Cavs vs. Knicks stat recap: breaking down Cleveland’s opening night win

Without question, the Cavaliers’ ‘Big Three’ dominated this game. LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love combined to score 71 points on 62 percent true shooting, grabbed 25 rebounds, dished out 20 assists, along with five steals, one block and just six turnovers. The rebounding was great, the defense was solid, and the Knicks were bad. The full run-down is below:

Offense

117 points on 99 possessions, 1.18 PPP [league average: 1.06 PPP]

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Paint: 26-43, 60 percent [22-40, 54 percent]

Mid-range: 6-16, 38 percent [8-21, 40 percent]

3-pointers: 13-35, 37 percent [9-24, 36 percent]

Free throws: 14-19, 74 percent [18-23, 76 percent]

True shooting: 57 percent [54 percent]

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Offensive rebounding: 17 on 50 chances, 34 percent [24 percent]

Assists: 31 on 45 field goals, 69 percent [58 percent]

Turnovers: 14 on 99 possessions, 14 percent [15 percent]

Defense

88 points on 101 possessions, 0.87 PPP [league average: 1.06 PPP]

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Paint: 14-30, 47 percent [22-40, 54 percent]

Mid-range: 9-30, 30 percent [8-21, 40 percent]

3-pointers: 9-27, 33 percent [9-24, 36 percent]

Free throws: 14-19, 74 percent [18-23, 76 percent]

True shooting: 45 percent [54 percent]

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Defensive rebounding: 29 on 43 chances, 75 percent [76 percent]

Assists: 17 on 32 field goals, 53 percent [58 percent]

Turnovers: 18 on 101 possessions, 18 percent [15 percent]

Players of the game

1. LeBron James: 19 points on 63 percent true shooting, 11 rebounds, 14 assists, one block, four turnovers.
2. Kyrie Irving: 29 points on 69 percent true shooting, two rebounds, four assists, two steals.
3. Kevin Love: 23 points on 58 percent true shooting, 12 rebounds, two assists, three steals, two turnovers.

Notes

• Possessions are calculated as follows: FGA + (FTA/2) + TOV - ORB = POSS. Free throws resulting from technical fouls, flagrant fouls or when the shot was made (‘and-one’) are not counted toward the FTA figure. Team offensive rebounds are included in the ORB figure. The resulting possession figure should be precisely accurate.
• Teams can have a different number of offensive possessions in a game, but that number should never vary by more than two. This is because the only way to earn an extra possession is by having both the first and last possession of a quarter. This can only happen twice in a game because the other team will have possession at the beginning of the other two quarters.
• My calculation of true shooting percentages factor in flagrant fouls, technical fouls and ‘and-ones’ the same way that my calculation for possession counts do.
• All rebounding numbers include team rebounds, which are not included in the box score totals. In this game Cleveland had six offensive team rebounds and three defensive team rebounds, while New York had one offensive team rebound and four defensive team rebounds.