13 Reasons the Cavs can go all the way

Photo by Charles Murray

Cleveland – It has been a season of highs for the NBA-leading Cleveland Cavaliers. The good times continued on Friday night when Cleveland improved to 53-10 with their 118-117 victory against the Charlotte Hornets, coming back from down nine points with just over five minutes to play.

It was the fourth straight game the Cavs needed a substantial fourth-quarter comeback to pull out a victory, and, for the fourth straight game, that’s exactly what transpired. Flexing its ability to win in a variety of ways, Cleveland is now in the midst of a 13-game winning streak. It is the second longest winning streak by any team in the NBA this season, surpassing the 12 in a row they won between December and January.

The longest streak ? That also belongs to Cleveland, who won a historic 15 games in a row to begin the season.

In honor of their latest double-digit win streak, here are 13 reasons why the Cavs have as good a chance as any team to be raising the Larry Obrien Trophy in June.

1. All they do is “win, win, win no matter what.”: Whether at home (best home record in NBA, or on the road (best road record in NBA), the Cavs continue to pile up wins. Their 53 wins though 63 games is the sixth-highest total in the league’s history.

 

2. History is on their side: Of the five teams in history with more wins at this point in the season, only the 2016 Golden State Warriors, who lost in game 7 of the Finals to a different version of the Cavs, failed to win a championship the same year. Whether it’s the 40-20 rule or pretty much any other historic indicator of success, the Cavs measure out very well and are accomplishing things that only past champions have done.

 

3. All-time great point differential: Cleveland currently sits with a ‘diff’ of 11.37, which would rank as the fifth largest gap of all time. Each of the current top five teams in this category went on to win a championship that season.

 

4. Never give up: Down 22 points within the first five minutes of a road game against the defending champions with their home crowd in a frenzy. Down 18 points with just over a minute remaining in the 3rd quarter two days later. Trailing by at least nine points in the 4rth quarter in back-to-back games. The Cavs faced each of these situations in the past few weeks and have managed to come out victorious in each scenario.

5. Defensive Anchors: Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley come together to form the most daunting interior presence in the association, and it’s not particularly close. Mobley is seemingly a lock to win Defensive Player of the Year honors while Allen has been a top defensive center for well over half a decade now. Both can switch onto guards on the perimeter, read and recover when necessary and have the strength and length to lock down anything in the paint. With players like Dean Wade and DeAndre Hunter being long, interchangeable wing defenders, Cleveland is flush with the ingredients for a lockdown defense when it matters.

6. Explosive: the term Cavalanche has become an endearing and exciting phrase around Cleveland but probably a bit traumatizing to opposing teams and fan bases. In its simplest form, a ‘Cavalanche’ is a debilitating run of dominance by the Cavs that can flip a game in an instant and leave the opposing team wondering what just happened. With so many guys that can get hot and change a game, Cleveland has turned close games into blowouts within minutes thanks to a ‘Cavalanche. Just ask the Bulls. A basket by Chicago tied the game at 107 with 7:04 remaining. The Cavs then proceeded to run off 14 straight points in two minutes and used a 32-6 spurt to take a 22-point lead less than five minutes after the score was tied. That was on the road, with Donovan Mitchell on the bench and Mobley out. Scary.

 

7. Star power: The Cavs had three All-Stars this season as Darius Garland, Mitchell and Mobley all were selected to represent the East. Allen, who was an All-Star a few years back, could have easily been the Cavs fourth All-Star this season but was snubbed. Mitchell has been a top 8ish player all season. Mobley top 20 and Garland right there in that mix as well. The NBA has always been ruled by star-power and the Cavs have that in abundance this year.

 

8. Team Chemistry: though an abundance of talent can sometimes mask it, good team chemistry is vital to succeed at the highest level. If there was a ‘team chemistry rating’ it’d be another category Cleveland leads the league in. Whether it’s childhood best buds (Jerome and Mitchell) or guys who became brothers through years of growing together, this Cleveland team clearly has a bond and culture that can’t be bought or manufactured. The unwavering trust in one another could pay even more dividends when tough times come in the Playoffs.

 

9. Been there before: It seems that in the NBA, more than any other sport, previous playoff experience is a vital step for a team hoping to reach the mountain top. While there have been outliers, this holds true for the majority of recent champs. The Celtics last year, Nuggets in 2023 and the Bucks in 2021 are all recent champions that spent years falling short in the Playoffs prior to their title run. The Cavs lost in the final play-in game in 2022, the first round in 2023 and fell in the second round to the eventual champion Celtics last season. They’ve now experienced the bright lights on numerous occasions- a fact that bodes well for their chances this season.

10. Mitchell’s Celtic abuse: In their final regular season showdown just over a week ago, the Cavs erased an early 22-point deficit to beat the Celtics in a battle between the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. Mitchell was a huge part of the comeback, scoring a team-high 41 points and knocking down big shot after big shot. The performance helped Mitchell surpass Michael Jordan for the highest average PPG for any player’s career against Boston.

 

Mitchell is now averaging 30.8 PPG against the Celtics in his career and has scored at least 31 points in all four matchups this season. With Boston seen as the Cavs’ biggest threat come playoffs, Mitchell’s dominance against them could be the difference in what should be an ultra-competitive series victory.

 

 

11. They are DEEP: While the Cavs do have a ton of star power with their big-four, they also legitimately can run a 12-man rotation and not skip a beat. Ty Jerome and DeAndre Hunter are both top 6th Man of the Year candidates coming off the bench for Cleveland. They have guys like Dean Wade, Issac Okoro and San Merrill, who have all came up big at different points this season and are reliable role-players who fit well with the Cavs core.

 

Cleveland’s bench ranks in the top 3 of numerous categories including true shooting, 3-point percentage, 3-pointers made, assists and plus/minus. Even if coach Kenny Atkinson shortens the rotations in the Playoffs, Cleveland’s depth and talent coming off the bench will be key to its overall success.

12. NEXT LEVEL COACHING: JB Bickerstaff, who had coached the Cavs the previous four-plus years, was a great fit for a young, up-and-coming team searching for an identity. His lack of offensive creativity, adjustments on the fly and player development had seemed to run its course by the end of last season, however. In comes Kenny Atkinson. After years of fine-tuning his philosophies under coaching greats like Steve Kerr, Atkinson came to Cleveland with a vision. A vision of a free-flowing, motion offense that made every player on the court a threat. A vision of unlocking Evan Mobley, who has shown flashes of MVP upside but seemed to plateau under Bickerstaff. Atkinson came in and quickly built trust and relationships with his star players like Mitchell and Darius Garland. He empowered role players like Jerome and Merrill, giving them consistent minutes and showing trust in them. It has all culminated in Atkinson looking like a lock to win the Coach of the Year award and the Cavs being a top contender for years to come.

 

13. Leadership: Mitchell is the clear-cut star and best player on the Cleveland Cavaliers. Mitchell is also proving to be one of the great leaders in all of sports. From sacrificing playing time and counting stats for the betterment of the team, to always taking accountability and saying the right things, Mitchell has been everything you could ask for in a team-leader. He’s been vital in keeping the team loose and having fun but also locked in on the bigger picture. As he has stated numerous times this season- none of this regular season success matters if the Cavs don’t build on it in the Playoffs. With a player like that leading the way, Cleveland has to like its chances.