A poor shooting performance led to the Cleveland Cavaliers dropping thier opening game of the season to the Orlando Magic by a score of 94-85.
It is hard to win in the NBA when a team as a whole struggles to shoot. The Cleveland Cavaliers only converted 33 of 89 field goal attempts (37.1%) in their opening night loss to the Orlando Magic. Making less than 40% of their shots in a game very rarely leads to a win. Wednesday was no exception.
Collin Sexton made five of 15 attempts on the night, totaling 16 points. The story is ineffectiveness from inside the three-point line. Sexton made three of eight three-point attempts. This means that only two of seven two-point attempts went in. This is not a reason to a panic, but it is a disappointing first outing from someone that is expected to take a big step forward.
Jordan Clarkson struggled in the worst way. The Cavaliers sixth man had an abysmal night from the field (2-12 overall 0-5 from three-point range). Clarkson is someone that the Cavaliers will lean on to lead their second unit. Yes, Clarkson struggled but this should not be the norm for him moving forward.
Kevin Porter Jr. did not have a good start to his NBA career. Porter when 0-6 in 17 minutes of play. Like Collin Sexton, there is no reason to panic with Porter. Young players typically take some time to get going, Sexton and Porter are no exception.
Some Cavaliers performed better than others
Tristan Thompson had the best shooting night out of all the Cavaliers starters. Thompson made eight of his 11 field goal attempts, finishing with 16 points. Thompson also grabbed 11 rebounds, two were on the offensive end of the court.
Speaking of good rebounding performances, Kevin Love had a good night on the boards. This sort of made up for only going 4-10 from the field. Love corralled 18 rebounds (17 defensive) and led both teams in rebounds.
Cedi Osman was the only Cavaliers player to finish with a plus in plus/minus (6), Tristan Thompson finished with zero while all others finished with a negative in this category. Osman scored 13 points thanks to making half of his three-point attempts (6).
Is one game a reason to have some concern about the Cavaliers season? Absolutely not. There are 81 more games to play. There were times when the Cavaliers looked like a competent team. The times that they didn’t is when they fell behind and could not keep up with the Magic.
