The Cleveland Cavaliers are arguably one of the best teams in the NBA, but they seem to only care about the regular season during their primetime games.
Throughout 11 games, the Cleveland Cavaliers have gone an undesirable 5-6. There five wins, however, have come against the Eastern Conference’s best teams while their ugly losses have been against some of the East’s worst teams.
The Hawks, Pacers, and Nets have two things in common this season. For starters, they are all in the bottom five of the Eastern Conference, and they each have a quality win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In each of those games and many others, the Cavaliers’ opponent jumped out to a quick lead, usually over ten points and most likely in the first quarter. That’s one reason the Cavs have the league’s worst defensive rating in the first quarter. Overall, the Cavaliers have the league’s worst rating also, but it’s 4.5 points higher in the opening period.
Up to this point, the Cavs have had a favorable schedule. They have yet to take on many of the Western Conference’s elite teams. They have a primetime matchup with the Rockets, which could break their perfect primetime record on Thursday, November 9. This will be their first game against either the Rockets, Spurs, Warriors, Thunder, or Timberwolves.
You did, in fact, read that correctly. The Cavaliers have played in five games that have been broadcast on either NBATV, ESPN, or TNT. Those games were against the Celtics, Bucks, Bulls, Wizards, and Bucks in respective order, and the Cavaliers looked every bit of a championship contender throughout those games. The Cavs are a pleasant +42 in primetime games while they are a horrific -86. The effort is the key part that seems to be lacking when the spotlight is not directly on them. Moving forward, that will be an issue if it keeps up.
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Short, sweet, and intriguing — the Cleveland Cavaliers will continue to have a lackluster record if they can not get up for a non-primetime game against a far inferior opponent. Both conferences have their early season surprises, and as the season moves forward, it will be interesting to see how Cleveland performs against some of the East’s top teams record-wise like Detroit and Philadelphia.
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