www.treytalkssports.com/2018/01/16/the-cavs-just-arent-very-good/After starting the season 5-7, the Cavs went on a massive 19-2 streak that spawned comments like, “Are the Cavs starting to figure it out?” and “Are the Cavs better without Kyrie?” After that, they fell back to earth with a 2-8 losing streak. What’s their problem? Are they having an up-and-down year? Are they struggling to incorporate new guys? Are they good? Are they more the 7-15 team from before and after their streak, or the 19-2 team during their streak?
Was the 19-2 stretch gold or fool’s gold? Let’s sink our teeth into the streak to find out.
During that 21 game stretch, only 6 of the games were against current playoff teams and they were 4-2 in those games.
I repeat. During a 21 game stretch, they played 15 non-playoff teams and 6 playoff teams. They were 4-2 against playoff teams.
The 4 wins against playoff teams were the Clippers (sans Gallinari, Beverly, and Teodosic), the Pistons (hardly a powerhouse), the Heat (James was thrown out in this game), and the Wizards.
None of those wins were against top 4 teams in their conference.
In fact, the Cavs don’t have many good wins at all this season. Of their 26 wins, only 10 were against current playoff teams. Other than the four I listed above, they have wins against the Celtics (Hayward injury game that the Celtics almost stole away), the Bucks 2x (both games were pre-Bledsoe, but have lost one against them with Bledsoe), the Wizards 2x (decent wins against a slightly overrated team), and the Pacers (but have a 1-2 record against the Pacers on the year).
The other 16 wins were against the Bulls (3x), Hawks (2x), Charlotte (2x), Philadelphia (2x), Grizzles, Sacramento, Mavs, Knicks, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Utah. The average record of those teams is 16-27, or about a .370 winning percentage.
The Cavs record so far this year is fool’s gold. The hardest part of their schedule is coming up. Lebron is playing way too hard in regular season minutes.
The Cavs just aren’t very good.