LeBron Preparing Fans For Opening Night Loss

Anyone with an ounce of basketball knowledge who watched the Cavs/Celtics last night came away with this: despite sitting three key players, the Celtics still outplayed a fully manned Cavs team.

LeBron James realizes this and is warning fans:

At the end of the day, it’s a preseason game and you don’t want to look too far into it,” said James. “We did want to play better, but we know can get better. That doesn’t mean we’re going to be on top of our game the first game. Sometimes it takes a few weeks for us to get to how we’re going to play for a whole season. Let’s not let the first game determine our season, either.”

He's right... to a degree. But that last sentence is something you say after an opening night loss, not a week before the game.

Here's some perspective from the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

The Cavaliers got their only real test of the preseason against one of their biggest rivals on Wednesday night. For the most part, they failed it.

The retest is next Tuesday, and fortunately for the Cavs, that's the one that will count.

The Boston Celtics didn't play several of their key players but still looked much further along and focused across the board in hammering the Cavs and their normal rotation, 96-82, in front of a sellout crowd at Value City Arena.

Shaq did scored 16 in 20 minutes, but did anyone else notice his girth? That's the largest I've ever seen him. I guess all that "training" he did for his reality show (Shaq Vs.) didn't pay off.

Glen Davis didn't suit up last night because he was  bothered by back spasms after taking a charge from the Knicks’ Al Harrington on Tuesday night. He should be fine.