Cleveland Cavaliers studs and duds after opening night loss vs Magic

The Cleveland Cavaliers lost their opener to the Orlando Magic, revealing studs and duds as long season waits the Wine & Gold.

Well, there’s only 81 more games left. OK, perhaps that’s being a little rough because while the Cleveland Cavaliers are going to be bad, they may at times, at the very least, be entertaining.

They tried to keep their fans interested, trailing by just six entering the fourth quarter. Cleveland had trailed by 20 at one point.

Hopes of a comeback vanished as Cleveland got sloppy in the fourth, resulting in a 94-85 victory for the Orlando Magic.

There’s going to be a lot of bad to wallow in this season, but there will be some good, as well. With that said, let’s get into the studs and duds from the opening night loss at Orlando’s Amway Center.

Studs

Tristan Thompson had 16 points. That’s good, except he was tied for the team lead in scoring. You don’t need to be a basketball savant to know that TT shouldn’t be your team’s leading scorer, but that’s the 2019-2020 Cavaliers. This team is leaning heavily on younger players and some nights, they’re just not going to have it.

2. Collin Sexton was 5-of-15 from the field and 3-of-8 from behind the arc. By no means was this a great game, but if Sexton didn’t tally 16 for the night, imagine how big the margin of defeat would’ve been.

3. Darius Garland had a solid rookie outing, scoring eight points and dishing out five assists. One of those dimes was spectacular. He committed three turnovers, which will be something to watch moving forward.

Garland was 2-of-4 from 3-point range, knocking down his first two tries. This was Garland’s first game that meant something in almost a year. He got his feat wet and contributed to the stat book. Hopefully, it gets better next time, that’s all Cavs fans can hope for.

Duds

1. Jordan Clarkson: The Cavs weren’t trying to pay homage to Mike Fratello by scoring 85 points, rather, they didn’t get buckets from guys who should be getting buckets. Kevin Love had just 11 points. He needs to be in the 17-20 range.

The other guy who let the Cavs down was Clarkson, who was an abysmal 2-of-12 from the field an 0-5 from downtown. The guy only played 18 minutes, but carried a -12 in the +/- department.

2. Kevin Porter Jr.: Porter had two assists, one of which, was really smooth, but he was 0-6 from the field in his NBA debut. Not something you’d like to remember.

3. Kevin Love: In the Thompson blurb, I critiqued the Cavs for being young, which is one reason a guy known for rebounding could lead the team in scoring. The other reason? Love. Love had 11 points  and was 0-1 from 3-point territory.  He was -15 in the +/- department. He did have 18 rebounds (17 coming on defense), but there were times he looked slow.

The Cavs return home to christen the newly named Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse against the Pacers Oct. 26.