On Wednesday evening, the Cleveland Cavs continued their hot streak with a blowout home win over the Los Angeles Lakers. The game marked Lakers star LeBron James’ annual return to face his old team, which he helped guide to an NBA championship a decade ago.
The Cavs are currently trying to usher in their first real era of prosperity since James left town in 2018, and recently, James spoke on why he has no interest in comparing the current team to the days when he wore a Cleveland uniform.
“The resemblance with us, it’s a totally different game as well. Definitely not in the comparison level of my career. I think it’s a disservice to everybody included,” said James, per Oh No He Didn’t on X, formerly Twitter.
Indeed, the way the game is played at the NBA level has changed significantly since James left Cleveland for the second time back in 2018 to join the Lakers. Although the three-point revolution had already begun, the pace-and-space era is in full swing now, making even games from less than a decade ago look unrecognizable from a stylistic perspective when compared to today.
The Cavs have done their best to assemble a roster suitable for that style of play, led by Donovan Mitchell and flanked by some intriguing players like Evan Mobley, who seemingly fits right into the positionless basketball that every team is trying to capture in 2026.
Although Mobley, Darius Garland, and many other Cavs players have underperformed relative to expectations thus far in 2025-26, the team has slowly but surely begun to turn things around in recent weeks, and is now climbing up the Eastern Conference standings as a result.
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In any case, the Cavs will next hit the floor on Friday evening as they begin a Western Conference road trip in Phoenix against the Suns.