Cavaliers are for real, and maybe for good

Their stunning win in Boston suggests they can handle the playoffs.

Evan Mobley

Approximately three seconds after the tip Friday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers were losing, 25-3, in Boston. The Celtics’ Jayson Tatum had 18 points in the first quarter, the Cavaliers had 26.

There were no trapdoors on the parquet, no gas in the homeward-bound airplane, no Starbucks in the vicinity. Might as well hang around.

A couple of hours later, the Cavaliers were cautiously celebrating their 49th victory of a season that was 59 games old. Their climb wasn’t linear; they trailed by 17 early in the third quarter. They won, 123-116, and gained a seven-and-a-half game lead over Boston in the Eastern Conference standings with 23 games left.

Coach Kenny Atkinson reminded everyone that the Celtics didn’t have Jrue Holiday or Kristaps Porzingis. But it’s brazen enough when you walk into the Celtics’ den and start eating four-leaf clovers. Now Cleveland was making excuses for Boston. That’s as contemptuous as leaving the football on the other guy’s one-yard-line.

Against all odds, the NBA season has become fascinating. The Lakers are grinding out wins as LeBron James and Luka Doncic get acquainted. The Warriors are showing signs of life with the arrival of Jimmy Butler; why, Steph Curry even dunked Saturday night.

The Knicks, Grizzlies, Pistons and Rockets are flexing just enough to build up fanbase dreams. The TrailBlazers, believed to be deep in the lottery tank, have been more fun than anyone. But as much as the intelligentsia refuses to face it, Cleveland and Oklahoma City have been the league’s penthouse teams from the beginning of the season, and neither is decelerating.

The Thunder was supposed to be up there. The Cavaliers were not. They made no significant changes after a 48-34 season, other than firing coach J.B. Bickerstaff, who is supervising a rebirth in Detroit. They lost to the Celtics in the second round after an unnecessarily tough time with Orlando in the first round. Yet Atkinson, their new coach who once coached the Nets and was Golden State’s top assistant last year, brought fresh eyes and high expectations.

Last year Cleveland ranked 22nd in pace. This year, sixth. In a related development, Cleveland ranked 15th in 3-point field goal percentage last season. This year, first. The Cavs are scoring 122.9 points per game, 10.3 more than in 2003-04, and their .585 percentage on 2-point shots leads the league. And there is no load to manage. Jarrett Allen has played all 59 games, Donovan Mitchell 56, Darius Garland 55, Ty Jerome 53 and Evan Mobley 53.

They won their first 15 games of the season before they lost a 3-pointer in Boston. They had one three-game losing streak, at the end of January, but they are 13-1 since. The only thing they hadn’t done was beat Boston, and they took care of that Friday, fully aware that they probably will have to do that four times in the spring to get to the NBA Finals. But there’s no use fast-forwarding oneself into that murky future when the present is such a joyride.

In many ways Atkinson’s obsessions are typical of NBA coaches. “He’s a maniac in a good way,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. Players have praised his frontal honesty. But he also learned, mostly from Kerr, that it’s possible to stop and breathe, to set up opportunities for humor, and to motivate through opportunity. The Cavaliers shoot from deep, and do so often, because Atkinson wants them to.

Atkinson’s first project was Evan Mobley, who went third in the draft in 2021 and was the runnerup Rookie of the Year. But he missed 32 games last year, and his progress stalled. “I think he can be Top 20 in the league, maybe Top 10,” Atkinson said when he got the job. The 6-foot-11 runner and shotblocker from USC now averages 18.6 points with 9.5 rebounds, and he shoots nearly three 3-pointers a game, as opposed to 1.2 last season.

On Friday, Mobley’s five-point outburst at the beginning of the fourth quarter tied it, 100-100. His 3-pointer put the Cavaliers up by four, and then his putback bucket gave them a 5-point lead. Mobley’s 11 points and eight rebounds in the fourth quarter were the proximate cause of the victory, even though Mitchell had 41 points to combat Tatum’s 46 and Jaylen Brown’s 37.

Koby Altman deserves a bouquet, too. He’s the general manager who had to deal with Kyrie Irving’s trade demand and then LeBron James’ second goodbye. Now he’s the club president with Mike Gansey the general manager, and he has a chance to stay that way after he drafted Collin Sexton and then packaged him to get Mitchell from Utah, drafted Mobley and Garland, and got Allen in a 4-way deal that sent James Harden to Brooklyn.

Mitchell and Garland might be the most explosive backcourt in the NBA. Allen, at 7 feet, teams with Mobley at the defensive rim, and he can also score when called upon. He also built a computer from scratch, which means he can do his own analytics. Charles Barkley has said all year that Allen will be the reason the Cavaliers either thrive or die in the playoffs.

Altman and Gansey did their best work when it was time to decorate the cake. Their additions meant that veteran starters Dean Wade and Isaac Okoro could now come off the bench. The Cavaliers added more shooters in Jerome, who has been brilliant at times, and Max Strus. And at the deadline they looked at their roster and wondered who would deal with a parade of talented swingmen in the playoffs. They solved it by getting DeAndre Hunter, perhaps the best sixth man in the league, from Atlanta.

Atkinson was not wrong when he cited Holiday’s absence Friday night. This particular version of the Celtics had not won a championship before Holiday, and this particular version of the Bucks hasn’t won it before Holiday or since. He can muffle Mitchell or Garland in the closing minutes of a playoff game, and he must be honored as a 3-point shooter.

But the champs have had some strange losses this year, like a 7-pointer at home to Dallas after the Doncic trade, and a 17-pointer at home to Sacramento, and a 20-pointer at Detroit on Wednesday. Friday night’s loss was their 11th at the Garden, where they lost only four in the 2003-04 regular season.. The Celtics keep shooting 3s compulsively, averaging 48.3 per game, nearly five more than anyone else in the league. They’re never out of a game. Neither is their opponent.

Atkinson never stopped tinkering in the Friday night win, eventually putting Mobley and Allen on the bench and playing small. It helped their defense and their transition game. None of that currency translates directly into the playoffs, but it’s never a bad idea to throw another log on your belief system. The Cavaliers already knew that it takes more than 15 minutes to deprive them of breath. Now Boston does, too.