Iron sharpens iron. It’s a saying beloved by every old gritty coach trying to teach his players how to play tough. The central theme is that you can’t become a better team without facing good opponents. The path to becoming a championship-caliber team doesn’t come by coasting through easy wins against ailing teams but rather is paved through hard-fought battles against other teams eager for a ring at the end of the season. You can’t sharpen iron with some other cheap metal, you need to use something with similar durability and strength. The Cavaliers have an opportunity to prove themselves against the only team that has even come close to their level of play this season this Wednesday as they take on the Thunder at home.
The Cavaliers opened with an unprecedented hot start to the season rattling off 15 consecutive wins before finally dropping a game to the Celtics. The Cavs’ opening win streak was the best in the league until the Thunder put together a 15-game win streak of their own with their last official loss coming on December 1st. The Thunder do however have an “unofficial” loss in the middle of their win streak as they fell to the Bucks in the NBA Cup championship. Now with the in-season tournament in their rearview mirror, the second-best team in the league is looking to jump the Cavaliers and take control of the best record in the NBA.
The Thunder have built their success off of a deep pool of draft picks they have parlayed into an all-star roster filled with the top picks of other teams. With a young roster filled with talent and a rich team chemistry the Thunder are in an optimal position to compete for a championship for the next half decade or more. OKC’s success is not some accidental fluke of a season and the momentum they carry into this matchup could propel them towards and through the all-star break. Conversely, they offer an excellent opponent for the Cavaliers to test their newfound strength against.
While the Thunder are certainly bringing a lot to this heavyweight bout, there is no reason to count out the Cavs as they currently sit as 2.5-point favorites. While the Thunder may carry a 15-game winning streak, the Cavaliers carry with them a 10-game winning streak of their own. Not only that, but the last nine of the Cavaliers’ wins have come by 10 points or more against teams including the Nuggets, Lakers and Mavericks who round out the four, five and six seeds in the Western Conference. The Cavaliers hold the best record in the league for a reason and their combination of stars has been playing lights out as they continue to push for all-star spots for their key four players.
The Cavaliers may not have had the opportunity to compete for the in-season tournament championship, but when a team has been playing at this level their eyes are on the championship at the end of the season, not the one in the middle. To win a championship the Cavs are going to have to beat the best teams in the league, and Wednesday’s matchup brings with it a worthy opponent and a reason to win outside of general competition. If the Cavaliers win this game, they will have further cemented their record as the best team in the league and draw even more eyes onto the bandwagon that has become this Cavaliers team. With the pressure to show out before all-star voting closes, and the added energy that a Cleveland home crowd always delivers, we are set for more than just a game, but a spectacle.
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