NBA Game Preview: Who Are The Cleveland Cavaliers?
The Indiana Pacers will play their second preseason game of the 2021-22 NBA season on Friday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Ohio.
The Pacers will once again be on the road after losing 125-104 in their first game of the preseason to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday evening.
Who are the Cavaliers?
The Cavs are 1-1 in the preseason.
They got crushed by the Chicago Bulls in their first game, but won their next game in Atlanta against the Hawks earlier in the week.
In 2017 (led by LeBron James), they made the NBA Finals, but they have not been to the playoffs since that season, which was also the last season they had James.
The last three seasons have been pretty miserable if you're a Cavs fan.
The first two seasons without James they failed to win 20 games in either season, and this past season they won 22 games.
However, they do have several intriguing young players. Jarrett Allen, Collin Sexton and Darius Garland are all very talented and all three are 23 years old or younger.
There's also potential future Hall of Famer and five-time All-Star Kevin Love on the roster.
He put up video game numbers when he played for the Minnesota Timberwolves at the beginning of his career, and then became an NBA Champion in 2016 with the Cavaliers.
The last three seasons he has missed a lot of time:
2019: He only played 22 games
2020: He only played 56 games
2021: He only played 25 games
At 33 years old his best days are behind him, and he'd probably be better suited coming off the bench for a team that is contending for an NBA title (think about something like Blake Griffin is doing with the Nets).
As for Sexton, he is a very talented scorer.
At 22 years old he played 60 games and averaged 24.3 points per game last season.
If Sexton could become an All-Star caliber player, that would be huge for the Cavs in shaping a clear direction for the franchise.
Garland had a very impressive sophomore season in the NBA averaging 17.4 points and 6.1 assists in 54 games.
These impressive numbers will have to translate into winning the next few seasons.
According to FanDuel, the Pacers are 3.5-point road favorites.
