5 insane stats from Cavs statement win over Celtics

The Cleveland Cavaliers should not be riding a four-game winning streak. They have been playing without All-Star point guard Darius Garland, not to mention Ricky Rubio, and their backcourt pairing of Donovan Mitchell and Caris LeVert were essentially new to the team. Add in some difficult matchups early in the year, and no one would have blamed the Cavs for a scuffling start.

Instead, even as the rest of the Eastern Conference displays some incredibly strong teams, the Cavs have stepped up and planted themselves right in the mix at the top of the conference. They are 4-1, tied with the Phoenix Suns with the league’s best net rating and with a couple of statement wins to their name.

The Cleveland Cavaliers had a statement win in Boston Friday night. What insane stats stand out the most from the thrilling overtime victory?

The latest came last night, when the Cavs went into Boston and came away with a victory. The Celtics are the defending Eastern Conference champions and were playing very well to start the season. With two big scoring wings, they were exactly the team to take advantage of the Cavs’ uncertainty at small forward.

Instead, it’s the Cavs who broke the Celtics’ defense, scoring 132 points in an overtime win and completely overwhelming Boston in the final period. Down 13 points at the half, they came away with a nine-point victory. Donovan Mitchell and Caris LeVert each scored 41 points, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen had double-doubles, and the Cavs announced themselves as a legitimate contender in the Eastern Conference.

It was an impressive win, and the scoring of those two guards was historic. Let’s look at five of the most insane stats, starting with history and moving to a pair of stats that suggest good things for the rest of the reason.

Donovan Mitchell, Caris LeVert set Cavs scoring record

Donovan Mitchell dropping 40 points is exciting and impressive, but not all that unusual. Last night was the 14th time Mitchell has hit the 40-point mark. Caris LeVert, whose career-high of 51 points also came in Boston back in 2020, has reached it four times.

Yet this was the first time for each in a Cleveland Cavaliers uniform, which was a special occurrence. Last year a Cavaliers player hit that mark just once, when Darius Garland hit 41 against the Indiana Pacers. In one game the Cavs have already doubled that output.

That’s what is even more impressive, that two members of the Cavs hit 40 in the same game. Impressive, and record-breaking. They become the first pair of teammates in Cleveland Cavaliers regular season history to get to 40 points in the same game.

There is only one instance of two Cavs getting there, and it’s from one of the most iconic games in franchise history. Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals, down 3-1, LeBron James and Kyrie Irving summoned something within themselves and put forth a dominant performance to keep the team alive.

It’s an incredible mirror of that game from Mitchell and LeVert, each dropping 41 points apiece just as LeBron and Kyrie did. The game in Boston absolutely felt like a playoff game, and while the stakes weren’t as high you can be sure Cavs fans will be remembering this one for a long time.

Cavs’ starting backcourt best in 40 years

NBA teams are built in all sorts of different ways, but there are certainly trends to track. One is that a team’s scoring often comes from anywhere on the roster, but that the best scorers are often from frontcourt positions. The Top 10 scorers of all time features two guards (Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan) and you have to drop to 15th to find the first point guard, Oscar Robertson.

For one team to get 40 points each from their starting backcourt is incredibly special. The combined 82 points is the most scored by a Cavs’ backcourt in franchise history, blowing the previous record-holders out of the water:

Moving past how insane it was that the Cavaliers started LeBron James at shooting guard to start his career, it shows just how impressive last night was for Mitchell and LeVert. What’s more, their achievement stands even when you zoom out to the rest of the league.

Only one time in NBA history (dating back to 1970-71) has a starting backcourt each dropped 40 points in the same game before last night. All the way back in 1983 Isiah Thomas of the Detroit Pistons scored 47 points and his backcourt partner John Long got to 41. That’s it.

With all of the prolific backcourts in NBA history, this was only the second time both members got to 40. What an insane achievement from Donovan Mitchell and Caris LeVert.

Cavs match Thunder duo for prolific scoring and shooting

Let’s stick with Donovan Mitchell and Caris LeVert for one more stat. Not only is the scoring output impressive given franchise history, or their positions, but it’s also wildly impressive due to the modern path they took to reach that point.

Mitchell scored 41 points and hit five of his nine 3-pointers. LeVert got to 41 by hitting a scorching 6-of-8 from outside, including a couple of bold daggers in overtime. The Celtics simply didn’t have answers to get the ball out of both hands; double Mitchell and LeVert would toast them.

That combination – 40 points and five 3-pointers – was only achieved by a pair of teammates once other time in NBA history. In 2019 Russell Westbrook and Paul George got to that point. Amazingly, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson never got there.

That’s right. Mitchell and LeVert just set a scoring and shooting mark that the Splash Brothers never got to. If LeVert’s 3-pointer continues to cook from outside, even at a more realistic number than his scorching 55.2 percent, the Cavs are going to be incredibly difficult to stop.

Cavs forced Celtics to adapt to them

The Cavaliers were criticized, then lauded, when they started their three-big lineup to start last season. Playing three seven-footers was a major departure from the trend of modern basketball, where teams sought to get smaller and smaller to maximize offense. Even with the departure of Lauri Markkanen this summer in the Donovan Mitchell trade, the Cavs are still a “big” team with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen starting together in the frontcourt.

That trend has spread around the NBA, with the Boston Celtics embracing it en route to an NBA FInals berth and the Minnesota Timberwolves unloading a bundle of draft picks this summer to add Rudy Gobert alongside Karl-Anthony Towns, and Markannen’s new team is starting him at the 3 again.

Yet the Celtics are without Robert Williams III to start the year, and their big depth behind Al Horford is thin indeed. Their best configurations clearly involve either stretch-4 Grant Williams playing at power forward, or putting Jayson Tatum at the 4 and getting Derrick White or Malcolm Brogdon onto the court.

Those realities are why reserve center Luke Kornet logged only 11 total minutes in two games leading into Friday’s contest, with a pair of DNPs to his name. He is not one of the Celtics best players and hasn’t earned a rotation spot. Against the Cavs, however, he logged a whopping 26 minutes.

The Cavaliers forced the Celtics to match their size, which was clearly advantage: Cleveland. In the overtime period Celtics coach Joe Mazulla trotted Kornet out there instead of White or Brogdon, and the Cavs throttled Boston because of it. The Cavs’ guards attacked Kornet in space, and the bigs crushed him on the boards anyway.

Moving forward, this is a weapon for the Cavs. They will force teams used to playing smaller to go big to match up, and then punish them for it. That was true on Friday night, and it will be true moving forward.

Cavs win four-in-a-row without Darius Garland

Last season, Darius Garland was the offensive engine for the Cleveland Cavaliers, especially after Collin Sexton and Ricky Rubio went down. He was carrying the Cavs on his back, responsible for creating nearly every advantage in the halfcourt the Cavs found all year.

That showed in the Cavs’ success without him. Last season when Garland was on the court, the Cavs outscored teams by seven points per 100 possessions per Cleaning the Glass, and scored in the 73rd percentile leaguewide. When he was off the court, the Cavs had a -6.8 differential and scored in the 15th percentile leaguewide.

This season, with Darius Garland missing all but 13 minutes to start the season, has been incredibly different. The incredible scoring of Donovan Mitchell and the improvements of Caris LeVert have carried the Cavs through his absence. Instead of faltering, they have soared, winning four-straight games with Garland sidelined.

The Cavs’ victory on Friday night was a statement win, an announcement of the two-way force now residing in Cleveland. Donovan Mitchell and Caris LeVert were incandescent, the Celtics were forced out of their best lineups, and the team is rolling even without Garland. What a night.