Cleveland is gearing up for a playoff run with a deep roster, plenty of star power and a season's worth of success.
Periodically, NBA.com’s writers will weigh in on key storylines or trending topics around the league.
Cleveland has won 20 of its last 22 games. What do you make of the Cavaliers’ dominance this season?
Steve Aschburner
I believe in Cleveland, not just for the regular season but for the postseason, too. That wasn’t the case the past two years when they shrank from the expectations they’d built over 82 games.
Now the Cavaliers aren’t just deep, they’re capable of playing a variety of styles, from its two-bigs lineup to something swifter and smaller, thanks mostly to Evan Mobley’s shape-shifting. Donovan Mitchell is going to be on my Kia MVP ballot. Darius Garland is one of my favorite players in the NBA because of the joy he displays along with his skills.
Calling Ty Jerome a Kia Most Improved Player candidate doesn’t even approach his before/after transformation. And acquiring De’Andre Hunter at the deadline was a huge “get,” adding another wing option to help against, oh, that Boston team. Let’s not forget Kenny Atkinson, who has gone from painting barns in Brooklyn to painting a masterpiece in Cleveland.
Brian Martin
I did not see this coming. In our conference standings predictions before the season, I pegged Cleveland to finish third in the East, thinking the Cavs would win around 50 games. Their 15-game win streak to open the season was eye-opening. But it’s their most recent streak — when they already had a commanding lead in the East — that’s been most impressive. The Cavs faced tougher competition, played more road games, won by a higher margin and did so without their leading scorer (Donovan Mitchell) for four of those games.
The Cavs have checked all of the boxes this regular season. They’ve won big (16 wins by 20+ points, tied for league-high with OKC), they’ve won close (22 clutch wins, second only to Houston) and nine different players have led the team in scoring. The only remaining question is whether this regular-season success will translate to the playoffs.
Shaun Powell
Unexpected, but not unexplained. This is the result of a perfect storm: Donovan Mitchell signed a three-year extension last offseason to remain with the Cavs, Kenny Atkinson was hired as coach, Evan Mobley took a progressive step, Ty Jerome emerged as a Kia Most Improved Player candidate and the midseason addition of De’Andre Hunter. This is also a down year in the East (no Philly, Jimmy Butler drama in Miami, Orlando’s injuries) which helps.
All said, the Cavs are in a right-team, right-place, right-time situation much like the 60-win Hawks who went to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2014-15. We’ll know more about the Cavs if and when they see Boston in the spring.
John Schuhmann
It was fair to believe that the Cavs’ early-season offense was unsustainable and that they’d cool off at some point. That never happened and, having scored 8.1 more points per 100 possessions than the league average, they rank the best offensive team in the last 20 years. Instead of falling off on offense, they improved defensively as the season went on.
Six teams in NBA history have outscored their opponents by as many points per game as these Cavs (11.0). Five of those six won the championship, with the exception (the 1971-72 Bucks) losing in the conference finals to the team with the best point differential in NBA history (1971-72 Lakers). The data tells us that the Cavs are the clear favorite in the East, but it’s always tough to believe in the “new” contender until it passes the big test. That test is a playoff series against the defending champs.
