The NBA preseason is always pretty tough to get a reading on. Some teams use the games to gauge where they are at before regular season play. Other teams use the games to get their young players ready for the bright lights. This season head coach JB Bickerstaff and the Cavs are in the former group, as four of the five starters played 25-plus minutes in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ second preseason game.
It was the second matchup with the 76ers in under a week, and the result was the same as the first game, a loss. The Cavaliers got off to a slow start and were trying to mount a comeback the entire game. Philadelphia guard Tyrese Maxey started 3-3 from deep, leading the 76ers to a 13-point lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the 76ers on Monday night in their second preseason game. Who stood out as good and bad from the Cavs’ loss last night?
From there the Cavs played from behind, eventually falling 113-97. Center Jarrett Allen paced the Cavs, finishing with 19 points and 12 rebounds, while shooting 7-for-15 from the field. Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell combined to score 28 points, as they looked to be getting more familiar with each other by the end of the game.
We saw some good and some bad on Monday night, so let’s get into who impressed us and who left us wanting a bit more by the end of the game.
One Stud from Cavs’ loss to 76ers: Jarrett Allen
If we’re being honest, nobody really played all that well last night. With so many question marks around the wing situation, it was a bit disappointing to see Dean Wade, Caris LeVert, Lamar Stevens, Cedi Osman, and Isaac Okoro combine to shoot 11-of-31 from the field last night. However, I digress. The one Cavalier player who did look good last night was center Jarrett Allen.
The big man, who missed the latter part of the 2021-2022 season with a broken finger, put up 19 points to go along with 12 rebounds. On top of that, he had one block and shot 5-for-6 from the free-throw line. It’s becoming clear that Allen is very good at moving and finding open spots around the basket.
In all reality, it might be Jarrett Allen who benefits the most from the Donovan Mitchell trade. On the first Cavalier possession of the game, Allen and Garland ran a pick and roll to perfection, ending with Allen finishing a lob from DG. On their second scoring possession, LeVert drove right to the rim, only to find a wide-open Allen for another bucket. The spacing provided by opponents sticking close to Mitchell is a big man’s dream. As the team gets more comfortable with each other, Allen should expect wide-open opportunities like he saw last night, a lot more this season.
One Dud from Cavs’ loss to 76ers: Turnovers and Slow Starts
Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell are two of the most exciting young guards in the NBA. However, with that label comes some drawbacks. Last night the two combined to have nine turnovers out of the team’s 16. It is only the preseason, but the turnovers are alarming. Hopefully, this was just a bad game for the two lead guards, considering in the first matchup with the 76ers they only had three turnovers between both of them.
While turnovers could be an important issue heading into the season, slow starts are also a problem that can plague good teams. How Tyrese Maxey was left open three possessions in a row on the three-point line is something Bickerstaff will have to fix. Yes, the Cavaliers are a much-improved team, but with how good the Eastern Conference is, they can’t afford to start games slowly. I don’t anticipate this being a major problem going forward, but it’s something to look out for.
Overall it wasn’t the best game from the Cavs last night. However, they were missing what could be the focal point of the defense in Evan Mobley. Mobley will be sidelined for a couple more days with an ankle injury. Once the team has Mobley back in the starting lineup, we should get a better idea of how the Cavaliers are actually going to look this season.