The Cleveland Cavaliers had their 11 game winning streak end Saturday night in a 97-92 loss at Atlanta. The defeat dropped the wine and gold’s record to 20-4 on the season with three more road games to follow (Minnesota, Denver, and Oklahoma City) before returning home to Quicken Loans Arena. As their excellent beat reporter Brian Windhorst pointed it out in The Plain Dealer, the only blemish on Cavs’ record is their mark on the road against winning teams.
The truth is because of the success of the Cavaliers, Celtics, and Lakers, there aren’t many very good teams in the NBA this season. There are several good teams, and others who have reputations for being very good, but they have struggled this year for many reasons. For example, the Cavs only road victory against a winning team thus far was against Dallas, and they are just 13-9 on the campaign, disappointing for them.
The wine and gold’s main competition in the Eastern Conference is the defending champion Celtics, who currently sit atop the conference standings with a 22-2 record. Boston has played four more home games than road contests compared to the Cavaliers two game advantage at home, which will be evened up on this trip. It’s safe to say Boston has had a very favorable slate thus far.
So even though the Cavs have just one road win against a quality opponent, Boston has just two, beating Houston and Detroit. Of course, they have played ten games away from the Garden in 2008. The other beast of the NBA, the Lakers, has four quality road victories, beating Denver, Dallas, New Orleans, and Phoenix.
Another thing that stands out on the Celts is the minutes played by two of their big three. Both Paul Pierce (37.1) and Ray Allen (35.6) are getting more minutes per contest than LeBron James (35.5). Of course, James will turn 24 years old in a couple of weeks, while Pierce is now 31 and Allen is 33 years old. It will be interesting to see if this heavy workload will have an effect on the older guys as the season goes on. Allen, in particular, wore down as the season went on last season.
While there is reason for a little concern regarding the Cavaliers performance against good teams on the road, the same thing can be said about the Boston Celtics. The biggest difference is that the green cashed in a title in 2007-08, while Cleveland is still looking for a championship. The Cavs have to hope their fresher legs will pay dividends as the 82 game regular season goes on.
JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 
I agree with you about Boston…. "they’re getting old", they will slow down as the season progresses, but Z is also a guy that concerns me due to his age, and his health. He has gotten off to a very fast start, but he has a history of fading out late in the season. Ben Wallace is holding up right now, but one must wonder how fresh he will be later on in the season–he’s older than Z!!!If Lebron re signs with the Cavs, the future will be better for Cleveland over Boston, but right now, the Celtics are a step ahead of Cleveland, maybe not talent wise, but when it comes to knowing their system and running it effectively, they are just better than the Cavs–that was evident last year and even in the first game this season. Cleveland is still in need of a legitimate shooting guard who can attack the defense opposite side of Lebron. Sasha was suppose to be that size mismatch against other teams, but it’s not working… Wally is an older version of Sasha, who should be traded. Delonte West is a failed attempt at PG, trying to play the two guard. Yes, he has shot the ball very well, but he struggles with decision making due to his lack of ball handling ability. And verse guys like Joe Johnson and Richard Hamilton, he is completely over matched due to his lack of size and strength. (Danny Ferry will upgrade the two guard position.) The latest rumor is:) Anderson Varejao and Wally Szerbiak for Shawn Marion: That would make the Cavs a real threat ….. "Lebron would finally have a legitimate sidekick."
Mike Brown is doing a great job of limiting the minutes of Z and Big Ben. This should play dividends down the stretch.