Now that some of the dust has settled from season’s end, and most of us have moved on with our NBA postseason lives, it’s time to look back on one of the most thrilling – and most promising – campaigns in recent Cavaliers memory.
After winning just 19 games in the first two seasons after LeBron James bolted for Tinseltown – and 22 in the year after that – the Cavs doubled their win total in 2021-22 and won 50-plus for the first time since Numeral 23 took Cleveland to the Finals back in 2018.
The Wine & Gold welcomed a new superstar – Donovan Mitchell – in 2022-23, and all the 26-year-old did in his first year as a Cavalier was post the best offensive season of his career, shatter a franchise scoring mark and wrap up All-NBA honors while establishing himself as the team’s new veteran leader.
During the 51-win campaign, Jarrett Allen followed up his All-Star season with yet another as the Cavs model of consistency, Darius Garland continued his ascension as one of the game’s top young point guards and Evan Mobley established himself as one of the most versatile defenders in the Association as a 21-year-old.
Things didn’t go as planned for any of the aforementioned Cavaliers once they reached the Playoffs, dropping their First Round series to New York in five games in a disappointing return to the postseason after a five-year absence.
We’ll all find out what the team took away from their taste of Playoff basketball around this time next year.
For now, let’s take a look back on how last season unfolded for J.B. Bickerstaff’s youngsters.
Today’s Part 1 will focus on the first 37 games before the turn of the calendar year. On Wednesday, we’ll go from the start of 2023 through the All-Star Game and on Friday, we’ll cover the regular season’s homestretch and late-April’s hard-knocks education in the Playoffs.
HERE COMES THE SPIDA, MAN
It’s impossible to recap the beginning of the 2022-23 Cavs season without discussing Donovan Mitchell right off the top.
Just weeks before Training Camp tipped off, the Cavaliers brass swung for the fences, sending Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen, Ochai Agbaji and three first rounders to Utah in exchange for the All-Star guard. And right from the start, Mitchell was even better than advertised.
Only a guy named Wilt Chamberlain got off to a better start with a new team than Mitchell did with the Wine & Gold. In his Cavaliers debut, the former Louisville star led all scorers with 31 points in a loss at Toronto in the opener. He would proceed to tally at least 30 points in five of his first six games, including a 41-point outburst in a thrilling overtime win in Boston.
In his first 10 games in a Cavs uniform, Mitchell stacked up 319 points – most by a player in franchise history in their opening stretch – and second to only Wilt, who did so with Philly back in 1959.
Overall, through the first part of the season, Number 45 topped the 30-point mark on a dozen occasions – including a 38-point, 12-assist performance in Cleveland’s lone victory of the season against New York – and went for 40-plus three times – including a 43-point outburst in a home win over the Lakers in early December.
Mitchell struggled down the stretch in December, topping the 20-point mark just once in his final four games of the calendar year. Little did anybody know he had a doozy planned for the first game of 2023.
GOING STREAKING
Donovan Mitchell wasn’t the only one who got off to a strong start to this past season. The Cavaliers, as a team, were just as good to begin the campaign – avenging their opening night loss in Toronto by mauling the Bulls by 32 points in Chicago three nights later, igniting a season-best eight game win streak.
Things got weird from there, however. After blasting the Pistons by 24 points and the Lakers by two touchdowns to start a five-game roadie, the Cavs dropped their next five. They got back on track with a double-overtime win over Charlotte in mid-November, the first of four straight to right the ship.
The Wine & Gold ran off another five-game win streak in mid-December – capped by a 23-point drubbing of the Jazz at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse – before dropping three of four to end calendar year.
YOUNG GUNS
The Cavaliers were obviously getting excellent production from their newcomer, Donovan Mitchell. But the first half of the season also saw their young core players continue to shine.
After suffering an eye injury in the opener, Darius Garland was forced to miss six of the season’s first eight games, but he returned with a vengeance – going off for 29 points in a home win over Boston and a career-high 51 points in a mid-November loss to Minnesota – exploding for a franchise-record 27 points in the fourth quarter and going 10-of-15 from three-point range overall.
Later that week, the 4th-year man from Vanderbilt went off for 41 points in a double-overtime nailbiter against Charlotte and finished with 46 points in a loss to the Nets on the day after Christmas, unable to offset 32 points apiece from Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
Jarrett Allen doubled-up in five of the Cavs first seven games of the season and again in four of their final seven games before the turn of the calendar year. Overall, the franchise’s all-time leader in field goal percentage would proceed to notch 14 double-doubles through his first 30 games of the season (with Cleveland going 10-4 in those games).
Evan Mobley got better as his sophomore season progressed, but that’s not to say he wasn’t outstanding to start the year.
After finishing as runner-up for Rookie of the Year in 2021-22, Mobley piled up 11 double-doubles of his own before January and had 10 multiple-block games overall – none better than his eight swats in an early-November win in Detroit, good for 3rd-best single-game total in franchise history.
Aside from their promising greenhorns, the Cavs also saw a pair of veterans get off to solid starts this year.
Caris LeVert tallied double-figures in 11 of his first 13 outings, including a 41-point outburst in an overtime win over the Celtics in Boston. The Columbus, OH native also rang up three straight 20-point nights in mid-December.
Cedi Osman, now the longest-tenured Cavalier, became just the second player in team history (joining Jordan Clarkson) to notch double-figure scoring in each of his first four games off the bench in a season, averaging 15.5ppg as Cleveland jumped out to a hot start.
A LITTLE EXTRA
If you’ve noticed a trend – Cavaliers having some of their best individual outings in overtime games – it’s no accident. The Wine & Gold played five games that went to OT or double-OT through the first 37 games of the year, and they won all five.
Donovan Mitchell led everyone with 37 points and the Cavs needed an extra session to top Washington in the home opener on October 23 and he and Caris LeVert became the first duo since LeBron and Kyrie in Game 5 of the 2016 Finals to score 41 points apiece – doing so in an overtime thriller in Boston less than a week later.
Less than a week after that win in Boston, the Cavaliers dropped the Celtics in overtime again, this time at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
The Cavs weathered Terry Rozier’s withering late-game charge in a double-overtime victory in mid-November to snap a five-game skid and held on to beat a stubborn Mavericks squad playing without Luka Doncic by a single point in December.
Overall, the Cavs were 16-4 at home before the turn of the calendar year; 7-10 on the road. They headed into 2023 one game out of first place in the Central Division and with the fourth-best mark in the Conference behind the Bucks, Celtics and Nets.