The Cavaliers had this one in their hands, then let it slip straight through their fingers.
Cleveland built a 29-point lead against the Philadelphia 76ers and looked poised to deliver a loud early-season message. Instead, the night turned into a reminder of the same old problem: when the game tightens, the Cavs too often lose their grip. Philadelphia clawed all the way back, and Cleveland’s season opener ended with the kind of collapse that lingers.
Tyrese Maxey was the biggest reason the Sixers survived the early hole. He finished with 32 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals, and his fingerprints were all over the comeback.
Philadelphia opened sluggishly after an emotional win over the New York Knicks on Tuesday, but Maxey kept them from going completely under. His energy in the first half steadied the Sixers, then his shot-making in the third and fourth quarters helped erase the deficit.
The performance only strengthened the idea that LeBron James bet on the right player when he chose Philadelphia. Through two games, that wager looks pretty good.
James finished with 17 points, 5 assists, 10 rebounds and 3 steals, and while he didn’t dominate in the old all-purpose LeBron way, he still shaped the game. He no longer takes over by sheer force the way he once did.
Instead, he manages it, nudges it, controls it from the margins and the middle all at once. He deferred when he needed to, directed the defense to take away Cleveland’s bigs, and chose his scoring chances carefully.
When the Sixers needed a calm hand late, James gave them one. The result was another example of why Cleveland missed out when James picked Philadelphia last summer.
Donovan Mitchell was the Cavs’ most explosive scorer, pouring in 32 points on 19 shot attempts while hitting only four threes. He also added 3 assists, 10 rebounds and 2 steals. It was the kind of high-level scoring night that usually keeps a team afloat even when things get messy.
But Cleveland couldn’t stay organized long enough to cash in on it.
That’s where James Harden became the night’s low point. He posted 16 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds and 6 turnovers, and the second half never felt like it belonged to him.
Cleveland wanted him to settle things down when the lead started disappearing. Instead, he turned it over four times in the final two quarters and never really got the offense back on track.
He also couldn’t connect the frontcourt to the action once Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley faded from the attack after strong first halves.
For a team whose issues have long been tied to composure, that was a familiar and frustrating stretch.
There was at least one bright spot off the bench in Mario Hezonja, who gave Cleveland 10 points, 2 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals. Hezonja created advantages in the post when smaller defenders wound up on him, and those mismatches led to easier looks.
He also held his own defensively, using his size to stay in front of opponents in space. It was the kind of debut the Cavs can build on if he keeps giving them that sort of bench value.
The best stretch of Cleveland’s night came early, when the ball movement and matchup hunting actually made sense. The Cavs consistently attacked advantages, especially in pick-and-roll situations involving Joel Embiid, and they also kept feeding their forwards when switches gave them the upper hand inside.
One sequence stood out when Peyton Watson spotted Allen against a shorter Jaylen Brown and got the ball to him quickly before Embiid could recover. Nothing flashy.
Just smart basketball.
That approach was working because Allen and Mobley were overwhelming Philadelphia inside. Together, they took 18 shots and scored 29 points in the first half.
In the second half, they combined for only five shot attempts and three points. That drop-off tells the story of the loss as clearly as anything else.
When Cleveland forces the ball inside, the whole offense opens up. When that pressure disappears, everything turns static.
Kenny Atkinson captured the feeling around James’ decision to sign elsewhere when he said, “We were anticipating and excited [to land James] and then you have that [news]. Having gone through free agency a lot, when you’re expecting something to happen and it doesn’t happen, that first day or two, you’re just like, you’re depressed, quite honestly. That’s the emontions of it.”
Cleveland had reason to feel that way after this one, too.
The Cavaliers had a shot at an emphatic win over a team that could end up right in the title conversation. For a while, they looked ready to take it.
Then the lead vanished, the offense stalled, and the game became another chapter in the same troubling book. The Cavs showed their talent, then showed why people still don’t fully trust them.
This wasn’t just a bad result. It was a replay of a familiar failure.
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Clevelands path gets difficult fast with several of those threats looming on the schedule, and the mix of fresh star power in Philadelphia, Toronto and Miami has only sharpened the pressure. The Cavs know how tight the margins can be in the East, and the way those clubs have changed this summer suggests the race for seeding could become a problem well before spring. [Read more 🡒]
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Watson put up eight points along with a few defensive flashes, but the sloppiness was impossible to miss in a loss that saw Cleveland squander a 29-point lead. His minus-19 was the worst on the team, and the turnover count stood out in a game the Cavaliers had every reason to control, which makes the debut feel less like a one-off and more like the first test of how quickly he can settle in. [Read more 🡒]
Ty Jerome Just Gave Cavaliers Fans A Painful Reminder
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For Cleveland, the sting is less about one big night than the broader comparison to last seasons backup point guard situation, when Lonzo Ball struggled to provide much consistency. Jeromes success makes the decision to move on feel a little harder in hindsight, even if the Cavs had their reasons for not bringing him back, and it leaves plenty of room to wonder how different the guard rotation might look if he were still in the mix. [Read more 🡒]