Cleveland Cavaliers lived up to the hype as Boston Celtics’ top challenger in the East

For two and a half quarters, it looked as though the Boston Celtics were going to reject the spectacle of this year’s highest-profile regular season matchup wholesale. With the 15-0 Cleveland Cavaliers in town, the defending champs appeared to be back to their old tricks of yesteryear, making fools out of an Eastern Conference hopeful once again. When they took a game-high 21-point lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the early minutes of the third quarter, you’d be forgiven for wondering which of these two teams was actually the undefeated one. The Celtics were in complete control.

Then, something happened — a 22-5 run. The Cavs responded. They roared back within two points, their defense stymying Boston’s prolific offense while cornerstone center Evan Mobley asserted himself as the spearhead of Cleveland’s scoring attack. The game flipped completely in the span of just a few short minutes.

That two point margin would prove to be the closest Cleveland would ultimately get — they never tied the game as the Celtics successfully held them at arms’ length the rest of the way. But the last 14 minutes of basketball we watched Tuesday night was eye-opening all the same. It’s a common cliché to suggest a regular season matchup feels like a playoff game, given how radically different those environments really are. But this game came about as close as any could — two heavyweight fighters throwing haymakers as the clock ticked down, a better boxing match than whatever I watched on Netflix last Friday night. These two teams played like the best two teams in basketball.

This game was no fluke, nor was it a case of some classic Celtics self-defeatism. These Cavs have been a different beast than the team that deflated in five games in last year’s Eastern Conference semifinals. You don’t record the second-greatest start to a season in NBA history by accident. The Celtics have found themselves a real rival in Cleveland once again, even without the presence of LeBron James.

It wasn’t supposed to be the Cavaliers enjoying this attention in the Eastern Conference. After fizzling out in the second round of the playoffs — looking nowhere close to the Celtics’ level in the process — Cleveland recorded perhaps the least splashy offseason in the conference outside of the champs themselves. One of the hottest teams of the summer for trade speculation — Jarrett Allen? Evan Mobley? Mitchell himself? — the Cavaliers boldly doubled-down on what they had. They invested big money in their core, extending Mitchell ($54 million), Mobley ($224 million), Allen ($91 million) and Isaac Okoro ($38 million) while bringing a new voice to the sideline, erstwhile Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson, to make sense of it all.

While many (including yours truly) expected the Cavs to languish in the second tier of East playoff hopefuls, other teams hogged the spotlight. The Philadelphia 76ers pushed in their chips with a big money contract for former Clippers wing Paul George, hoping he could be the second/third option they’ve lacked alongside former MVP Joel Embiid and youngster guard Tyrese Maxey. They’re currently languishing in last place in the Eastern Conference, with Embiid’s health, preparation and punctuality in public question.

Before the season, many would have said the New York Knicks were the offseason’s biggest winners. After George, they recorded arguably the two next most significant additions, bringing in Brooklyn’s Mikal Bridges and Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns to add to a team that many felt had depth to compare with Boston’s. A three-game win streak has dragged the Knicks back over .500, but the fit has been creaky, particularly with Towns’ defense in the middle. There’s still plenty of time for Tom Thibodeau’s team to put it together, but thus far, they lack the spark that made them so compelling last season.

If offseason transactions don’t move you, the Cavaliers still likely didn’t win out in the continuity department. Certainly not, when Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard lurked in the frozen tundra of Milwaukee. Free of the disastrous sideline presence of Adrian Griffin, with a season’s worth of experience under the belt of their superstar duo, the Bucks were expected to remind the East who they are. They’ve won three of their last four games, but at 5-9, they still reside in 12th place in the conference, tied with the rebuilding Charlotte Hornets.

Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images

Cleveland’s decision to stand pat has proven better than any of the above. Even as Cleveland has finally joined the loss column, they still enjoy the best record in the NBA, the second-best point differential (+11.4) and the second-best net rating (+10.5). Mitchell is thus far enjoying the best season of his career from an efficiency standpoint (47/41/84 shooting splits), and though he was brutal in Boston, Darius Garland (3-of-21 shooting) has otherwise followed suit. Evan Mobley is turning the corner, complementing his already-terrific defense with an efficient 18.4 points per game. The Cavs boast four players (the three above, plus Jarrett Allen) who will at least merit discussion for All-Star Game selections if they maintain their current level of play, alongside a cadre of dangerous shooters.

The Cavs found themselves at a crossroads that would not be altogether unfamiliar for the Jayson Tatum-era Celtics. They were tasked with evaluating a core that had underachieved, and chose continuity over change for change’s sake; they held tight to players like Mitchell and Mobley in much the same spirit that the Celtics refused to separate Tatum and Jaylen Brown, even as the allure of The Next Thing dangled in front of their eyes. The decision paid off.

They are — for now, at least — the top team in the Eastern Conference in practice, and in theory, their outlook looks substantially more rosy than the would-be contenders in Milwaukee and Philadelphia or the incomplete product in New York City.

Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images

There’s obvious caveats that apply here, and we can get them out of the way now. Kristaps Porzingis has yet to make his return from a rare leg injury that cost him much of the NBA Finals, ramping up his injury rehab in recent days with an assignment to the G League. The Cavaliers will likely avoid Boston’s unicorn in the teams’ second meeting on December 1, but the Latvian big man is a clear and obvious difference-maker in any potential playoff series.

To a lesser extent, Cleveland missed some important pieces as well. Okoro, who has been one of their most valuable role players, sat out the contest with an ankle injury. Ditto Caris LeVert with an injured knee; one of their most combustible scorers, on a heater to start the season. Celtics fans should be able to attest to the impact of sharpshooter Dean Wade (ankle), who torched the champs to the tune of 23 points and six made threes late last regular season. These players matter, even as the Cavs found their way to 36 bench points in their absence in Tuesday’s game.

What does all this add up to? More than anything else, competition, invaluable competition, the kind that can push this Boston team to greater heights. These Celtics ran roughshod over the Eastern Conference last season, claiming the top seed by a laughable 14 games — the same margin that separated the second seed New York Knicks and 10-seed Atlanta Hawks. They were simply better than everyone else, and they put it on display in losing just three games in the entire postseason.

Winning a second consecutive title is going to take more than raw talent, though. The Boston Celtics have transitioned from hunter to hunted, and surging teams like the Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder (to say nothing of the resurgent boogeymen in Golden State) are hungry to steal the throne out from underneath them.

The Cleveland Cavaliers may not be all the way there yet, as we saw on Tuesday night. Their depth isn’t quite as deep as the Celtics can offer, and few teams outside of San Francisco can approach Boston’s tempered-steel playoff experience. But even in defeat, the Cavaliers made a statement — this is a team with the talent and drive to make a deep postseason run. Cleveland looks like the rival the Celtics need right now, and the two teams could very well drive each other to new heights as the season moves forward.