This changes everything we thought about the Cavs...

This changes everything we thought about the Cavs. The Cavs blew a 29-point lead against the 76ers in their opening game, and I'm going to tell you why that means you should be thrilled and super excited about the Cavs' season ahead. Yes, we blew the 29-point halftime lead, but that first half was about as perfect as it could get on both ends of the floor for the Cavs. They shut down Philadelphia, they shut down their offense with all those all-stars and star-studded lineup, and offensively, we did everything right. We got to the rim, we knocked down our three-pointers, Our offense looked perfect in that first half, and if you would have told me that that was game number 60 of the NBA season and not opening night from that first half, I would have believed you. We looked lights out perfect. Obviously, Philadelphia didn't play their best in that first half, and they came out strong in the second half, but boy, we looked damn good in that first half, and I think that that's our potential, right? That's what we can be, and it's the first game of the season. There's going to be turnovers. This is going to be sloppy play. And obviously that caught up to us in the second half. But this was the first game of the NBA season. There's 82 games. We have 81 more to get it right before the playoffs. And if we can just play that first half and put together two full halves, I have no worries that we're going to be able to do that later on in the season. And I don't know how soon it's going to be. I don't know when we're going to be able to see that full product and put it all together for a full game, a full 48 minutes. But we looked so good in that first half, and I am thrilled. And let's dive into it. I mean, this guy, Donovan Mitchell, how about the game he played? He played that first game like he's trying to win MVP. He came out and played like Donovan Mitchell. He played like he was 60 games into the season. He played like it was a playoff game, right? uh and this is what he he put up uh against philadelphia 32 points 10 rebounds a double double and how about the efficiency that's what i want to highlight here 11 of 19 from the field 50% from 3, 8 for 11 from the free throw line obviously he missed those those pair of free throws late and you obviously want to see him knock those down but Donovan Mitchell played like the leader he was he played like the best player on the floor at times uh he played lights out he's a scorer through and through and we saw why he's a leader why he's he's the head of the snake for our offense uh and he was he was fantastic um but i want to shout out both our all-star guards and that combo of of Mitchell and Harden both those players came came out and started the game with a scoring mindset they got downhill and they wanted to attack the rim Donovan Mitchell his first I don't recall offhand but it seems like his first five to six shots came from in the paint whether they were floaters layups drawing contact he was seeking out contact and so was Harden both those guys uh they didn't just settle for three pointers to start the game they went downhill looking for contact trying to get to the rim uh and Harden had had a really great game in my opinion too um not the scoring numbers obviously aren't there that uh Mitchell had but I liked seeing his mindset too to start the game and and he was attacking 16 points three boards five assists uh the shooting numbers not as great as Mitchell's five at 12 but still three for six 50 from three and got to the free throw line a couple times uh but he he was to start the game both those guys uh played great getting downhill trying to draw contact obviously that didn't translate in the second half that was only for the first half but like i like i said if we can put that full game together I mean the the sky's the limit for for this Cavs team uh and there were some pleasant surprises too Mitchell and Harden we know what those guys are gonna bring to the table we know they're elite we know they're all-stars we know what they're capable of but I was really happy to see uh Evan Mobley and he looked confident uh playing basketball uh yesterday in Philadelphia I mean, he was stepping into threes with confidence. He was getting to the free throw line. I know in my last video, I talked about him getting to the free throw line and putting last season's free throw issues behind him. He got to the free throw line, went three for three in this game, which is huge for his confidence. He was one for four from three, obviously. But every shot he took was a good look. He stepped into it with confidence. He looked good. He scored at all three levels in the post with layups and dunks. he scored uh he had a couple mid-range shots that that was awesome to see because that in the past hasn't been a really strong part of his game and then he's stepping out and he knocked down one three but just seeing him shoot with confidence is so great because last season he didn't have that mindset and last night he played with confidence 18 points eight boards two assists seven of thirteen from the field uh over 50 is fantastic and he played i i thought mobley was was really great and and not to mention i've only talked about his offense offensive uh part of the game he played great defensively too so evan mobley uh shout out to him i thought he played really well um and also our defense i think this Cavs team matches up really well against the 76ers you saw for a first half we shut down their offense this is this team with tyrese maxi jaylen brown lebron james vj edgecombe joel embiid i i loved our defense we matched up so well we have uh we can throw different looks at Embiid with Allen and Mobley and Embiid really struggled to score uh from the post and that was where that was their first option is when they started the game they wanted to get the ball down low to Embiid and and his his spots in the short corner on the elbow on the block and Jared Allen started off with the assignment and he he was lights out defensively Jared Allen had a really great game, too, particularly in the first half. And then Evan Mobley switched on to him when Allen was on the bench. And both those guys give him different looks, different types of defenders. And I thought we played great defense on Embiid. LeBron's obviously going to do what he does with passing the ball and scoring occasionally. Maxie's one of my favorite players in the league. And he's so athletic and quick and a fantastic scorer. Jalen Brown, I thought we did a really great job against Jalen Brown, too. We forced him to do a lot of difficult shots. That's how you got to play Jalen Brown. You know he's going to take those mid-range shots, but if you get a hand up and you're contesting, there's nothing else you can do. So I thought our defense and our matchups, the way we played, and the coaching in that first half was really, really great. And I just can't wait to see this product for a full 48 minutes. It's game one. I am not worried at all that we blew a 29-point lead. I don't care. It's game one. And moving forward, I don't think that we're going to blow another lead like that for the rest of the season. um and we just had you know game one game one jitters right in that second half so uh but another player that I was super