Three takeaways from the Cavaliers’ first week of 2020-21

The Cleveland Cavaliers started their 2020-21 regular season perfect this past week.

The Cleveland Cavaliers successfully kicked off their first week of the regular season going 3-0.

The first of which was a 121-114 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday and the second was a 128-119 win over the Detroit Pistons on Saturday after going into double overtime.

They then wrapped up the third with an impressive win over the Philadelphia 76ers, winning 118-94. Albeit Joel Embiid was out in that one, but Cleveland was still having everything clicking.

It was great to watch and there were plenty of takeaways from the Cavaliers’ first week.

Here, we’ll get into three of those takeaways that jumped out for the Cavs in 2020-21 Week #1.

The first has to do with the Darius Garland–Collin Sexton pairing.

#1: The Cavs’ Sexton-Garland duo is what we had hoped for, so far

Both guards have started the season off with terrific performances in every game, and look more and more like how the Cavs front office pictured them together when they paired them.

They’ve been consistent in running the offense and have been playing very effectively in their respective ways together.

Garland has been able to find a great rhythm and make key plays down the stretch as you saw in the Pistons game. He’s currently averaging 19.0 points and an outstanding 8.3 assists per game.

Creating for others and facilitating was necessary for this offense to run smoothly and he has embraced that role, as KJG’s Tyler Shelt was looking to see from him this season, as far as one of his crucial areas for Garland to hone in on.

While Garland has been on-point with balancing the offense and creating for others, Sexton has been at the forefront as the primary scorer and seems to have picked up where he left off to end the past season.

He’s averaging 27.0 points a game and has hit six of his nine three-point attempts in the three games. Sexton’s passing ability has also improved from the looks of it. This has aided his fit and has helped both guards fully utilize their abilities.

If there was one thing I wanted to see in the first week of play, seeing Garland show improvement and Sexton’s continued dominance is something I wanted to see the most.

#2: Andre Drummond’s play for the Cavs has been encouraging, in every way

Andre Drummond has been playing his role great, well, his role at least.

He wasn’t kidding about wanting to be the team’s “defensive anchor,” via Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, and has been averaging 20.3 points, 14.7 rebounds, 4.0 assists (albeit 3.3 turnovers), 2.7 steals and 1.7 blocks.

His fit offensively has seemed out of sorts at times and it seems as if he may be trying to do too much at once, but is still putting up big numbers scoring.

Defensively he has been huge and had two massive stops on defense off of switches onto Derrick Rose down the stretch of the Pistons game that were both difference-makers for the team.

This fit could remain questionable, but his play has been encouraging and this only helps the team going forward no matter what they chose to do with him. Drummond could very well appear to be an expiring trade piece for Cleveland; we’ll see if he can keep making an impact, though.

#3: J.B. Bickerstaff’s difference for the Cavs cannot be overstated

While Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman has been preaching this new culture the team needed for years now, Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff seems to be the right man to implement it. The Cavs have been playing with high energy and just playing harder with him in that head coach role.

He’s now 8-6 as head coach, and even in the losses, the team looked like they have been able to kick out some bad habits. This was on full display in the double-overtime win over the Pistons.

The team was down by as many as nine in the first overtime. J.B. kept their heads in the game and they were able to come back and force the second overtime where they were able to pull away.

The Cavs have been playing better defensively and have been making the extra effort plays they lacked, for the most part, the past two seasons. This new culture has been bought into by the players.

Collin Sexton has strongly benefited from Bickerstaff’s offense as well, though, in particular. After picking up where he left off from last season, it’s safe to say how Bickerstaff likes to use pick-and-roll has played into that some, in relation to the timing of when using it, but the offensive flow has aided Sexton it seems, too.

The difference Bickerstaff has made is clear and it’s great to see it transition into the following season following a huge break from play for the team.