The Cleveland Cavaliers have a massive game waiting for them in Boston, Massachusetts.
Tuesday night, the Cavaliers will play the defending champion Boston Celtics in a game chock full of intrigue and storylines. Let's go down the list:
The part we knew heading into the season was that this game would be a rematch from last year's playoffs, when the Celtics dispatched a short-handed Cavaliers team in five games on its way to winning a championship.
Additionally, this is an NBA Cup Game, so the court will be popping with color and the stakes even higher. If the Cavaliers win, they will be in the driver's seat to advance out of East Group C and make a run in the knockout rounds. If the Celtics win, the group will be wide-open for any of three teams to advance (Boston, Cleveland and Atlanta).
On top of that, this game will feature the top two teams in the Eastern Conference standings. Given that every team in the East has at least six losses already other than Boston and Cleveland, and that a whopping 11 East teams have losing records, this game is not only a showdown between the current top two seeds, but very likely the top two teams in the East all season.
As a brief aside, the disparity between the East and the West thus far has been staggering. The Western Conference has only four teams with a losing record. The 7-7 LA Clippers are 11th in the West and outside of the postseason altogether, while in the East they would be the 5 seed.
Back to the matchup of the season thus far, as there is yet another fantastic layer on top: it has been almost three decades since a team on a winning streak of at least 15 games faced the defending champions. It's not simply a game between the top two seeds, but a pair of historically dominant teams.
The most recent such matchup was Jan. 30, 1996, when the Bulls entered on a 15-game winning streak and defeated the defending NBA champion Rockets 98-87. https://t.co/03sZZ8KaQf
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) November 18, 2024
The Cavaliers dispatched the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday to move to 15-0 and set up the ideal matchup, an undefeated team a month into the season taking on the defending champs who are also the title favorites. The NBA could not have drawn it up any better, unless it were the Lakers who were 15-0.
Everyone involved seems to understand the import as well, including head coach Kenny Atkinson.
Kenny Atkinson makes a prediction
Kenny Atkinson doesn't have the recent history of this matchup, of the battles between Cleveland and Boston over the past few seasons (not to mention some epic showdowns when LeBron was in town). He wasn't even the head coach for last year's playoff matchup, let alone for games such as when the short-handed Cavs handed the Celtics a home loss via a "Strength in Numbers" performance, or two seasons ago when Grant Williams guaranteed a free-throw and then missed them both.
He does know the NBA as a whole, however, and as an assistant coach on the Golden State Warriors the past few seasons he knows what a big game looks like. As any smart coach he refrained from actually making a prediction about who would win or lose, but he did have something to say about the game when asked following the Cavs' record-setting win over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday.
Atkinson explained that the Cavs' players were amped up to face the Celtics, and that with both teams playing well and on the parquet floor in Boston Garden, it was the ideal setting for an incredible game. He predicted that "everyone" would be watching, perhaps the first time since opening night when that could be said:
"It's great for the NBA, right? I think everyone's gonna be watching"Kenny Atkinson
Atkinson is likely right - on a Tuesday night with no competition from football, on national television on TNT with Kenny, Charles, Ernie and Shaq handling pregame, with the two best teams in the East with history on the line and the NBA Cup pageantry surrounding it, every NBA fan and many besides likely WILL be watching.
For the Cavaliers to be a part of must-watch basketball now, without LeBron James, is an amazing accomplishment for the organization and a highlight moment for their fans. Whether or not the Cavaliers win to move to 16-0, they have proven themselves a contender this season and a team to watch.
Tune in Tuesday night and see if the game lives up to the hype.