Well-balanced Cavaliers tearing through all challengers

Cleveland is taking on all comers these days. Taking them on, knocking them down and sending them on their way a little heavier in the loss column.

The Cavaliers are humming along, boasting one of the NBA's top three records and looking almost unbeatable on any given night. LeBron James is at his King James best, and with his Central Division-leading cohorts playing a more-than-able supporting role, the Cavaliers have become one glamorous bunch.

So it's no surprise that the Cavs are one of the teams to carry the NBA banner on Christmas Day. Cleveland welcomes Washington to town in a rematch of last season's Eastern Conference first-round series.

"I don't think of it as playing on Christmas," Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said. "I know my wife does. She's happy that we're playing at home. But beyond that I don't care when we play, where we play, Game 7 on the road, Game 3 on the road, Game 4 at home. Let's lace them up and let's get after it."

Brown hasn't found any resistance in getting his team to play. The Cavaliers are at or near the top of every major defensive category, from points allowed to field-goal percentage to rebounding to blocked shots.

Throw in James leading an offense more balanced than ever and it adds up to the league's largest differential in scoring. Better than the Celtics. Better than the Lakers.

"It ain't easy. Trust me. Nothing is easy," said point guard and Mo Williams, who's made a seamless transition to Cleveland from Milwaukee. "It's just been our focus. If we come out not focused or ready to play, you'll see a different team. If you want to be one of the better teams in the league, you have to be focused and ready to play on a day-in and day-out basis."

Making their mark as a defensive-minded team, the Cavs are enjoying their best start in franchise history. David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images

The stats tell the story for a team that underwent a significant reworking after winning its East title. Cleveland won 45 games last season but never gelled after trading for Wally Szczerbiak, Ben Wallace and Delonte West.

"It's hard to adjust to what a player can do," said West, a fifth-year player on his third team. "That weighs on the trust. When you talk about trust, that's big."

Much of that trust had to come from James.

"We didn't have enough time to [become] what I thought we could become last year, having the late trade in February and just not having enough time with injuries," James said. "It all started in preseason with some of the holdouts for contracts and guys that were there that didn't want to be there."

It was a different story this year. Brown talked about the team getting together before training camp started. The players worked out and often would meet later to watch football. The camaraderie formed before Brown ever ran a practice.

And once practices started, the rest of it came together quickly.

"Our guys understand that we're a defensive team," Brown said. "That's our identity, but the biggest thing is just the chemistry that the group has amongst one another. They like each other a ton and they want to play for one another, which makes it fun."

The Cavaliers started the season 1-2, but "something clicked and we started playing real well," center Zydrunas Ilgauskas said. He pointed to the third quarter as a problem spot in the early going. That's not the case any longer.

"The third quarter was when we buried the teams," Ilgauskas said, referring to a recent run of nine straight double-figure wins. "There was two weeks or so when our starters never played a minute in the fourth quarter."

As a result, the Cavaliers are off to the best start in franchise history. If it weren't for Boston's record-breaking start, we'd be hearing plenty of chatter about Cleveland winning 70.

Not from the Cavaliers, though.

"We don't try to match ourselves up with the Celtics," James said. "We know we're a good team and we know we can compete with the Celtics on any given night. So we don't match our performance with the Celtics. We just try to get better every single night."