Here’s the stat that should make Cavaliers’ fans the most optimistic: Each of the other three teams that started at least 15-0 made the NBA Finals that season. Only one team in NBA history — the 73-win 2015-16 Golden State Warriors — started a season with a longer win streak than these Cavaliers.
Tonight, that streak may well get snapped by the one team in the East that looks like it could break history’s trend and keep the Cavaliers from the Finals: The Boston Celtics.
Cleveland at Boston is the biggest game on the schedule so far this season — and this is a critical NBA Cup game (one Boston needs to win to have a shot at advancing out of group play, and one Cleveland needs to keep pace with Atlanta in East Group 3). There’s a lot to this game— it’s time to discuss it.
Are the Cavaliers for real?
Yes.
Variations of “Are the Cavs real?” is the question I have gotten the most this season — on sports talk radio and broadcast appearances, as well as by casual hoops fans and friends — and my answer is the same: This is no fluke.
While these Cavaliers have bought into new coach Kenny Atkinson’s system in a way we had not seen in Cleveland in recent years, remember, the Cavs have been good for a few years. Cleveland finished fourth in the East each of the last two seasons — with a top-six defense — despite injuries and an old-school, at times stagnant offense.
The questions coming into the season were how good they could be if healthy, if their defense kept playing well, and if new coach Kenny Atkinson put some pace and motion in the offense.
Turns out, very good.
Under Atkinson, the Cavaliers have the best offense in the league, with a key part of that being the team is shooting a likely unsustainable 41.9% on 3-pointers. Darius Garland is having a bounce-back season and has found a fit next to the team’s leading scorer, Donovan Mitchell (something that was never smooth in previous seasons).
However, the biggest change in Cleveland’s offense is big man Evan Mobley taking a step forward — he has become an offensive initiator. He is grabbing the rebound and pushing the pace up the court himself, and in the half court is the ball handler in some inverted pick-and-rolls nightly (where one of the guards sets the pick). His counting stats have gone up a little this season (18.1 points a game), but dive into the tracking numbers and it’s clear he has the ball in his hands a lot more and is driving far more often. He is an aggressive initiator in the offense, which has opened up everything for his teammates. His step forward has changed the offense and made the Cavaliers a force.
Boston is poised to end Cavs’ streak Tuesday night
The Boston Celtics are still the team to beat in the East — they have a brand new banner in the rafters to prove it. The Celtics are 11-3 with the No. 2 offense and the No. 10 defense in the NBA coming into the game, winning games despite Kristaps Porzingis having yet to play a game and Jaylen Brown missing part of the season due to injury.
Still, the defending champs have looked flat for stretches of the season. Outside of destroying the Knicks opening night and some flashes, the Celtics have often played like a team with a championship hangover. A team looking for motivation.
They have it on Tuesday night.
While it’s a little early in the season for a message game, this one has the feel of it — the Celtics want to remind everyone the road to the Larry O’Brien Trophy goes through Boston. These are the defending NBA champions with their top seven players in the rotation back (still waiting on Porzingis).
Boston, with Tatum and Brown (and Derrick White), matches up well with Cleveland’s backcourt, which will put even more pressure on Mobley to have a big game as an offensive creator and difference maker (Mobley likely will see Tatum on him for long stretches of the game).
This is a huge NBA Cup game.
For the Celtics, this is must win. Heading into the NBA Cup, the expectation was that Boston or Cleveland would win Group C and the other would advance as a wild card, but then Boston was upset by Atlanta in its NBA Cup opener. The only path Boston has to advance out of group play is to win out and in the process pick up a blowout victory or two to boost its point differential (a key tiebreaker in the NBA Cup). Fall to 0-2 with a loss to Cleveland and their NBA Cup hopes are dashed.
Cleveland is 1-0 in cup play, and a win over Boston sets up a clash with 2-0 Atlanta to decide the group (with the loser reduced to fighting for the wild card spot).
It all makes this a must-watch early-season game.
One where the Cavaliers have a chance to make history while the Celtics can remind everyone of the history they made last June.
