{"id":128208,"date":"2025-03-12T06:30:37","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T10:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=128208"},"modified":"2025-03-12T04:24:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T08:24:57","slug":"cavaliers-championship-chances-are-underrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/12\/cavaliers-championship-chances-are-underrated\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers Championship Chances Are Underrated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Cleveland Cavaliers have been arguably the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/03\/cavaliers-set-franchise-records-sunday\/\" target=\"_self\">best team in the NBA<\/a> all season long. Not only did they start the season off with an incredible 15-game winning streak, one of the best starts to a season in NBA history, but they\u2019ve kept on winning all season long. You\u2019d think that everyone would have them as the title favorites. Somehow, most people are still expecting the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/11\/should-the-celtics-be-worried-about-the-kristaps-porzingis-illness\/\" target=\"_self\">Boston Celtics<\/a> or Oklahoma City Thunder to hold up the championship trophy when things are all said and done. People are severely underrating the Cavaliers&#8217; championship chances.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Cleveland Cavaliers Championship Chances Are Underrated<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Cavaliers Winning Streak Puts Them in Elite Company<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Cavaliers grabbed another win on Tuesday night, beating the Brooklyn Nets 109-104. They came back from being down in the fourth quarter, outsourcing the Nets 31-18 in the final frame. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/garlada01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Darius Garland<\/a> was electric with 30 points (18 of which came in the fourth quarter), eight assists, and four rebounds. This win brought the Cavaliers&#8217; current winning streak to 15 games, tying their franchise record streak to open the season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Cavaliers are the first team with multiple 15-game win streaks in a single season since the &#39;06-&#39;07 Phoenix Suns. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/O0RgZ0dlUi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/O0RgZ0dlUi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; StatMuse (@statmuse) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/statmuse\/status\/1899632777823490180?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 12, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are now the first team with more than one 15-game winning streak in the same season since the 2006-07 Phoenix Suns. They are also only the <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/watch\/video\/nba-on-tnt-cavaliers-notch-2nd-consecutive-15-game-win-streak?plsrc=nba&amp;collection=nba-gametime\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sixth team in NBA history<\/a> to have two or more such streaks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Cavaliers&#8217; Season Stats Are Impressive<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At 55-10, the Cavaliers are likely going to finish the season with one of the better records in recent memory. Although they might not have the sexiest roster, they are elite on both ends of the floor. The Cavaliers have the best offense in the league with an <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/advanced?dir=A&amp;sort=OFF_RATING\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">offensive rating<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of 121.8, and the <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/advanced?dir=A&amp;sort=DEF_RATING\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">seventh best defensive rating<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That combination is what has kept them at the top of the NBA standings all season long. Unfortunately, they are not alone at the top. Both the Celtics and Thunder have had some great seasons in their own right.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Cavaliers Championship Odds\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Cavaliers\u2019 dominance is being overlooked. Maybe it is because they play in a small market. Maybe it\u2019s because their roster lacks big name star power. Whatever the reason, it seems like we hear a lot of noise about the Celtics, Thunder, and even the Lakers or Nuggets as title contenders, and not enough about Cleveland.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">15 CONSECUTIVE CAVS WINS!<\/p>\n<p>The Cavaliers become the 6th team in NBA history to have multiple 15+ game win streaks in a single season \ud83e\udd2f <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NNQTLDwnVv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/NNQTLDwnVv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NBA (@NBA) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1899632860258242604?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 12, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Right now, with the best record in the NBA, oddsmakers still only have them as the <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/futures\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">t<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hird most likely team<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to win the NBA championship. According to ESPN Bet, the Cavaliers have championship odds of +525. Meanwhile, Boston is still the favorite at +180, and OKC is close behind them at +200. The Cavaliers are being disrespected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The unfortunate truth is that until the Cavaliers prove themselves in the playoffs, they will continue to be underrated. They don\u2019t have a star that is at the level or fame of <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tatumja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jayson Tatum<\/a> or <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gilgesh01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>. Naturally, they will be left out of some championship conversations. However, one thing we know well is that teams, not superstars, win championships, and the Cavs have one of the best teams we\u2019ve seen in a long time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: \u00a9 Michael McLoone-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cleveland Cavaliers have been arguably the best team in the NBA all season long. Not only did they start the season off with an incredible 15-game winning streak, one of the best starts to a season in NBA history, but they\u2019ve kept on winning all season long. You\u2019d think that everyone would have them [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":128223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5,22],"tags":[1937,798,1489],"class_list":["post-128208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cavaliers","category-celtics","category-thunder","tag-darius-garland","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128208"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128224,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128208\/revisions\/128224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}