On Wednesday night the New York Knicks ripped off a 10-0 run in the first quarter, spotting itself a lead that it would take the Cleveland Cavaliers another hour or so of realtime to eliminate. The Cavs would go on to win the game, beating the odds and overcoming the challenge of allowing a 10-0 run.
10-0 runs are not foolproof signs of a team that will win games, but they are one unique way to track teams that are exceptional on one end of the court or another. Teams with explosive offenses are most likely to go on 10-0 runs, while teams with elite defenses are most likely to shut them down. However, that's not entirely true, because to go on a 10-0 run you also have to stop a team at some point in the run; and to prevent one, you have to score somewhere along the way.
The concept has gained popularity over the past couple of years in college basketball circles, where statistician Evan Miyakawa coined the phrase "Kill Shot" to describe a 10-0 run. Teams that rip off a 10-0 run in a game win that contest 71 percent of the time, and if you combine two Kill Shots in a game, you win 88 percent of the time.
While the same study hasn't been published publicy on Kill Shots in the NBA, that I have seen, the concept is likely still the same. NBA teams with their heavy diet of 3-pointers are more likely to produce and allow such streaks, but the idea that having 10-0 runs and preventing them from your opponents is good is basic logic.
And no team is better at shutting such a valuable play down than the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers allow the fewest Kill Shots in the NBA
When the Cavaliers gave up that 10-0 run to the Knicks on Wednesday night, it was only the 34th time this season they have done so. They allow only 0.45 Kill Shots per game, the lowest in the league.
Here is a visual of where all the teams rank in the NBA in Kill Shots generated and allowed, per the excellent Twitter account AutomaticNBA:
The Thunder are insanely good at generating 10-0 scoring runs, with over 1.1 per game. pic.twitter.com/VZ7ciTyljO
— Automatic (@automaticnba) April 1, 2025
As you can see, the Cavaliers also rank just ahead of the Detroit Pistons in Kill Shots created. The Cavs are the right mix of explosive on offense and good on defense to excel in both directions. Unsurprisingly, the Oklahoma City Thunder are elite at pulling off 10-0 runs and just behind Cleveland in preventing them.
It's also clear that while bad teams are, again unsurprisingly, bad in these statistics, in the middle class it's not as simple as the better you are at this, the better of a team you are. Some teams are streakier than others; it's why Miami Heat and Minnesota Timberwolves both create and allow a lot of both, while the Phoenix Suns actually rank seventh in preventing Kill Shots even if they (honestly, somewhat shockingly) cannot generate very many.
Using the blue line on the chart as league average, a few shaky teams like the Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings "win" the Kill Shot battle (Sacramento handily) while good teams like the Golden State Warriors and the Indiana Pacers "lose" it. Kill Shots are an interesting and often helpful metric, but they are not a direct line to team quality and performance.
In the playoffs, when things tighten up and any margin can be enough to win, these Kill Shots become lethal. The Cleveland Cavaliers have the team needed to stop them, better than anyone else in the NBA. If they can translate that skill to the postseason, they may be unstoppable.