Cleveland Cavaliers Dominating at the Q

After the Cleveland Cavaliers began the season with a 5-7 record, the alarm bells were ringing. From lack of defense, poor ball movement and reports of players clashing in the locker-room, things didn’t exactly begin swimmingly for the LeBron James‘ Cavs 2.0.

One of the problems during the first 12 games was Cleveland’s inefficiency at taking care of home court, as they held a 2-4 record in the, at the time, not-so-friendly confines of the Quicken Loans Arena. Those 6 games consisted of the shocking upset at the hands of the New York Knicks on opening night, a comeback victory against the New Orleans Pelicans, a spanking of the Atlanta Hawks, a tough loss to the Denver Nuggets, who they had beaten just a week earlier, a nail-biting loss to the defending champion San Antonio Spurs and finally the 17 point demolishing at the hands of the Toronto Raptors, in which James called his team “fragile” after the game. It’s safe to say, the Cleveland natives were not satisfied with the teams play at home.

The poor home start is even more shocking, when you consider in James’ last season in Cleveland, the Cavs were almost unbeatable at the Q. The Cavaliers went 35-6 during James final season in Cleveland before he took his talents to South Beach and it was an opposing teams nightmare to enter the Quicken Loans Arena. The crazy Cleveland crowd gave the Cavs the advantage every single night, no matter who the opponent was. Now, it obviously needs to be taken into consideration that the Cavs of 09/10 were much different to the current Cavs and we are comparing a whole season to just 6 games. Nonetheless, it is interesting to note that in the first 6 home games of this season, the Cavs had already two/thirds the amount of home losses then they had back in the 09/10 season.

It was looking like the Cavs weren’t going to be as dominant at home then they had been in James’ first stint in Cleveland but boy, that has taken a drastic turn for the better.

Since that 2-4 home start, the Cavs are 8-1 inside the suddenly friendly confines of the Quicken Loans Arena and that includes some impressive victories. The last nine games in Cleveland consist of:

A 106-74 win vs. Orlando
A 113-87 win vs. Washington
A 109-97 win vs. Indiana
A 111-108 win vs. Milwaukee
A 105-101 win vs. Toronto
A 97-88 win vs. Charlotte
A 127-98 loss vs. Atlanta
A 95-91 win vs. Brooklyn
A 105-91 win vs. Memphis

Apart from a slight blemish (okay, maybe it was a bit more then a ‘slight blemish’ as it was an “embarrassing” performance according to Coach David Blatt) in the Atlanta game, the Cavs have been unbeatable in the last 9 home games, literally.

During this nine game stretch, the stats are telling. Cleveland is outscoring their opponents by an average of 8.8 points a game (104.8 to 96.8) and is shooting .499 percent from the field. Furthermore, Cleveland is handing out 25.5 assists a game during this stretch (Cleveland is also 9-0 on the season when handing out 25 or more assists) and when James scores 22 or more, the Cavaliers are 8-0 at home, as The King is retaking his rightful kingdom.

Along with the convincing stats, many of those home games were statement and revenge victories. Cleveland got some sweet retribution against Washington and Toronto during this streak, as both those teams had made a monkey of the Cavaliers just weeks earlier.

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Of course, their is nothing better then getting that revenge in front of the hometown crowd and after that Toronto game, Blatt told the media just how important the crowd is during the games, per Chris Fedor of the North East Ohio Media Group “Our crowd was great tonight. The arena was rocking and our fans had a lot to do with us winning tonight.” Blatt appreciates the Cleveland crowd, as evident by the quote above but he also offered them an apology after the Atlanta loss, also per Fedor of the NEOMG “I really don’t have too much to say. That was embarrassing how we played. I apologize to all the good fans that came out here as they always do. Really just a poor, poor performance and I don’t really have a whole lot to say.”

Along with the revenge wins, the Cavs have made some statements during this home streak. From strong wins against non-playoff teams (Orlando and Indiana) to huge wins against playoff teams (Washington, Toronto and Memphis), the Cavs have done a bit of everything at home lately but there has been one constant and that is Cleveland are taking care of business at home.

The Wine and Gold are stacked with talent from the top to the bottom of the roster and have one of the most passionate fan bases in the league. Early in the season, Cleveland was not repaying that fan base, as they were putting forward weak performances at home. The tables have now turned though and if the Cavs can continue playing at home like they have during the last 9 games at the Q, no team will be looking forward to coming to North East Ohio.

Next: Both Sides of a Josh Smith, Cavaliers Union

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Are you surprised the Cleveland Cavaliers have turned it around on the home court recently?