Cavaliers Named 9th-Best NBA Team After 3-2 Start to Season

Bleacher Report named the Cleveland Cavaliers the ninth-best NBA team after starting the 2026-27 season 3-2. 

The Cavaliers lost to the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1, beat the Brooklyn Nets in Game 2, the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 3 and the Washington Wizards in Game 4 and lost to the Atlanta Hawks in Game 5. 

Cleveland is averaging 118.0 points per game. That's good for ninth in the NBA. The defense hasn't been good, though. The Cavaliers are giving up 117.0 points per game. That's 20th in the league. 

Donovan Mitchell leads the Cavaliers in scoring. The All-Star shooting guard is averaging 24.2 points per game while shooting 47.1% from the field, 36.4% from beyond the arc and 87.1% from the free-throw line. 

Cleveland should be 4-1. Mitchell and Co. had a 29-point lead on opening night against LeBron James and the 76ers. 

However, the 76ers outscored the Cavaliers 37-21 in the third quarter and 32-16 in the fourth quarter to win the game 114-106. It was an epic collapse by Cleveland.   

Cleveland made the conference finals last season for the first time without James on the roster since 1992. The Cavaliers should have won Game 1 in New York against the Knicks at MSG. Trailing by 22 points with 8:19 left in the fourth quarter of Game 1, the Knicks had Jalen Brunson go at James Harden on defense and it got ugly for Harden and Co.

The result was a 44-11 flurry by New York in the fourth quarter and overtime, completing one of the greatest comebacks in NBA history with a 115-104 victory.

Clearly, the Cavaliers didn't learn anything this summer, as they choked against the 76ers on national television. Again!

This season, Mitchell will try to do what James did in 2016. The 2015-16 Cavaliers won the 2016 championship against the 73-9 Golden State Warriors for the only NBA title in Cleveland franchise history. 

To win it all, Mitchell and the Cavaliers need to learn how to close game. 

Mitchell signed a four-year, $273 million maximum contract extension this offseason. He entered this season with career averages of 25.1 points per game in the regular season and 27.8 points per game in the playoffs with the Utah Jazz and Cavaliers. 

Cleveland acquired Mitchell from Utah before the 2022-23 season. 

Next up for Cleveland is a matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday. The Bucks are only 1-4, so the Cavaliers should win that game.