, anyway.

Moving along from the guards, I’d think we could very well see Cavs rookie #5 overall selection Isaac Okoro defending recent Charlotte sign-and-trade acquisition Gordon Hayward in primary coverage a decent amount.

That would be quite a “Welcome to the NBA” moment, but one in which Okoro can battle, along with against Miles Bridges, feasibly. Dylan Windler making his debut should be a notable thing to watch for as well.

It should be entertaining to see Kevin Love, Larry Nance Jr. and Andre Drummond get after it for much of this first matchup against impressive young 4 man PJ Washington, Cody Zeller (who is solid inside), recent re-signing Bismack Biyombo and/or perhaps rookie big Vernon Carey Jr.

Overall here, though, I’d imagine both sides could look to push the pace to some degree with their youngsters, and clearly, Ball loves to do that, along with Sexton at times.

It feels great that the 2020-21 season is on the horizon for the Cavaliers, at any rate, and to kick things off, this Cavs-Hornets matchup has the makings of a very entertaining one.