Donovan Mitchell dunks at the Wine and Gold Scrimmage on Saturday. ESPN Cleveland/Rob Lorenzo
Wine and Gold Scrimmage brings fun for all
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The Cleveland Cavaliers were back on the practice court, of sorts, on Saturday morning as the team held its annual Wine & Gold Scrimmage at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center. The team’s open practice took place in front of 7,139 fans and featured a number of different drills before the team scrimmaged for 20 minutes. Things wrapped up with a bit of an impromptu dunk contest.
The day itself started with the team going through a stretching routine before taking part of some defensive drills. There wasn’t much that was notable from these. For the most part, they were done without the ball being shot. It was more about guys finding themselves in the right places and communicating with the rest of the team while it was being done.
From there, the Cavs went into a scrimmage format that lasted roughly about 20 minutes. It was a boost up in intensity from the drills the team was doing prior, but a far cry from what we’ll see during the team’s next preseason game on Monday night.
There was some real basketball action, but ultimately, highlights of the day were Donovan Mitchell’s barrage of 3-pointers and rim rocking dunks by various members of the Cavs. There were moments during the scrimmage in which players were pulled off to do interviews with members of the Cavs in-house entertainment team, and young fans were brought into the court to take shots during the flow of the action. It’s hard to have much of a takeaway from the actual action. Once that was done, various members of the Cavs took turns in what was called a dunk contest.
More than anything Saturday was a day about fun with the fans than it was to focus on the actual basketball side of things. At this point in training camp, this type of event can serve as a nice reprieve from the everyday grind.
The Cavs did have nearly every healthy player participate in the scrimmage, with the exception being Kevin Love. Love, however, was dressed in practice attire and involved with his teammates throughout the day. Evan Mobley, who is out with a sprained right ankle was not dressed in practice gear, nor was Dylan Windler (ankle). The Cavs are very optimistic that Mobley will be available for opening night in Toronto on Oct. 19.
Following the team’s open practice, a few members of the Cavaliers made their way over to Progressive Field to watch the Cleveland Guardians square off with the Tampa Bay Rays. It’s unknown if everyone stayed through the entire 15-inning affair that saw the Guardians win their first postseason series in five years, but Mitchell, Windler, Dean Wade, and Isaac Okoro were all shown at one point on the scoreboard between innings.
The Cavs are off on Sunday but are set to take on the Philadelphia 76ers in their second preseason game on Monday evening at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
