For the first time since the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, an NBA team has started the season 12-0. Once the home of the King’s throne and the site of their Larry O’Brien trophy in 2016, the 2024 Cleveland Cavaliers look well on their way to making it back to the NBA’s promised land. The 2015-16 Warriors finished 73-9 with the most wins in a NBA season ever. Can Cleveland rewrite history?
The Cavaliers beat the Bulls in a highly competitive battle Monday night, 119-113. Donovan Mitchell led both Cleveland and Chicago in scoring with 36 points, while former first-round pick, Evan Mobley, earned 11 rebounds. Though the Cavs are undefeated at this point of the season, it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing; six of the 12 wins were by single digits, with one game in particular against the Bucks in Milwaukee being just a slim one-point win. Yet, the Cavs have still handled the majority of their competition relatively easily. They own the second highest point differential in the NBA at +12.0 a game, lurking just behind the Oklahoma City Thunder. Cleveland has achieved much of their success through offense, particularly offensive efficiency. The Cavaliers average a league-best 122.4 points per game and shoot 52 percent from the field. Their field goal percentage is the highest in the NBA by 2.5 percent.
The true key to the Cavaliers’ success so far this year is due to, what some might call, a lost art in Basketball: a lack of hero ball and team fluidity. Mitchell, the leading scorer for Cleveland at 23.7 ppg, isn’t even top 20 in league rankings. In fact, the Cavs don’t have a single player in the top 10 of any major statistical category. This can be attributed to Cleveland’s depth, meaning that they don’t rely on just the same five players; but also, the Cavs trust their ball movement. As talented as Mitchell is, he isn’t the only guy who can score. The Cavs have mastered ball movement and passing until you find the open shot, which explains their extremely high efficiency.
The chances an NBA team goes undefeated in the regular season are extremely low, however, the Cavaliers look well on their way to a playoff berth and perhaps a number one seed. Cleveland has not made the finals since the days of LeBron James, but I will say that this year looks extremely promising.