The Cleveland Cavaliers came into the season with a daunting early-season schedule. With their home opener against the Charlotte Hornets as the lone exception, six of the Cavs’ first seven games were against playoff teams from a season ago. This included an intimidating four-game West Coast road trip against teams that were considered title contenders at one point or another last season.
An 0-7 or 1-6 start to the season was very much in view, but instead, the Cavs pulled off a trio of upset wins, tightening their defense and forcing frigid shooting from all three opponents. The Atlanta Hawks, Denver Nuggets and LA Clippers all fell to the Cavaliers across a three-game win streak.
The Cavs lost their two games over the weekend to the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns, both somewhat bitter defeats given that the Lakers and Suns have been vulnerable this year. Even so, when you zoom out a 3-4 start to the season given the schedule has to be seen as an encouraging sign for a team just starting to put things together.
The Cavs sit at 3-4 after two weeks, which helped to set their spot at 23rd for this week’s NBA Power Rankings
That’s the context for the first two weeks or so of the season for the Cavs, and what went into their placement in this week’s Power Rankings. Our sister site Hoops Habit runs a weekly column laying out all 30 teams in the league, and on Sunday I wrote the piece and placed the Cavs at 23rd.
For context, the Cavs were 27th prior to the preseason and over the past month have risen to 23 despite a losing record overall this year. The rankings are still weighted by preseason expectations, but if the Cavs continue to hover around .500 that anchoring will go away and they should rise up the list even further.
Cleveland did hop above the Indiana Pacers, off to a rough 1-6 start amidst a number of injuries and close losses, and a San Antonio Spurs team that is playing good teams close but not pulling out the wins. Just ahead of the Cavs are a pair of Western Conference teams fighting for the play-in, the Sacramento Kings and Minnesota Timberwolves.
Their four losses have also all come against good teams, as the Cavs haven’t played a single team ranked lower than 17th all year. Their losses were, interestingly enough, to the four teams ranked from 11th to 14th this week, and none of them were blowouts.
The key to Cleveland’s rise up the rankings has been their defense, with rookie Evan Mobley capturing national attention with his immediate defensive impact. If that sustains he should bring home some personal hardware and help the Cavs maintain such a ranking. The Power Rankings highlighted that as well:
"Evan Mobley has been a revelation, looking every bit like a future defensive superstar who is already an impact maker on that end. His offensive game has been up-and-down, but that’s absolutely to be expected for a rookie. His length and foot movement allow him to contest inside and outside, and coming into the weekend no player in the league contested as many 3-point shots as Mobley. The Cavs have a star on their hands."
We have written about Mobley on this site almost daily since the season began. He has been that good, a player we have to cover in order to discuss the story of this season. What has to bring optimism for fans of the Cavs is that other key pieces, namely the high-octane backcourt of Darius Garland and Collin Sexton, have not performed consistently to start the year. If they start playing better this team could make some noise, pushing for a play-in spot and rising up these rankings as well.
Where could the Cavs be a week from now? They have a three-game week starting with a road rematch with the Charlotte Hornets tonight. They briefly return home on Wednesday to host the Portland Trail Blazers, who ranked 16th in the Power Rankings and have not been able to get Damian Lillard going. Friday they not only go back on the road but leave the country to face the Toronto Raptors, who came in at 19. All three are winnable games, and Toronto is probably the most vulnerable given how their size matches up with Cleveland’s.
The Cavs will likely face more significant adversity this season; seven games is not enough to reset the team’s preseason expectations or the reality that they need to be patient and add another top talent in the draft. Is Evan Mobley too good already to bottom out? Maybe so, but with him in tow they don’t need to be among the handful of worst records; they’re now looking for co-stars, not the main event.
Cleveland has impressed to start the year, but more than that they have built some legitimate hope for the future. Evan Mobley is a true superstar, and it’s because of him more than anything that they have gone 3-4 against this schedule. This might be the high watermark of the season, and that would be fine, but it’s certainly possible they find a way to rise even higher.