Why Patience is Needed For Cavaliers, Following Opening Night Loss to Knicks

There won't be a torrid, 15-0 start to the season this year for the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

On Wednesday night, the wine and gold began the 2024-25 campaign with a 119-111 loss to the New York Knicks, in what many considered by many to be a preview of the Eastern Conference Finals next spring. 

That may come to fruition, but on opening night, the best work to describe the Cavs was one head coach Kenny Atkinson used to describe his team after their preseason finale a week ago. 

"We confirmed clunkiness tonight," Atkinson said after the loss. 

The Cavs just didn't quite look like themselves. Or at lwast the version of themselves that blazed through the Eastern Conference a year ago to the beat of 64 wins and earned the No. 1 seed in the conference at seasons end. 

Cleveland got off to a slow start, in the first half, it shot just 42% from the floor, were out rebounded by more than 10 and fell behind New York by more than 17 points. At times the offense just felt stuck in the mud. It comes with the territory as Atkinson is trying to find the right lineup concoctions for his team, particularly with some new faces and young players being added into the rotation. 

"I realize, we got five new guys in the rotation," Atkinson explained. "How is that all going to fit? How's the rotation? We had a set rotation to begin with. We went off script real quick, just because I started to feel what groups were working better with others. So that's the most important thing—finding the fit with lineups."

Those things will work themselves out as time goes on. Last year's fast and furious start to the season probably set some unrealistic expectations for the Cavs.

It also didn't help that a trio of key pieces were absent in Darius Garland, De'Andre Hunter and Max Strus. New vets like Lonzo Ball and Larry Nance Jr. tried to find their footing. Ball was just one-of-seven from the floor though, while adding four rebounds and six assists. Nance Jr. was a much more efficient four-of-seven, including going two-for-two from three and grabbing six rebounds. 

"It's new and it's different, but that's what it's gonna take," star gaurd Donovan Mitchell said. "Just figuring this thing out and understanding that it's a long regular season. Obviously we have our main guys out, but hey, we're throwing our young guys in the fire. I think they did a really good job of handling that." 

The young guys were a bright spot on the roster Wednesday. Second-year guard Jaylon Tyson made two of his four shot attempts, including a three, adding two boards and an assist. Foul trouble unfortunately limited him to just 20 minutes despite starting the game. 

Rookie Tyrese Proctor only made two shots but they were big ones. The first was a three pointer with just under five minutes left in the third quarter, that cut the Knicks lead to just four, 79-75, as the Cavs were making a run in the second half. The second came in the early stages of the fourth, and actually gave them a temporary lead 89-87. 

"I just don't want everybody to be like, 'Oh, last year was just X, Y, and Z.' Like, it's different, and we're just gonna go ahead and take it game-by-game," said Mitchell. "There's things we can work on, with that being said, and things we as an individual... we didn't box out certain times, fouling three-point shooters, little things like that. But overall, the way we played, I'm not upset. It's just like, hey, continue to build and we'll be good.  

Mitchell admitted to trying to facilitate for his teammates more in the first half when things looked their worst. Eventually, he had to assert himself more to help get his team back in the game. The third quarter was his time to shine, as Mitchell dropped 21 of his 31 points in that stanza alone. It was a brilliant offensive explosion, but also came at the expense of star-in-the-making Evan Mobley.

In the first half, Mobley took about 28% of the Cavs shots and had 16 points, while Mitchell took about 15% and had eight. In the second half, that flipped with Mitchell taking a whopping 41% of Cleveland's shots and scoring 23. Mobley settled for 12% of the the team's shots, and scored only six points. 

It was proof that even Cleveland's two key stars are still figuring things out."It's that balance, said Mitchell.

"This is our first game, right? Just figuring that out. I think for us, me and him, just communicating. I think understanding that hey, especially now, I think that we're having this situation now with DG, Max and Dre out. But it's not gonna be perfect.

"Understanding like, 'Hey what do you want to run?' 'Are you tired? Okay cool, I'll come here.' Just figuring that out. I think DG and I have a good back-and-forth with that, but I think now it's Evan and my turn to figure that out." 

Atkinson feels he can help smooth out the dynamics between Mobley and Mitchell as well. 

"We're obviously giving Evan a lot of freedom, right?," he said. "I think, we are kind of giving him the green light to make plays, and there's going to be growing pains with that. Don, I think, we have to rely heavily on him tonight. I'd like to rely less on him, but I got to figure it out with this group—what that looks like."

It's not lost on Mobley how important his development is to the Cavaliers success this season. He's confident the push and pull between himself and Mitchell will work itself out. It's just going to take some time.

"We're in a good spot and we are going to be a good team," he said. "That's what I think. Definitely early. Learning each other more and more. But all the pieces that we do have and that are out and also that are on the floor tonight, I feel like it was a good job.”

Rome wasn't built in a day. And neither is a championship caliber team in the NBA. If Wednesday revealed anything about this iteration of the Cavs, it's that exercising some patience key. 

It wasn't about being a well oiled machine on opening night in October. It's about being that in April, May and June.