NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal is no stranger to wild takes, as he has built his post-basketball career competing with Charles Barkley on Inside the NBA on making the wildest takes every week. However, Shaq’s most recent take about the 15-0 Cavaliers team might actually hold some water, but they will face their biggest test so far in the defending champions Boston Celtics, sitting on an 11-3 record.
“When I look at Cleveland right now, I see that they’re together… I like them to beat Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals and possibly be champions,” Shaq said on the latest episode of Inside, as shared by ClutchPoints on X, formerly Twitter.
Can the Cavaliers sustain win streak vs. the Celtics?
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Not even LeBron James led the Cavaliers to a 15-0 record to start the season; in fact, the Cavs’ best start under James was 6-0 in 2016-2017, fresh off winning the franchise’s only championship.
However, Shaq might be right that there was something different about this Cavaliers team, even though they’ve brought back pretty much the same roster that lost in five games to the Celtics.
One of the biggest changes in their offseason was hiring Kenny Atkinson as their new coach. His defensive philosophy and focus on player movement may have unlocked the players alongside Donovan Mitchell, particularly Darius Garland, who’s rattled off several dazzling performances.
Likewise, even Draymond Green sang Atkinson’s praises.
The former Warriors assistant coach had helped them win a title in 2022 against the same Celtics squad, so he also brings a championship pedigree to the team looking to take the next step.
Moreover, the players themselves have noted a different energy to the season.
“Everybody is showing tons of energy, all over the city of Cleveland,” recently extended Jarrett Allen said, via Matias Grez and Homero de la Fuente for CNN. “It’s incredible how Cleveland has adopted us. They come to every game, yelling for everything. The city of Cleveland has our backs like that.”
Still, Allen also knows that the Cavs’ toughest challenge will be the Celtics, who won 64 games last season en route to their league-leading 18th championship.
“It’s the defending champs and the team that knocked us out last year. We’ve always wanted to test ourselves against the best, we’ve always wanted to see where we stand with the best teams in the league,” he continued.
Proving doubters wrong
However, skeptics like Chandler Parsons have doubted this Cavaliers team.
While the team has played terrific basketball, many of the wins in their 15-0 start came against considerably lesser teams.
They beat the Knicks, Magic, Lakers, and the Warriors, to be sure, but the rest were either rebuilding teams like the Nets or flat-out terrible squads like the Bucks or the 76ers.
As a result, defeating the Celtics to go 16-0 would cement the Cavaliers’ credibility as contenders this season.
