Missing two key starters, the Cavs come out flat and get routed by the Raptors, 101-81, at Toronto.
View full sizeThere is nothing good to watch from the bench as the Cavaliers are routed by the Raptors on Friday in Toronto."I was already angry," he admitted as the Cavs dropped to 1-1 with a thunk. "I already got over that. Now I'm a little bit more reserved.
"I do understand that it is a process. It's only the second game of the season. We still have a long way to go."
Make that a long, long way to go. There was almost nothing positive for the Cavs to take out of this game, which felt much worse than a 20-point loss. They were without starting center Anderson Varejao, who stayed in Cleveland to be with his father after heart surgery, and starting point guard Mo Williams, held out for the second straight game as a precautionary measure to make sure his groin injury is fully healed.
As a result, the young team suffered some major growing pains -- but all the injuries were self-inflicted.
The Cavaliers came out flat and never got into a rhythm offensively. They shot 38.1 percent for the game (32-of-84) with 19 turnovers. The ball movement stopped, and guys settled for jumpers and one-on-one plays.
The starters totaled 29 points. Ramon Sessions, starting for Williams, struggled mightily, making just 1 of 10 shots with five turnovers. Forward J.J. Hickson was in foul trouble most of the night and played just 18:31.
Meanwhile, they allowed the Raptors to shoot 47.6 percent (39-of-82), run off 25 fast-break points and dominate the boards, 46-33.
With so much focus on the Cavs new Princeton offense, Scott was banking on them continuing their traditionally strong defensive focus. But that didn't happen Friday night.
"What we've been talking about all season long, all preseason and all training camp is defending, and tonight we didn't do a very good job," Scott admitted. "We didn't trust each other, didn't play together on the defensive end as well as the offensive end.
"But our defense has to be our staple, and that's something we failed to do tonight."
There was no turning point in the game, because the Cavs were never in it.
Toronto, which lost its home opener Wednesday, clearly was interested in making a better impression, and the Raptors did so. Andrea Bargnani, who always gives the Cavs trouble, finished with 20 points, while the always-tough Reggie Evans added 14 boards.
The fact the Cavs put up little resistance made it that much easier.
"I thought they outplayed us," Scott said. "I thought they played harder than we did. I thought they wanted it a whole lot more than we did.
"I was hoping that because we have such a young team we would take it to the next level after a good win Wednesday night. But we went backward. We seemed like the fat cats and they seemed like a team out there really trying to get a win. It looked like we won the other day and they lost. You could tell the team that really wanted to win tonight -- and that was them."
Sessions said Scott did not raise his voice to the team after the game.
"He didn't come in yelling because he knew we knew," Sessions said. "It was one of those nights. We shot ourselves in the foot. We just took a step backward. We've just got to get back at it [tonight]."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: mschmitt@plaind.com, 216-999-4668