The Cleveland Cavaliers’ dream season is a complete success: “It’s starting to come true”

CLEVELAND – In a season that has astonished virtually no one who watches the Cleveland Cavaliers, they have given up just 76 points in a game and won handily.

They became a footnote in history by giving up Nikola Jokić’s 139th career triple-double, which included 20 rebounds and moved him ahead of Magic Johnson for third on the NBA all-time list, and yet they were tied after halftime not seriously challenged in a 126-114 triumph over the Denver Nuggets. It was their 20th win in 23 tries, making it the shortest path to 20 wins in franchise history. The last two teams to start 20-3 were the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks in 2019… one of which won the NBA Finals the following June. The other won it the following season.

Now we can talk about the patience it took to stay on track on defense and not panic while the Nuggets converted all those layups, baby hooks, dunks and transition buckets. And yes, Jokić’s 27 points came on 26 shots; He spent much of the game with the Cavs’ Jarrett Allen and was occasionally frustrated with him. His teammates and coaches appreciated him for “making things tough” on the reigning NBA MVP.

But the Cavs won because they made 22 3s to the Nuggets’ six. You can roll your eyes if you want to know what pro ball is like (is it really that simple – whoever makes the most 3s wins?), but that’s how the game is played now, and a quarter of the way through the season, it’s no longer one plays it better than the group in Cleveland.

Yes, that includes Bombs Away Boston. The Cavs are the league’s best 3-point shooting team, making 40.5 percent of their shots from deep and nearly 51 percent of their shots overall, and are also the NBA’s leaders. They haven’t lost – a perfect 17-0 – when they make at least 35 percent of their threes.

“It starts to get real halfway through the season,” Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said. “You can qualify us as a super excellent shooting team.”

Things no one will ever tire of seeing: Threesomes by Caris LeVert. @CarisLeVert | #LetEmKnow pic.twitter.com/6v7f6JRmCo

– Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) December 6, 2024

Caris LeVert made five of his six three-pointers on Thursday and Donovan Mitchell was 6 of 10. Evan Mobley – who may have read here in previous seasons that the Cavs wanted their 7-foot forward to shoot more 3s – yes, he made a career-high three 3s against Denver. Darius Garland was just 3 of 10 from distance, but those seven errors are part of the larger strategy. Shoot them at high volume and enough will come in.

The Boston Celtics are defending champions and used this strategy to win the title this year, attempting 51 3s per game. That’s 57 percent of their total shots! Cleveland isn’t quite as extreme, averaging 38.4 3s per game (which ranks 11th), but its players appear to be more adept at making those shots than the competition.

It’s so simple, but still a key factor in the team’s tremendous success and a crucial trait to carry into the playoffs.

“I think it also helps us to have the actions, the spacing, the way we move, our pace. …It’s like it’s not predictable; You never know where everyone is going to be,” said Mitchell, who led all players with 28 points on Thursday. “I think that’s what really helps. I think we get a lot of open shots too, which helps people too. There are a lot of people who shoot the ball really well, but we also have a lot of people who can score the ball, so now you’re able to combine the two. It’s a tough one to guard and I think we can stick with it.”

There was a brief regression recently, a two-game nightmare against the Atlanta Hawks around Thanksgiving in which the Cavs shot 26 of 86 from 3-point range and lost both games. There was an added sigh of relief when Boston came to Cleveland on Sunday night and the Cavs remembered how to shoot, knocking down 17 of 36 deep balls to beat the Celtics and end a two-game deficit.

Cleveland currently has six players shooting over 40 percent from 3-point range, and five of them are making at least 2.5 three-pointers per game. Mitchell is making 41 percent of his nine three-pointers and Garland is hitting 44 percent of his seven three-pointers. LeVert is unconscious and making nearly 48 percent of the four threes he shoots per game, and Ty Jerome, who could win the NBA’s Most Improved Award this season, is making nearly 50 percent of the three threes he shoots per game. Isaac Okoro, who suffered a bruised knee and didn’t start in the second half, has a 46 percent hit rate on his 2.6 attempts.

Sam Merrill stinks! He makes only 36 percent of the 5.3 treys he attempted. (Merrill really doesn’t stink. He was the Cavs’ best 3-point shooter last season, hitting 40 percent.)

“You have to respect our shooting,” Atkinson said. “A lot of it is the bank. We’re somewhat familiar with the main cast, Donovan and Darius, but Ty and Evan are doing threesomes tonight. What I like – a big part of it is that we get great shots. The quality of the shot is, in my opinion, No. 1 or 2 in the league.”

As for the defense on Thursday? The Cavs entered the league eighth in defense. Allen and Mobley are the anchors in the middle, and for the most part the team is disciplined enough to drive teams off the 3-point line and generally stick to game plans.

The plan against the Nuggets was to put a hand in Jokić’s face and prevent him from being a passer.

“When Jokić kills you, he starts playing those 15-assist games, so 17 assists,” Atkinson said. “We didn’t want him to score what he scored, but you kind of have to pick your poison with this team. We told our boys, ‘Stay home, stay home.'”

The Hawks gave this team a fit with their length on the perimeter. Boston has that too, but the Cavs and Celtics have drawn two games.

Nobody else has bothered Cleveland at all so far, even on a night when one of the greatest players of all time posted a history-making triple-double with 20 rebounds.

The Cavs just shoot too straight.

(Photo of Donovan Mitchell celebrating a 3 in the second quarter: David Richard / Imagn Images)