The Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder face off tonight in a game of epic proportions.
The Cavaliers are 31-4, one of the seven-best starts in NBA history. The Oklahoma City Thunder are 30-5, one of the 22 best starts in NBA history. Never have two teams from separate conferences met this late in a season with elite records. It's a showdown rarely, if ever, seen in NBA history.
The Cavs also have the chance to make some history on Wednesday night if they pull off the win. That's obviously easier said than done; the Thunder just gummed up the offenses of the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics, currently 2nd and 3rd in the East and with Top-3 offenses. Can the Thunder make it three-in-a-row shutting down the league's Top 3 offenses?
Cleveland will do all it can to make sure that is not the case. And if they do come away victorious, they will do so by setting an NBA record that may not be broken for a very, very long time.
The Cavaliers can make history tonight
The Cavaliers come into their game tonight not only winners of 10-straight games, but more than that, they have defeated every opponent by at least 10 points. That sounds impressive on its own, but even more when you realize how few teams have ever pulled off that feat.
Only four times in the history of the National Basketball Association has a team won ten or more games in a row by at least 10 points. It's the ultimate team "double double" and it's as rare as rare can be. And what's more: no teams has ever extended that streak to 11.
In 2008 the Houston Rockets were in the midst of a dominant stretch of basketball. Led by Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady and an absolutely loaded bench the Rockets ripped off 22-straight wins, one of the five longest streaks of all time. Right in the middle of that stretch the Rockets rook down the Miami Heat 112-100 to start a 1-game streak of double-digit victories, which finally ended with an eight-point win in Atlanta.
A few years before that, the 2004 New Jersey Nets caught fire at the end of January leading into the All-Star Break. After losing in the NBA Finals the year before, the '04 Nets had a slow start before Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson and company led them on a crushing 10-game streak. They opened things up with a 110-91 over the moribund Celtics and continued the streak through a 20point win over rookie LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. They returned from the All-Star Break with a narrow win over the Atlanta Hawks (Hawks love them some close losses).
Prior to 2004, the last time an NBA team won 10-straight games by 10 or more points was all the way back in 1946 in the league's first season. The Washington Capitals, coached by future Celtics coach Red Auerbach, led them to a 49-11 first-place finish (that would equate to 67 wins in an 82-game season).
Bob Feerick led the Capitals in scoring that season with 16.8 points per game, and somehow led the league in field goal percentage at a frigid 40.1 percent! Washington began the season 2-3 and then ripped off 17 wins in a row, including 10-straight by double digits. That included wins over the Toronto Huskies, the Chicago Stags, the Providence Steamrollers, the St. Louis Bombers and the Cleveland Rebels. The streak was eventually ended not by the Atlanta Hawks but by the Detroit Falcons.
Now the Cleveland Cavaliers have joined this exclusive group with 10 dominant wins of their own. After an opening short-handed win over the Washington Wizards by exactly 10 points, the Cavs reeled off wins by 29, 23 and 27 points to really get things going. Their 10th win was also by exactly 10 points over the Charlotte Hornets, although the margin was much larger until garbage time chipped away at it.
Now they face the Thunder. Merely getting a win would be impressive, even more validation in this team as a title contender. It may even be a Finals preview. To get the win by at least 10 points? That would not only be impressive, it would be historic.
That's what this year's Cleveland Cavaliers team is: historic. Uniquely dominant. Singularly stellar. All of those adjectives and more are needed to highlight just how amazing this start to the season has been. Tonight, even more amazing can take place.