Evan Mobley and the Cleveland Cavaliers are arguably the best teams in the NBA. They entered the NBA All-Star break with a 44-10 record — the best in the Eastern Conference and tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder for No. 1 overall in the entire league. Even though they are playing under a new head coach in Kenny Atkinson, the Cavs proved that they are very much capable of going places with him when they won all of their first 15 games in the 2024-25 NBA campaign.
While Atkinson is a new face in Cleveland, he’s still working with a talented bunch who’s been through a lot. For Mobley, the familiarity with each other is a major driving force behind the success the Cavs are having.
”I feel the difference is just our chemistry,” Mobley tells D.J. Siddiqi of Basketball Insiders in an exclusive interview. “Everyone is clicking on the same page and clicking at the same time. Everyone knows exactly where we’re going to be on the court and we’ve been having a great ball movement which has helped us a lot.”
The Cavs have improved their finishes in the last two seasons in terms of how deep their playoff runs have been. In 2023, Cleveland exited in the first round. The following year, they reached the second round but fell prey to eventual NBA champions Boston Celtics. With the core of Mobley, Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen, and Darius Garland still intact, the Cavaliers look like a team poised to go much deeper than the conference semifinal round.
”I think this year is definitely the year for us and we all want to get to the championship,” added Mobley, who entered the break with season averages of 18.5 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.5 blocks per game. “I feel like we all are on the same page with that and we all believe that we can win a ‘chip this year, so that’s the plan.”
So far this season, the Cavaliers are second in the NBA with 122.7 points per game and 11th with just 111.9 points allowed per outing.
On a four-game win streak, Mobley and the Cavs will eye to keep the good times rolling on Thursday when they visit the Brooklyn Nets. After the Brooklyn game, Cleveland will head back home at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse for a pair of contests versus Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks and Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday and Sunday, respectively.
