CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers could lose every game remaining this season and still make the playoffs. They’re the only team in the NBA capable of saying that, and it’s not even St. Patrick’s Day.
Losing, though, is the furthest thing from this historic team’s collective mind right now.
Cleveland fought back from a 7-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the Miami Heat 112-107 on Wednesday night to become the league’s first team to clinch a playoff berth. The Cavs own the NBA’s best record at 52-10, which stands as their best record through 62 games in team history, and have won 12 in a row.
Whether it’s coach Kenny Atkinson, star Donovan Mitchell or one of the Cavs’ many capable role players doing the talking, this is a team that, time and again, speaks into existence that judgment will come during the playoffs. To a man, they know it to be true. And yet, what’s happening in Cleveland during this long, 82-game slog of a regular season, well, it’s rare.
The Cavs are just one of two teams in NBA history to have three winning streaks of at least 12 games, joining the 2006-07 Dallas Mavericks. Their 52 wins in 62 tries are tied for the eighth-best record through that many games in league history. Almost as an aside, Cleveland has won 16 of its last 17 and owns an NBA-best home record of 29-4.
FIRST TEAM IN. #LETEMKNOW pic.twitter.com/bHn7OwRhhc
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) March 6, 2025
Oh, the Cavs are also 45-0 this season when leading or tied after three quarters, which is bonkers by itself. That statistic was more impressive Wednesday because it meant the Cavs were up on the Heat by 4 heading into the fourth, fell behind by 7 and found a way to win again in their third game in four nights.
So, yeah. This team was predicted to win 48 games for the season by oddsmakers at the outset, made no major roster changes after losing in the second round of the playoffs, and swapped in Atkinson for the previous coach, JB Bickerstaff, whose teams improved every year he coached them.
“Everything’s kind of gone our way, right?” Atkinson said. “We have great talent, great continuity, great togetherness. … There’s luck when you do that. There has to be because it’s so hard to win in the NBA.
“It’s special. It’s really special. We know what we’re going to be judged on, but we enjoy this.”
Mitchell, one of Cleveland’s three All-Stars, led his team with 26 points. His 3-pointer with 3:25 to go put the Cavs up for good, though they nearly lost the lead in the closing seconds. Miami’s Duncan Robinson made what would have been the tying 3 with 17.4 seconds left but was ruled to have stepped out of bounds before the shot.
The Heat, a potential first-round playoff matchup for Cleveland as a possible No. 8 seed, were led by Bam Adebayo’s 34 points and 12 rebounds. They were missing several key players, including All-Star Tyler Herro and Andrew Wiggins, acquired in a blockbuster trade for Jimmy Butler last month.
Former Heat role player Max Strus, a key member of Miami’s last NBA Finals team in 2023, defended Adebayo twice down the stretch when the Cavs defense registered six consecutive stops to eke out another win. On one play, with 27.7 seconds left and Miami trailing by just 3, Adebayo fumbled the ball out of bounds with Strus guarding him near the basket.
“He was telling me to guard him all game,” Strus said. “So when it came down to it, I got the chance. You could say the ball slipped out of his hands, or you might say he felt my presence. We’ll leave it up to you guys to decide.”
Strus was on the Heat team that entered the playoffs as the eighth seed and won the East. Now he is on one of the best regular-season teams in NBA history. “You don’t want to get caught up in it,” he said, “but at the same time, you want to remember the journey.
“It’s my sixth year, but I kind of feel like I’m old already. But it is crazy what we’re doing and to be a part of it. And it’s a special year. So you want to try to remember, try to take it all in. But at the same time, you know once 82 games is over, that’s when the real season starts.”
MAX DOING WHAT HE DOES. #LetEmKnow pic.twitter.com/u4iOLmV8Ei
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) March 6, 2025
Cleveland opened the season 15-0. The Oklahoma City Thunder, despite the Cavs’ outrageous season, are still within one game of Cleveland for the NBA’s No. 1 seed. Oklahoma City also won 15 in a row during the season but had its winning streak snapped by the Cavs. Cleveland beat the Toronto Raptors in the next game for a 12-game streak, and the current streak began after a narrow Feb. 4 loss to the defending champion Boston Celtics.
The Cavs made the crucial trade for De’Andre Hunter two days later and haven’t lost with him in the lineup. Hunter continues to be a perfect complement to what was already a deep, strong team, giving it a switchable wing off the bench who can guard any position and score.
Hunter finished with 16 points. Evan Mobley, another Cleveland All-Star, contributed 16 points and 13 boards.
“This was an expectation,” Mitchell said of clinching a playoff spot. “Is it great that we did it in March? Yeah, but this is the bare minimum for us.”
The Cavs weren’t even this good, at least during the regular season, when Kevin Love was on the team – a noteworthy comment on this night. Love, a key piece of the Cavs’ 2016 championship team, played his first game in Cleveland since he was bought out of his contract in March 2023.
Love, playing in just his 21st game this season with the Heat, started and scored 10 points with six rebounds. He starred for the Cavs since they traded for him in 2014 through their last finals appearance in 2018. That Cleveland team from the glory days broke up, but Love chose to stay and signed a four-year, $120 million contract.
He was injured almost immediately in the fall of 2018 and didn’t return until February. By that time, Cleveland was already in stage one of a painful (but short) rebuild.
Love finished second in voting for NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 2022, when Cleveland surprisingly surged to the top of the East before falling in the Play-In Tournament and failing to advance to the playoffs. The following year, Love’s last with the Cavs, he fell out of the rotation in January when Bickerstaff chose to give his minutes to Dean Wade.
Cleveland was headed for the playoffs, but Love asked for and received a buyout for the final year of his contract in March 2023. He signed with Miami and played a key role for a Heat team that reached the finals.
The Cavs welcomed back Love with a video tribute during the first timeout. When the video finished, he walked near midcourt and waved to the sold-out crowd, placing his hand over his heart and pointing to his ring finger.
“I can’t say I wanted it,” Love said. “I’ve found myself fading to the background a bit. It does feel good to be acknowledged in a place where we won and did a lot of special things together as a group. It’s fun to look up there.”
Only one player — Tristan Thompson — from Cleveland’s last championship is left on the roster, but several of the Cavs’ current key pieces were on the team when Love left.
The way things are going, those players, Love’s former teammates, might be able to point to their ring fingers by mid-June.
Required reading
(Photo of Donovan Mitchell and Pelle Larsson: Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)
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