Cleveland Cavaliers: 3 takeaways from 2018-19 season opener

1. They have some maturing to do

In ways both good and bad, the Cleveland Cavaliers played like a young team on Wednesday night. Fourteen offensive rebounds is nothing to raise your nose at. The energy out of the gate, especially on the road, was impressive.

Coach Lue praised the team’s determination even after falling behind by 20 points. He also noted the errors, saying the squad had too many “bad mistakes” in his postgame press conference:

Cleveland committed 16 turnovers, including three head scratchers in a three-minute stretch towards the end of the first half. Sam Dekker traveled with 4:05 left to go in the second quarter. Less than 20 seconds later, Thompson lost the ball out of bounds. Then, with 1:46 left in the half, Collin Sexton committed a turnover.

The Raptors pressed their lead from seven points to 13 during that stretch entering halftime. Toronto only outscored the Cavs by a point in the second half, winning by 14. Sans that three-minute, mistake-filled stretch, Cleveland kind of kept it close against an Eastern Conference powerhouse.

Cleveland also settled for too many mid-range jump shots, reflected in its 44.1 effective field goal percentage for the night. The collective unit also struggled to adjust to Kawhi Leonard.

Turnovers, poor shot selection and an inability to adjust defensively are all common characteristics of young teams. The Cavs will want to learn from their mistakes while keeping up the energy.