Home Opener
After putting together a solid, competitive effort on Wednesday night in Memphis, the Wine & Gold return to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse – taking on LaMelo Ball and the Hornets in the home opener on Friday night.
The Cavaliers dropped their opener in Memphis, but saw plenty of encouraging signs in the loss. They handed out 38 assists and committed just 10 turnovers – with both Darius Garland and Ricky Rubio handing out double-digit helpers. Jarrett Allen didn’t miss a field goal in 11 attempts and rookie Evan Mobley was outstanding in his debut.
In Wednesday’s loss, the Cavaliers found themselves down two touchdowns in the fourth quarter before mounting a comeback to get within one with 2:33 to play, but the Grizzlies closed the contest on a 15-5 run to pull away for the victory.
As impressive as the Cavs comeback was, the Hornets were that much better – using a 24-0 second half run to erase a 23-point deficit to the Pacers – rallying for the 123-122 victory in their home opener on Wednesday night. In the win, Gordon Hayward and LaMelo Ball combined for 58 points, getting 31 (along with nine boards, seven assists and a pair of steals) from Ball, who canned seven triples on the night.
The Cavaliers welcome Trae Young and the Hawks to town on Saturday night to complete the back-to-back before hitting the road next week for a brutal West Coast trip beginning with matchup against the Nuggets in Denver on Monday night.
History
The Cavaliers took two of three against the Hornets last year, including the season opener on December 23. In that contest, Cleveland weathered a 42-point outburst by Terry Rozier, with Collin Sexton leading the Cavs with 27 points in the win. The Wine & Gold then split the final two games on Tobacco Road – with Taurean Prince leading the way in a late April win and the Hornets salvaging the season series just over a week later.
The Cavs lead the all-time series, 69-46, including a 45-12 mark in Cleveland. During a stretch dating from January 2000 to November 2018, the Wine & Gold went 25-4 at home against Charlotte, with winning streaks of eight and 10 games in that span.
The all-time single-game assists leader against Charlotte is the great Andre Miller, who handed out 16 helpers in a 2002 loss. Charlotte’s all-time leader is Brevin Knight – who was drafted by the Cavaliers with the 16th overall pick in 1997 – and distributed 20 dimes in a loss to his former squad back in 2005.
Connections
Hornets guard Terry Rozier was born in Youngstown and played his high school ball for Shaker Heights High School – averaging 25.6ppg as a senior while leading the Red Raiders to the state’s regional finals for the first time since 2002.
The man they call “Scary Terry” – who missed Wednesday’s opener against Indiana with an ankle injury and is listed as questionable for Friday – has always had solid success against his hometown team, averaging 13.5 points per in 29 regular and postseason meetings.
But Rozier picked up his game against Cleveland of late – averaging 30.8ppg over the last five head-to-head matchups.