Can Cleveland Set New Best Season Record and Go All The Way to Second NBA Championship?
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 07 Mar 2025
With a league topping 52-10 card and only 20 games left before the season ends early next month, the question is: can the Cavaliers set a new best record and go all to a second NBA championship?
The Cavs had their season best finish of 66-16 in the first stint with the team of Lebron James in 2008-09 but was eliminated in the Eastern Conference playoffs and had to watch Boston Celtics and LA Lakers tangling in the Finals.
With King James back for a second tour of duty in the 2015-2016 season after going 1-4 with the Miami Heat against the Golden State Warriors, Cleveland finally won its first and only championship against Golden State. What made that title run very memorable was the Cavs roaring back from a 1-3 deficit to ruin the Warriors best season finish of 73-9 and their bid for a repeat having beaten the Cavs the previous season. But that also proved to be Cleveland's last hurrah as the following two seasons, the Cavs were again defeated by the Stephen Curry-led Warriors, making Golden State the NBA team of the 2010s.
Though Golden State beat the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls for the best ever NBA season mark of 73-9 as against the 1995-96 Bulls of 72-10, that Chicago team went all the way to win its first NBA championship beating Seattle Supersonics in the Finals. Golden State however made up for its failure to win the 2015-2016 season by winning the next two seasons against the Cavaliers for another 3-1 winning record against Lebron and Cleveland.
Cleveland has to win 14 of its last 20 games to tie its 2015-2016 best record and 15 or above to break it.
With the series against Boston, the only team still with mathematical chance to tie it for the East best mark, behind it at 2-2 tie, Cleveland can seem to afford to coast along to season finish. The only team in the East that has beaten the Cavs twice so far this season is Atlanta but the Hawks are fighting for life at 9th place. The Cavs are 1-1 versus Indiana Pacers, 2-0 against New York Knicks and 2-1 vis a vis Milwaukee Bucks, the other teams seen to also pose threat to Cleveland in the post season.
However, Cleveland cannot relax as its remaining schedule includes a five game road assignment against Western Conference teams determined to get a spot in the playoffs as LA Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings, Phoenix Suns, even San Antonio Spurs and Portland Trailblazers.
The odds are Cleveland will top the East and very possibly the league, barring a major windup by closest rival from the West, Oklahoma City Thunder who are just half a game away as this is being written.
But then, the playoffs are a different ballgame with Boston, New York and/or Indiana standing on the way.
Should Cleveland survives and prevails in the East, there is the rival team from the West that it has to prepare very thoroughly to have a chance for a second NBA championship title.
Which could be anyone among Oklahoma, Denver Nuggets and new look Los Angeles Lakers and especially old nemesis Golden State Warriors.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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