After the Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers by 12 points on Dec. 31, Lakers head coach J.J. Redick boldly claimed that teams have to play “close to perfect basketball” in order to beat teams as good as the current Cavaliers squad.
JJ Redick says teams have to play near perfect basketball against Cleveland 👀 pic.twitter.com/DFbBKIonAh
— Ball Exclusives (@ballexclusives) January 2, 2025
Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson recently got wind of Redick’s comments and seemed flattered.
Lakers’ JJ Redick said you have to play almost perfect basketball to beat #Cavs. “That’s the ultimate compliment,” Kenny Atkinson says. “I did not know he said that.”
— Sam Amico (@AmicoHoops) January 5, 2025
The Cavaliers have been almost unbeatable this season, as evidenced by their record. Through 34 games, Cleveland has just four losses.
Cleveland’s record isn’t far off from the best record through 34 games in the history of the league. The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors have the top record in NBA history through that many games played at 32-2.
Additionally, the Cavaliers are on pace to finish the regular season with 72 wins, which would be tied for the second-most wins from any NBA team in a single season.
The Chicago Bulls won that many contests in the 1995-96 regular season, and they were led by none other than Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen at the time. That iteration of the Bulls went on to win the NBA title that season.
The 2015-16 Warriors own the all-time record for wins in a single regular season. They went 73-9 but lost in the 2016 NBA Finals to none other than the Cavaliers.
The Cavs are on a roll at the moment, as they are winners of each of their last nine games and have a prime shot to extend their winning streak into double digits on Sunday night.
As of this writing, Cleveland is in action against a lowly Charlotte Hornets team. Despite the fact that rising star LaMelo Ball is putting up some of the best numbers of his pro career this season, Charlotte has won just seven games since the start of the campaign.
While Redick’s claim that it practically takes perfect basketball to beat Cleveland might have been hyperbolic, the Cavaliers have proven through their play this season that the opposition needs to be at the top of its game in order to come out with a win against them.
