Cavaliers blow out Celtics on the road with a new roster

The new Cavaliers made a statement in their debut

For the first time in his career, everything we know about LeBron James was brought into question. He was supposed to be the ultimate teammate who could make it work with anyone. But then, Kyrie Irving didn’t want to play with him. And then, Isaiah Thomas didn’t work with him.

So the Cavaliers hit the reset button in the middle of the season to get back to the basics with James’ team. Just put the ball in his hands and let him go to work — nothing too complicated or complex. What were the results? James finished with 24 points, 10 assists, and eight rebounds and the Celtics were run out of their own building on Paul Pierce’s jersey retirement night.

The Cavaliers looked like a 60-win team against the best defense in the NBA. They hit three after three after three, finishing 16-of-30 from beyond the arc in a 121-99 victory.

James’ teammates were the biggest difference

In just a few days, the Cavaliers managed to go from a team afflicted by a strong malaise to a team with an abundance of energy. They spaced the floor on offense in the halfcourt, were springy while maintaining synergy defensively, and sprinted the floor in transition after misses.

James had the dazzling stat line per usual, but his teammates put in a group effort on both ends of the floor to pick up the slack around him. There wasn’t a starter who finished with a net rating below +8. Eight of the 10 players who played significant minutes for Cleveland finished with a +8 or better.

They made all the little plays. George Hill’s box score doesn’t say much — he had 12 points, three rebounds, and one assist. But he stifled the Celtics’ perimeter defensively multiple times. Here he is causing a strip on Kyrie Irving.

Then the very next possession he drew a charge on Jayson Tatum.

I literally do not remember the last time a Cavs guard defended this well.

Then, on the other end, the Cavs’ new additions were scorching the nets from deep. Jordan Clarkson and Rodney Hood combined for 32 points and made 6-of-10 three-pointers in the game. They moved to the right spaces and always seemed to be on the same page when James played with the bench. James threw Clarkson this pass for a three while hanging in mid air. He trusted he’d be there and his new teammate was.

That’s a difficult play to make and one that requires a bit of chemistry to do. It’s something James didn’t really have with his old teammates but something we can already clearly see with his new ones.

Does this win mean the Cavs are better than the Celtics?

It’s probably a bit too early to make a declarative statement like that. We can safely say they’re a better team than they were a week ago, even if it was just on one night. And that’s a big step in itself.

Still, we’ve got to temper ourselves and realize that the sample is still small and they’ll likely hit a snag or two along the road to the playoffs over these next couple months. But this is a much more dangerous team now with a central vision of how things are supposed to be done. And that should scare the hell out of the rest of the Eastern Conference.