The Cavaliers went into Thursday night carrying more than a second-game-of-the-season matchup in South Philly. They were dealing with the sting of a summer pursuit that went nowhere, and Kenny Atkinson made it clear before tipoff that the disappointment had landed hard.
“We were anticipating and excited,” he told reporters. When Cleveland realized it had been passed over, Atkinson said he felt “depressed,” according to ESPN.
That backdrop gave the opener against Philadelphia some edge right away. James Harden was met with boos every time he touched the ball early, and Cleveland clearly had some bottled-up frustration from last season’s Eastern Conference Finals loss. There was a sense the Cavaliers wanted to put LeBron James in front of the thing he chose not to come back to.
For a while, it looked like they were doing exactly that. Cleveland built a 69-45 halftime lead while LeBron was held to five points on 2-for-6 shooting. Only Tyrese Maxey had reached double figures at that stage, and the Sixers looked headed for a rough follow-up to their banner-night win over the Knicks in New York City.
Then Philadelphia flipped the night.
The Cavaliers scored 69 points in the first half and then watched the Sixers match that total in the second. Cleveland’s offense also went cold at the worst possible time, finishing with just two made threes on 14 attempts over the final two quarters and shooting 36.8% from the field overall in the second half.
LeBron, meanwhile, settled in after the break. He finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, including 12 points in the second half. Tyrese Maxey powered the comeback with 32 points, while Joel Embiid and Jaylen Brown each topped 20 and combined for 45.
By the end, the pain for Cleveland had piled up fast. The Cavaliers gave away a 29-point lead and fell 114-106, while Philadelphia moved to 2-0 on the season with wins against both Eastern Conference championship contenders from last year.
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