Cleveland is enjoying basketball in a big way again. Without seeing it coming, the Cavaliers have started the regular season counting games by victories. With this Sunday night’s game against the Charlotte Hornets (128-114), they have a perfect balance of 15 wins and 0 losses. It is the greatest winning streak the team has ever experienced and the second best start to competition in the entire history of the NBA, only behind the impressive 24-0 of the Golden State Warriors in the 2015-2016 season.
Interestingly, that record-breaking Warriors season ended with the Cavaliers as champions. It was the only one of the four consecutive NBA finals between both teams that were won by Cleveland, who at that time had LeBron James as a big star. And it is the only ring ever conquered by the franchise, which after the departure of the King plunged into a crisis that it is overcoming.
The Cavaliers maintain the same block this season as the last two. The team is led by Donovan Mitchell, 28, who arrived in September 2022 from the Utah Jazz hungry for wins. He missed this Sunday’s game, but has been averaging 24.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game.
The Spider Mitchell’s main partner is Darius Garland, 24 years old, number five in the draft of 2019, who has matured and has become a very complete point guard, a great passer (6.6 assists on average) and a very good scorer (21.1 points per game).
Those two short men are joined by the two tall ones who are in a sweet moment. Evan Mobley, third in the draft of 2021, at 23 years old he has become a mainstay for the Cavaliers both in defense and attack thanks to his skill and his 2.11 meters. He is the team’s third best scorer and second best rebounder, behind center Jarrett Allen, 26 years old and 2.06 meters tall. The starting quintet is completed by Isaac Okoro, the 23-year-old short forward, who stands out more in defense than in attack. Caris LeVert, Dean Wade and Ty Jerome are also contributing minutes and points, in a rotation in which all the pieces fit.
The starting five is less than 25 years old on average. Aside from the maturity that the younger players have been gaining, the main change this season compared to the previous one, in which the Cavaliers finished fourth in the Eastern Conference in the regular season and only passed the first round of the playoffs, is the coach. Kenny Atkinson, an old acquaintance of Spanish basketball – and who is in fact married to a Sevillian and also has Spanish nationality – took charge of the Cavaliers at the beginning of this season after three years as assistant coach of the Golden State Warriors, at Steve Kerr’s side.
Atkinson has hit every button a little bit and the result has been a team that works much better than last season. He highlights the intelligence of his players and how well they get along after several years together.
In some ways, the Cavaliers are showing off some of the traits of Kerr’s Warriors this season, with great ball mobility on offense and alternative inside and outside play. They have positioned themselves as the highest scoring team in the entire NBA at the beginning of the season, with an average of more than 123 points per game, even surpassing the Boston Celtics, the current champions. Mobility provides the team with good shot selection and that, in turn, a high percentage of success in field goals and three-pointers.
Better technical direction, greater maturity of young players, Mitchell’s sweet moment and a relatively favorable schedule have allowed the Cavaliers the feat of 15 consecutive wins at the start of the league, something that the Houston Rockets also achieved this season 1993-1994 and the former Washington Capitols of 1948-1949.
The Celtics will be the obstacle to overcome for the 16th victory. The top two teams in the Eastern Conference meet this Tuesday at the TD Garden in Boston. It is also a game that not only counts for the league, but also for the NBA Cup. For the Celtics, a defeat would almost mean saying goodbye to the competition, since in the first game of the group stage they were already surprised by the Atlanta Hawks and two defeats would make qualification almost impossible.
“It’s going to be a test for us,” Atkinson said this Sunday at a press conference. “We are going to test ourselves against the best. “It comes at the perfect time to give us a good measure of where we are,” he added.
