As if a brutal early season west coast trip weren’t daunting enough for a team of untested youngins, the Cavs took on Golden State with starting center Anderson Varejao and his backup Tyler Zeller both on the shelf with random injuries. The result was a pretty forgivable 106-96 setback, but it was actually a surprisingly competitive ballgame given the circumstances.

Coming off a breakout 15-point game, the rookie seven-footer Zeller was scratched early in the day with a concussion and broken cheekbone suffered in Monday’s win over the Clippers. It wasn’t until shortly before game time, however, that Varejao—who’s been putting up a monstrous 14 points and 15 boards per night this year—also was transferred to street clothes. Andy apparently had a knee bruise flare up on him, leaving Cleveland (2-3) essentially centerless for the third game of their baptism-by-fire road trip.

Mark Jackson’s Warriors (3-2)—an exciting, youthful bunch not unlike the Cavs—quickly targeted Cleveland’s vulnerable interior defense in the first quarter and made some hay. With Aussie Andrew Bogut playing the distributor role from inside the paint, Golden State got some wide open looks for marksmen Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, as well as some easy cuts and lay-ups for David Lee. Without Sideshow Bob’s whirling dervish activity, the Cavs D looked thoroughly out of its sorts, surrendering 37 first quarter points and sinking into a 16-point deficit.

The game had all the makings of an old school massacre. But credit Byron Scott’s undermanned crew for showing some considerable fight once again. First, Boobie Gibson stroked a couple threes to stem the tide. The, after being held to just 2 points in the first quarter, Kyrie Irving got in a rhythm in the final minutes of the first half, scoring Cleveland’s last 7 points and cutting the lead to a manageable 59-51 margin.

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It’s not the worst time to be a Cavs fan.  

This team isn't particularly good, and the majority of people would agree they're not going anywhere—at least not this year.  But despite this, Cleveland is witnessing one of the more entertaining team's in franchise history.  Going forward, this team has given themselves options.  A lot of options.  Like, an obscene amount of options.  Ultimately, that's what makes the Cavs experience so exciting.  In the NBA, options are everything, and the Cavs are compounding their options at a staggering rate.   Basically, options are hope—the legitimate kind, not the kind the Indians and Browns can offer.  Especially right now, as we're approaching the advent of the NBA's new luxury tax penalty.  

Here's what hope looks like:

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Just two days after watching a young, inexperienced Browns team unravel in crunch time, it was somewhat therapeutic to see a pair of 20 year-olds step up like stone cold assassins in the final minutes of a surprising 108-101 Cavalier win over the Clippers tonight at Staples Center. Even the staunchest Dion Waiters haters might find themselves a little tongue-tied after this one. 

Four games into his NBA career, the kid who famously never started a game at Syracuse seems to have adjusted pretty well to his first unit status. Exhibiting an icy confidence that only occasionally tiptoed into recklessness, Dion Waiters just plain shot the lights out tonight, shooting an efficient 10-17 from the field and a bonkers 7-of-11 from three point range. All told, the rook finished with a game-high 28 points, complementing Kyrie Irving’s 24 points and thoroughly outshining the far more high-profile duo on the other end of the court. 

The Cavs (2-2) have now beaten the Clippers (2-2) 11 out of their last 12 meetings, but it’s kind of a deceiving stat. A good chunk of those triumphs involved LeBron James walking all over the likes of Baron Davis and Cuttino Mobley. Tonight—on the road and fresh off that heartbreaking loss in Milwaukee, no less—Cleveland’s youngsters were mostly getting their first ever looks at Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and the supposedly title-contending Clips. This included Kyrie Irving, who was matching up with CP3 for the first of likely many, many times to come.

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Aside from one stretch of horrendous basketball spanning the first and second quarters the Cavaliers held up pretty well Saturday night in Milwaukee’s home opener. Cleveland started out fast, fell behind, fought back in the second half and nearly pulled off a Kyrie Irving-led miracle comeback in the final moment before Brandon Jennings ended the festivities with a shot that blew the roof off the Bradley Center and the wind out of the sails of the Cavaliers.

Not good to lose the first game of a six-game road trip, but this was fun to watch nonetheless. When you’re young and on the road in the NBA games like this happen. What can you do?

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