The NBA is nearing the halfway point of its season. Though preseason favorites like the defending champion Boston Celtics and the Oklahoma City Thunder are very much in position to make an expected run to the Finals, there’s another team that has taken the league by storm. That would be the Cleveland Cavaliers, who currently lead the league with a 34-5 record that has them 6.5 games ahead of the Celtics for the 1-seed in the East.
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The Cavs were a good team under J.B. Bickerstaff last year, finishing as the 4-seed with a 48-34 record before beating the Magic in seven games and then losing in five to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference semis. No knock on Bickerstaff, who’s done a great job in turning the Pistons around this year, but Cleveland has taken a massive leap forward under new coach Kenny Atkinson.
The Cavs have it all — two standout guards in Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland, outstanding rim protection with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, and a deep bench that is third in the NBA in net rating. Today we need to talk about the Cavs’ offense though, because it’s been hands-down the best in the league.
There are a number of reasons for Cleveland’s offensive brilliance, and by now we have a large enough sample size to definitively say that this is no fluke. Whether you’re going by raw data or the eye test, no team can match what the Cavs are doing.
What makes the Cavaliers’ offense so good?
The NBA is in the midst of a three-point revolution that has created a tempest among fans about the state of the game. Clips have gone viral that show two teams trotting down the court and hoisting unsuccessful three after unsuccessful three, which has caused many fans to wonder what has happened to the beautiful game they once loved.
While it’s true that nobody wants to watch the Wizards brick 30 threes a night, the Cavs are running an offense that is ultra-efficient from outside but isn’t solely reliant solely on perimeter play.
Cleveland leads the league in three-point shooting at 39.9 percent, which means that as a team they’re shooting better than the likes of Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum, and Jalen Brunson, among others. In total, six different Cavs that get regular playing time shoot over 40 percent from deep.
The Cavs’ biggest star is Mitchell, and it’s stunning how he’s gone from a guy that was rumored to want out of Cleveland to someone that reconfirmed his commitment by signing a three-year extension this summer. He also appears to have completely bought in to what Atkinson is doing. He’s averaging 23.1 points per game, which is actually the lowest number since his rookie season, but his unselfishness has been emblematic of what makes this team go.
Cleveland is first in the league in assist-to-turnover rate, effective field goal percentage, and true shooting percentage, which is basically the holy trinity of offensive efficiency. They move the ball, don’t turn it over, get open looks, and knock them down.
Can the Cavs possibly keep this up?
The Cavs began the season with a 15-game winning streak, but their 19-5 record since then isn’t too shabby, either. They’ve lost back-to-back games only once all year (oddly, both of those losses came at the hands of the middling Hawks) and are undefeated against the vaunted Western Conference. That includes a win last week against the West-leading Thunder that OKC will try to avenge tonight in a game that NBA fans won’t want to miss. They’ve scored under 100 points one single time in 39 games.
Cleveland is the closest thing the league has right now to the 2014 Spurs, who played what is by most accounts the most aesthetically pleasing basketball in NBA history. That comparison is even more apt with the evolution of Evan Mobley, who’s drawn comparisons to a young Tim Duncan since entering the league.
The fourth-year player out of USC is able to step outside and knock down a three, but his versatility around the basket gives the Cavs a dimension that many other top teams lack. Mobley is shooting 57.7 percent from the floor, which is higher than any other player in the top-50 in scoring that’s not named Giannis Antetokounmpo or Domantas Sabonis.
We don’t yet know if the Cavs will be able to cap off their dominant season with an NBA title, but to paraphrase an old Seinfeld episode, their offense is real, and it is spectacular.
