The Cleveland Cavaliers have shocked the NBA world by starting the season at 14-0.
We know the Cavs have been a good team over the past several seasons. However, they just brought in a new coach in Kenny Atkinson. Certainly, there would be an adjustment period, right?
So much for working your way into the role of head coach. Atkinson has his new team playing excellent basketball. It's a fast-paced offensive brand of basketball where the players share the ball and make quick decisions. They scored 144 points in their recent win against the Chicago Bulls and are leading the league by averaging 121.8 points per game.
These are unchartered waters for the Cavs who have never started a season with 14 straight wins or ever had a 14-game win streak in their franchise history. They had three previous campaigns where they won 13 straight games. The last season they won 13 games in a row was during the 2017-18 season when Lebron James was still with the team. Before that season, Cleveland won 13 games in a row in both the 2008-09 and the 2009-10 seasons again when James was King.
The Cavaliers are in illustrious company
The 14 game win streak by Cleveland puts them in rare company as only three NBA teams have had more wins to start the season. That includes the 1948-49 Washington Capitols, the 1993-94 Houston Rockets, and the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors.
The Washington Capitols team started the season 15-0 under the coaching guidance of Red Auerbach, who was a future NBA Hall of Famer. The Capitols were part of the Basketball Association of America (BAA) but the NBA today considers their history part of theirs now. That Capitols team ended up losing in the playoffs to the Minnesota Lakers.
The Houston Rockets started their 1993-94 season at 15-0 and eventually won the NBA title that season. They defeated the New Knicks in a thrilling seven game series. After trailing in the Finals, they came back and won the championship, led by their MVP center Hakeem Olajuwon. The following year the Rockets won the title again, but since then, they have been in a 30-year drought of not making the NBA Finals.
Then we have the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors who won a staggering 24 games in a row to start the season. They looked invincible that year. They were just coming off of a championship season the year before where they had beaten the Cavs and Lebron James.
The Warriors finished with a 73-9 regular season record. They then rolled through the postseason and looked like they were well on their way to another title when they went up on the Cavs 3-1 in the Finals series. However, Cleveland had other ideas and made one of the greatest series comebacks in all of sports history and beat the Warriors 4-3 in the series to capture a rare Cleveland Championship.
Now, we come back to the current version of the Cavs and their impressive run so far this season. Behind their coach Atkinson, the players from Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen and the rest of the squad are playing inspiring basketball and having fun on this win streak. Winning can be contagious and right now it's spreading like a wild fire.
Can this Cleveland team reach that 24-game win streak that the Warriors set? I don't think anything is out of the realm of possibilities this year. Does this win streak guarantee success for the rest of the season? Only time will tell but it certainly helps with the team's confidence moving forward.