impressed with was Mario Hezonja he was the biggest unknown coming into this season for the Cavs what is this guy's from Europe right he's an MVP what how is he going to translate or we're not paying him a lot are we expecting him to to have a an important role like What is the deal with Mario Hezonja? And he stepped up, showed up, and played really great basketball yesterday. Ten points, three boards, two assists, two steals and a block. And I thought the biggest thing that stood out to me was his defense. I mean, he's a big guy, a big body. Plays kind of like a stretch, not really even a stretch forward, just like a true power forward role. And the one thing that obviously stands out here is three-point shooting. I didn't watch a ton of tape, if any at all, of Hazonia in Europe. So his shot didn't look great. Obviously, he was 0 for 5. Things weren't falling from the outside. But that's the one thing that I say that Hazonia can bring to the table and improve on is his outside shooting and knock down some threes. Because other than that, his role off the bench, he knew his role. And I think everybody on this Cavs team knows their role. I mean, Sam Merrill, Jalen Tyson, Mario Hazonia, everybody who came in off the bench played really great basketball. Everybody complimented each other. And that's something that we have right now that Philadelphia doesn't really have at this point. They don't really know all their roles, like who's going to, you know, get the ball in crunch time. Whose hands is it going to be? They have a lot of stuff to figure out here as the season goes on. On our side of things, everything really stays the same from last season. Everybody still has the same role. Everybody kind of stays the same. We didn't really bring anybody in that really changes the playing style. Obviously, Peyton Watson, and I'll get to him in a second, talk about his game. That changes things up a little bit, but not really, because he's just filling the void that Max Strus had, really, as a starter. Obviously, they're different players, but Watson's just a great defender. And I just loved his zone and how he complimented everybody else coming off the bench, and he really knew his role. And he made some tough bank shots, too, that I was really impressed with. He could go down there in the post and score. And he's some tough, fading bank shots. His 10 points were not an easy 10 points. So I loved his game and everything that he brought to the table. And I'm looking forward to seeing him play more as the season goes on, too. Now, the one negative, really, outside of us losing the game and blowing the lead, that's obviously a negative. But the other negative that I had was Peyton Watson's performance. It's his first game as a Cav. I understand it's excusable, right? It's totally fine. But he was the one Cav that looked out of place. He didn't have confidence. He didn't look like he understood his role. And one thing that's always going to happen is your defense is always going to be there. Your defense is always going to show up. And I want to shout out Peyton Watson. His primary matchup to start the game, we had him on Tyrese Maxey. Like a 6'8 guy, lengthy, athletic. That doesn't say, I can't speak enough how much that means to what the Cavs organization and our coaching staff and Atkinson thinks about Watson's defensive ability that we go ahead and put him out on arguably the best scorer on the floor last night, Tyrese Maxey, to guard him to start the game. I think that doesn't say enough about Watson's motor, his defense, and what he means to this team. Now, on the other hand, I mean, the numbers kind of speak for themselves. he had a a rough rough outing uh offensively just his shot selection he didn't look comfortable obviously 0 for 3 uh from three-point land and five turnovers a lot of those coming in the second half when the script really flipped um but i i just i think he's gonna figure it out right it just it's just gonna take some time get give him 20 even 30 games like he's gonna figure it out as long as he's bringing what he brought last night on the defensive uh end of the floor we're gonna to have no problems because the scoring is going to come from other guys we got Mobley Allen Harden Mitchell we saw all those guys that really without Watson scoring we were competing with a 76ers team with a hundred and fifty all-stars on their roster and we we had no problems right so imagine if we get Peyton Watson's offensive productivity where he's averaging 15 to 20 points a game maybe later on in the season that is gonna do light years for for our offense in this team we're going to be such a better basketball team once Peyton Watson comes along and like I said it's only a matter of time this was game one of 82 games i'm not worried at all now i want to to talk about obviously it was a tale of two halves right so what changed from from from the first half to the second half and yeah it was a lot right a lot changed so we shot 51 percent from the field compared to to philadelphia's 41 percent philadelphia had 15 turnovers compared to our six turnovers in the first half. So we were forcing Philadelphia into turnovers. Some of them were forced. Some of them were unforced. But our defense was just really, really great. I love seeing the product that we put on the floor. On defense, we really shut them down. And then you look at the second half, right? We had 15 turnovers, and Philadelphia only had two. So that brings the total to 21 turnovers for us in the game, and Philadelphia only had 17. So they really figured it out, starting taking care of the ball in the second half and then shooting percentages Philadelphia shot 50 percent in the second half and we shot uh 37 so it was really just we flipped a switch right Philadelphia flipped a switch they turn it on and it caused us some problems because this this was a team that already played they already beat the defending NBA champions New York Knicks um in the Garden that's not an easy opening game but they did it right so they had the experience uh together and we did not and that's ultimately what it came down to in the second half but if you just look at look up the box score and look at the full game stats we're almost identical both teams almost shot the same percentage rebounds assists everything in the stat sheet for team stats is almost identical and it really came down to just you know the 76ers played a little bit better in that second half than we did we played in the first half and that's totally understandable this is our first game of the season and Payton Watson's a new piece and we got to figure it out are you concerned after the Cavs blow that lead on opening night yes how do you lose that right that's insane you lose 29 point lead at halftime uh it made nba history right uh or or are you like me where there were so many positive takeaways from that first half uh that that you're you're looking forward to the rest of the season i know i'm looking forward to the rest of the season uh We played really great, and I'm looking forward to our home opener against the Nets and the rest of the season because I think we are a contender, and I think we looked really, really great for that first half. So thanks for watching. If you're not already subscribed to Cavs Digest, please subscribe. And as always, go Cavs.