While the Cleveland Cavaliers head into Sunday’s home matchup against the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics with the league’s best record, they also aim to avoid a three-game losing streak.
Cleveland’s 15-game winning streak to start the season was interrupted by the Celtics in their last meeting on November 19, where the host Celtics claimed a 120-117 victory. The Cavaliers rebounded with wins over Toronto and New Orleans but stumbled against the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday and Friday.
Trae Young’s 20-point, 22-assist performance powered Atlanta to 135 points on Wednesday, the most Cleveland has allowed this season. The Hawks followed their 11-point victory in Cleveland with a 16-point rout of the Cavaliers on Friday in Atlanta.
These consecutive losses dropped Cleveland to 17-3, tying them with Boston for the NBA’s best record in the loss column. Despite this, the Cavaliers maintain the league’s best winning percentage at .850 and are striving to avoid their first three-game losing streak since last April.
Last season, the Cavaliers ranked No. 20 in points per game with 112.6. Under new coach Atkinson, they now lead the NBA in scoring with 122.4 points per game.
Friday’s game marked Cleveland’s lowest-scoring output of the season, despite 29 points from Darius Garland and 24 from Evan Mobley. Donovan Mitchell scored just 12 points, less than half his season average of 24.1, while Jarrett Allen, who averages 14.5 points per game, managed just six points.
The Cavaliers look to get back on track against a Celtics team currently riding a seven-game winning streak. Boston, averaging the NBA’s second-highest points per game at 121.2, opened and closed their streak with high-scoring victories—139 points against Brooklyn on November 13 and 138 points against Chicago on Friday.
Jayson Tatum scored 35 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in Boston’s nine-point win over the Bulls. He is averaging 28.7 points per game, including his 33-point performance in the win over Cleveland.
In Friday’s NBA Cup win, Boston also received a significant boost from Payton Pritchard, who scored 29 points (19 in the fourth quarter) following a 20-point outing in the Celtics’ 126-94 blowout of the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday.
Pritchard, averaging 15.6 points per game, is one of five Celtics averaging over 12 points, along with Tatum, Jaylen Brown (24.7), Derrick White (18.3), and Jrue Holiday (12.1).
