Game Night Observations: Cavs drop opener but Mitchell is as advertised

Danny Cunningham covers the Cavaliers for 850 ESPN Cleveland and TheLandOnDemand.com

The Donovan Mitchell era in Cleveland didn’t get off to the start that so many hopes it would on Wednesday night in Toronto. The Raptors outscored the Cavs 32 to 21 in the fourth quarter to win 108-105.

Mitchell was the best player on the floor, and the Cavaliers outscored the Raptors by 10 when he was on the court, but couldn’t survive the minutes that he was off it, thanks in part due to fellow All-Star point guard Darius Garland being knocked out of the game with an eye injury after Raptors forward Gary Trent Jr. caught him in the face making an attempt at a very unlikely steal in the backcourt in the second quarter.

Donovan Mitchell, Superstar.

When the Cavs traded for Mitchell in early September, the team was expecting a superstar in return for the plethora of draft picks and players it gave up. A superstar showed up on Wednesday night in Toronto.

Every moment that Mitchell spent on the floor was a moment in which he was the best player on it. As mentioned, the Cavs outscored the Raptors by 10 points during the 35 minutes that Mitchell was on the floor. That means during the 13 minutes of the game he sat, the Cavaliers were outscored by 13 points. Furthermore, the Cavs spent 6:02 of the second half with neither Mitchell nor Garland on the floor and the team was outscored by nine points in that stretch.

Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff had mentioned during the preseason that the plan was to always have one of Mitchell or Garland on the floor. At some point this season, there was sure to be a time when that wouldn’t be the case. The Cavaliers could not have anticipated it being the first night of the regular season.

It’s hard to throw any blame Mitchell’s way for this loss, he was fantastic on offense, tying a Cavaliers franchise record for most points in a team debut with 31 while also dishing out nine assists. In total, Mitchell scored or assisted on 52 of the team’s 105 points against and finished with a usage percentage of 34.2%. When he was out there, he carried the team the way a superstar needs to. On most nights, he’ll have substantial help from Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, and Garland, but that wasn’t the case on Wednesday as Garland only played 13 minutes, and Mobley was slowed down a little bit by the Raptors.

More often than not, the Cavaliers are going to have their best players play better than they did on Wednesday night, but Mitchell showed that even when others aren’t available or playing their best, he can carry the team against one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference.

Sloppy start

The first quarter for both teams got off to a bit of a rocky start. Neither team really had much working for the first 10 minutes or so, and it wasn’t until the final 90 seconds or so when the Raptors closed out the quarter on a 7-0 run.

After that, the Cavs settled in and played much better in the second and third quarters. In fact, Cleveland outscored Toronto 62-48 in the middle periods, but the Cavs didn’t start well enough and certainly didn’t finish well enough to earn a win on Wednesday night.

Physically beaten in the fourth

The Cavaliers did enter the fourth quarter with an 84-76 advantage over the Raptors, but Toronto made its first three 3-pointers – on three consecutive possessions – to begin to cut into that lead. The Cavs did respond to each of those made triples from the Raptors with a basket of their own, but all three makes for the Cavs were of the two-point variety. Even though things were working offensively, the Raptors were able to shave three points off that deficit.

That’s when Mitchell checked out, with the Cavs leading 90-85. By time he checked back in, the Cavs’ lead shrunk to 94-92, and the Raptors had unleashed a more physical brand of basketball to close things out. In the fourth quarter, the Cavs struggled to initiate things offensively due to significant on-ball pressure from the Raptors, turned the ball over five times compared to Toronto’s one, and were 0-of-8 from beyond the arc (compared to five makes from deep for Toronto).

The other thing that sticks out – and this is an issue that was not just during the fourth quarter – was Cleveland’s inability to limit the Raptors to just one look at the basket. Toronto collected 12 offensive rebounds and turned that into 18 second chance points. One of Cleveland’s mantras this preseason has been “win the scrap” and the team failed to do so on Wednesday night.

That’s where the Cavaliers lost this game.

Quick hitters

• Obviously, with the latest rebrand for the Cavaliers, Wednesday night meant the first look at new jerseys. The Cavs opted to go with their black “statement edition” uniforms in Toronto. The black and new version of gold the franchise is going with looks really great together. These were unquestionably an upgrade over any black uniform the team has ever won, especially the last two versions.

• Despite Mobley not having a great game overall by his standards, he certainly flashed at times. He had an awesome euro step in the first quarter and hit a spin move in the open floor in a way that not many people his size on the planet can complete.

• Allen and Mobley are going to once again be one of the most feared defensive duos in the league. There were looks the Raptors had on Wednesday night that would have been easy baskets against almost any other team, instead, Mobley and Allen collected a combined three blocks on the night, with each of them being highlight level plays.

• Bickerstaff had mentioned that the optimal size for his rotation is 10 guys. He did ultimately play 10 on Wednesday night, but the number was only nine before Garland left with the injury to his left eye. Raul Neto didn’t play in the first half. With the Raptors being a team that opts to play smaller, and often not having a traditional center on the floor, it’s easy to cut Robin Lopez out of the rotation. When the Cavs take on teams like Philadelphia and Minnesota that prominently feature big men, Lopez will potentially see some minutes at center.

• The Cavaliers continue their season on Saturday night in Chicago against the Bulls. The team will then begin its home portion of the season on Sunday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse against the Washington Wizards.