After the 94-86 win over the Nets today, the Cleveland Cavaliers have extended their winning streak to seven games. Prior to this seven game stretch, the team’s longest winning streak this season stood at just five games.
What’s most impressive, perhaps, is when you consider the teams in which the wins have come against. Excluding a porous 3-win New Jersey team, the five other teams that the Cavaliers have defeated on this streak have a combined record of 102-60 as of 4 PM today (only five teams since they played Atlanta twice).
Also, while excluding the Cavs, there are nine other 20-win teams so far this season. The Cavaliers managed to defeat four of these 20-win teams on this streak alone, beating one of them, Atlanta, on two separate occasions.
On the season the Cavs are 9-3 against the nine 20-win teams, having played all of them except for Denver (this upcoming Friday they’ll meet) and having beaten all of the remaining eight teams with the exception of Boston (0-1).
Here are a few trends that have developed during this 7 game winning streak.
- Mo Williams is averaging 21.6 points and 5.4 assists per game over the last seven games. In the 28 games prior to this winning streak, Williams was averaging 16.3 points and 4.8 assists per game.
- Similarly, Mo Williams has shot a fantastic percentage over the past seven games, shooting 18-37 (48.6%) from three and 31-34 (91.2%) from the free throw line. In the 28 games before this, he was 62-143 (43.4%) from three and 73-84 (86.9%) from the line. Also, during this seven game streak, Williams is averaging 4.9 free throw attempts per game compared to 3.0 free throw attempts in the previous 28 games.
- Lastly, the Cavaliers have played very well in the fourth quarter during this seven game run. They have won four of the seven fourth quarters, tied once, and haven’t lost a fourth quarter by more than four points. Over the seven game winning streak the Cavs are +33 in the fourth quarter (+4.7 points per game).