Cleveland Cavaliers: 3 takeaways from 2017-18 season opener

2. LeBron James is still pretty good at basketball

On a night he was listed as questionable to play due to a sprained left ankle, LeBron James managed to shine the brightest in front of a national audience for the Cavaliers.

Logging in a game-high 41 minutes, while nearly posting a triple-double stat line for the second consecutive season opener, the 32-year-old superstar hit several critical shots and set up his teammates down the stretch to help Cleveland pull out the win at home.

"“For a guy who has been out of training camp to come back and play those minutes that he played, hit the shots he did — we lean on him,” Dwyane Wade said to ESPN‘s Dave McMenamin. “We’re going to depend upon him and this is why he is one of the greatest to ever do it. Not many people can do what he’s done.”"

Throughout the evening, James never appeared to favor the injury which nagged him throughout training camp, saving his best for last — despite barely getting the opportunity to play with eight new faces for most of the preseason.

While it might not have been his greatest performance, he was able to find a way to pick up his game up enough to make all of the big plays, one of which was a nasty chase-down block against Terry Rozier that proved to be vital in the game’s final frame.

James might not have his conditioning to the level he wants it to be at. However, his dedication and determination to get there cannot be call into question, as the man known as the King appears to be more hell-bent than ever before to book yet another trip to the NBA Finals.