Washington (0-1) 84 Cleveland (1-0) 94:
It was a common joke to say, Cleveland is first in the NBA after this game was over. As it may seem funny, Cleveland is still not a bad team. The game may have been a little different if Wall and Nene would have been able to suit up, but at one point Cleveland was up 16 in the third quarter and cruising. Minus the part where they let them slide back into the game, but I still personally feel the Cavs would have been better than a healthy Wizards squad.
For Washington: You first are going to have to look at Price and Booker shooting a combined 4-22 from the field. Both either were asked to do too much, or tried to do too much as starters. Price really isn't cut out for the position he was in last night, and going 2-9 from three showed. Both Price and Pargo will need to step up their game for being Point Guards, as they combined for 9 assists. They looked much worse as facilitates though than the 9 assists would lead on, but on the positive note 2 total turnovers isn't awful either. Bradley Beal looked pretty good in the first quarter shooting, posting a 2-4 FG and 2-2 3pt FG shooting. The transition 3 he hit in the first quarter was very nice looking, anyone who watched that shot saw Beal's potential from deep. He went 0-4 the rest of the game though, and didn't look ready for the amount of scoring and injured Wizards team would need from him. Jordan Crawford's shot went missing too, as he went 4-13 and 0-6.
There were some shining lights to this game however. Okafor looked like a good fit. He didn't play offense particularly well, but Okafor did grab 7 boards and blocked 4 shots. His role with the team will look much nicer on a healthy Wizards team, but played pretty good post defense in the beginning. Jan Vesely also was a positive. He didn't blow up the score board with huge numbers, but he put in 21 effective minutes. He shot 3-4, grabbed 4 rebounds, and got a block. If Vesely can play like that when the team has all of his players back, he will look very good in a smaller role. Reclamation project Earl Barron posted a line of 8 points, 4-6 FG, 8 reb, 1 steal, 1 block, and 0 turnovers. If he can play like that consistently than the Wizards got a steal. Overall, the team biggest plus is they weren't healthy. They can potentially play much better than this.
For Cleveland: Well, there were a lot of good performances across the board for the Cavaliers. Kyrie put up 29 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. Varejao put up a very impressive 9, 23!!!, and 9. That stat line also featured 12 offensive rebounds, which is just monstrous. Varejao was 1 of 8 players to post 10 or more offensive rebounds on the team's first game in NBA history. Tristan Thompson had a double-double, and looked like he might of progressed as a player. Waiters put up 17 and out-dueled Beal, but at the same time he shot 43% and turned the ball over 3 times. Not awful, but the consensus vibe on Waiters is that his game isn't exactly efficient. Waiters was 3-8 at the rim, 1-1 mid range, and 2-5 from deep. The most exciting idea around this is the fact he can very easily shoot better than 37.5% at the rim. Waiters was very good breaking down his man off the dribble, but had a hard time putting in his layups. Waiters went too much for the highlight reel finish in my opinion. If he could focus more on finishing the play and contort his body a little less on the layups he would of finished more. I am not sure if maybe in his first game he felt like NBA shot blockers were going to stop him so he was a finishing a little weak, or legitimately felt like some of the moves he tried to pull off were good ideas. We will see going forward with this.
As for negatives for the Cavs, there really isn't too much. C.J. Miles didn't play great, but I see him being better over the course of the year. Luke Walton played pretty poorly, but who doesn't expect that. Daniel Gibson shot the ball better, but was also on the court for the Wizards comeback (Boobie Defense!!!). You can also be picky and say that the Cavaliers shouldn't of let the Wizards back into the game, but what team doesn't let a team climb back into a game like that sometimes.
Overall: A healthy Cavs team absolutely should be a Wizards team with injuries. If they want to fight for the 8 seed they can't give up too many games of that quality. As for the Wizards, they can't slide too far during the injuries if they want to also grab a low playoff seed. Hopefully they can do a better job with the patchwork team they have.
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