After failing to hold onto a lead in Saturday's preseason matchup against Detroit, the Wine & Gold struggled to keep up with the Celtics in Beantown on Sunday afternoon, falling to Boston, 118-72, for their second-straight loss of exhibition play.
Both teams came out of the gates sluggish with the first basket not falling until Boston's Kemba Walker drilled a trey in the third minute of action. The Cavs would score the next four points, but failed to hold a lead for the rest of the game.
Cleveland's rough going on Sunday was partly due to the fact that a number of veterans, including Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson, were sidelined for rest. Rookie guard Darius Garland was also unavailable for the Cavs.
One veteran who did see time was third-year pro Sindarius Thornwell, who tallied a team-high 12 points in the loss. Thornwell was also 3-4 from the floor and 1-1 from downtown.
The Cavs also struggled in the turnover department on Sunday, amassing 27 miscues through four quarters. Head Coach John Beilein said that the team needs to correct those errors before heading into Tuesday's final preseason game of the year.
"The 27 turnovers were the compelling reason [why we lost]. It's really hard to defend that in transition," Beilein said.
Coach also hopes his team takes better shots in Tuesday's rematch with the C's.
"Hopefully we'll shoot the ball better, our quality of shot will improve and our timing will be better. We're forced into a lot of situations where we don't have a good shot because the timing is off on a lot of things."
Larry Nance Jr. agreed with his coach and believes the team just needs to relax when they're on the court.
"We're playing too fast," Nance said. "We're still just trying to figure things out. Guys are just learning new positions. Guys have the ball in their hands that don't normally have the ball in their hands. Guys are just trying to figure it out."
Nance finished the game with nine points and six boards on Sunday. Fellow big man Marques Bolden also tallied nine points in the matchup while grabbing four rebounds against the Celtics.
As mentioned, the Cavs and Celtics will tip off once again on Tuesday night in Cleveland's final preseason matchup of the year. That game take place at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse at 7:00 p.m. (ET). Cleveland will then begin the 2019-20 regular season on the road against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday, October 23 in the Sunshine State.