Cleveland Cavaliers Off To Their Best Start In 40 Years

The last time the Cleveland Cavaliers were 5-0 , Mr. Cavalier still played for Cleveland.

Last night, the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Boston Celtics in a nationally televised game that was broadcast on TNT. The Boston Celtics put up a great fight and the Cleveland Cavaliers left The Q with a final score remarkable similar to Tuesday’s night’s  game against the Houston Rockets.

As Brad Stevens coached his players up and had them smartly attack the paint, where Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love are the Cavs main defenders. As a result, the Celtics ended the game 56 points coming from inside the paint.

While rookie Jaylen Brown and third-year point guard Marcus Smart impressed with their range by both going 3-6 from behind the line, it was Brown, Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley and one-time Cavalier Tyler Zeller doing the bulk of the scoring from the inside.

Thomas paced his team with 30 points and had 14 free throw attempts in the game.

Zeller finished with 11 points. 10 rebounds and 6 assists for his focus on exploiting the Cavs down low.

5 of Bradley ‘s 11 made field goals were made around the rim. Bradley finished the game with 26 points.

Brown finished with 19 points off of 50.0 shooting from the field in his first matchup against LeBron James.

He also did this.

More or less, that’s the story of how the Celtics kept the game close. Tremendous effort, excellent coaching and terrible individual defense on the perimeter from the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Cleveland Cavaliers did do some great things though. To start the contest, J.R. Smith drew first blood and splashed a three that was his 4,000th made field goal in history.

Iman Shumpert is continuing to make his shots from three-point range and had 10 points at halftime while making both of his three-point attempts.

He’s playing with more certainty and comfort than any point in his Cavaliers tenure as well. While he may not be on the team the whole season, his ability to fit within the Cavs will be a big reason he stays.

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Thompson was a man among boys in the first half and had 12 points and 12 rebounds by the start of the third quarter.

Kyrie Irving had a strong first half and kept the Cavs in the game in the first quarter as James coasted his way to a total of six points at halftime. In the first half, Irving had 15 points, 5 assists and made three shots from behind the line.

Love stayed aggressive and finished the contest with 26 points, largely due to a 4-8 performance from long-range and making 12 out of his 13 free throw attempts.

The Cavaliers bench came in and played like smart and grizzled old vets. In one sequence, Mike Dunleavy Jr. found Richard Jefferson on a backdoor cut that reminded everybody of how the two oldest guys in any gym look when they’re playing against the young bucks.

Yet the story of the game is James. He started the contest 31 points away from tying Hakeen Olajuwon for tenth all-time on the NBA’s scoring list. He finished the contest just two points shy of passing Olajuwon for sole possession of tenth place.

While James did coast through the first half and Love took over in the fourth quarter, James’ third quarter was a masterpiece performance. He scored from the opening of the period to the end of it en route to a 20-point quarter. There were straight runs to the rim, contested jumpers, alley-oops.

James absolutely blitzed a Celtics team that should have expected a quarter like that in light of James’ chance to make NBA history in one of the NBA’s biggest basketball cities.

With James’ third quarter performance, the Cavs managed to keep a smart, aggressive Celtics team at bay.

As a result the Cavs won and our off to their first 5-0 start since 1976. In 1976, Austin Carr, Campy Russell and Bingo Smith were the Cavs Big Three.

Now, the Big Three of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, who are all scoring more than 20 points per game, will try to take the Cavs further than the 1976-1977 Cavs did when they lost to the Washington Bullets in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

These Cavs, with this start, hope to win it all.

They just need to remind themselves that to defend the throne, they need to defend on the court as well.

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What did you think of the Cleveland Cavaliers performance against the Boston Celtics last night? Let us know in the comments section or Twitter @KJG_NBA.