The regular season is just over a week away, and new Cleveland head coach David Blatt is ready to see what his team can do. Blatt says the Cavs will 'probably' treat Monday night's preseason matchup with the Chicago Bulls as a regular season game in terms of minutes and rotation, which should give us the first look at how Cleveland's revamped roster will be used this season.
"We're still in preparation of preseason but I think generally speaking as we go along here, it's the time and our chance to play guys more minutes to see our combinations for longer periods of time," Blatt said on Sunday. "We're moving forward and we're getting closer so we want to try to play our games a little bit more in the fashion that we'll play during the season."
The starting lineup against Maccabi Tel Aviv was the only game those five players (the projected starting lineup of Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Anderson Varejao) started together due to preplanned rest and a couple of small injuries.
LeBron will not play in Cleveland's preseason finale on Wednesday, making this his last outing before the regular season gets underway.
This Cavaliers team might just be looking to make a statement to the Bulls, who are thought to be Cleveland's only competition at the top of the Eastern Conference, but fans should expect to see a hard fought game Monday night.
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