It's seems hard to believe, but the Cleveland Cavaliers may be even better than they were last season when they beat the Golden State Warriors for the NBA championship.
With a hard-fought 100-93 victory over a strong Charlotte Hornets team Sunday, the Cavs are now 8-1 this season. Versatile 6-11 center/forward Channing Frye came up with a huge game for the Cavs, hitting 6 of 12 from behind the arc to finish with 20 points. LeBron James and Kyrie Irving added 19.
As a team, the Cavaliers hit 14 of 38 on 3-point shooting. They have now made at least 10 3-pointers in all nine games this year, setting a record for consecutive games with 10-plus threes to start a season
Despite returning essentially the same roster that won the NBA championship last season, this may be an even better version of the team. Irving, Kevin Love and Iman Shumpert, who all underwent offseason surgery before last season, are completely healthy this year. Coach Tyronn Lue is on board for the whole season, a welcome relief from the soap-opera distraction that surrounded the David Blatt situation last year.
And role players such as Frye continue to show the Cavs are much more than the Big Three of James, Irving and Love. In fact, Irving and Love both sat the entire fourth quarter against the Hornets Sunday as the Cavs overcame a one-point deficit after three quarters.
MORE: Where does Kyrie Irving land among NBA's best PGs?
"Right now we're in a good place, we're playing good basketball," Lue said, via Cleveland.com. "We can always play better. We're just trying to figure out, like I said before, different rotations. It's going to be ongoing to the end of the season, just trying to find different mixtures and the right combinations."
Studs of the night
Timberwolves forward Andrew Wiggins has taken his game to another level in the past week. Only five days after scoring a career-high 36 points against the Nets, he went out Sunday and dropped 47 points on the Lakers to key a 125-99 Timberwolves win. He shot 14 of 21 from the field.
Serge Ibaka came into Orlando's game against the Thunder averaging 12.4 points per game, but he went off against OKC. He hit 13-of-19 shots for a career-high 31 points and added nine rebounds against his former team.
Kevin Love scored his fourth-straight double-double (17 points, 11 rebounds) despite sitting out the entire fourth quarter of the Cavs 100-93 win over the Hornets.
MORE: Eight players with the most to prove this NBA season
Dud of the night
Magic center Nikola Vucevic made only two of his 10 shots and finished with four points.
Highlight
Meet Marquese Chriss, highlight machine:
Marquese Chriss is a HIGHLIGHT MACHINE! #WeArePHX pic.twitter.com/32vUnonkzh
— NBA (@NBA) November 14, 2016
Ricky Rubio throws a great no-look pass — then he watches as Cole Aldrich slams it home:
#powerofthepack 🏀 movement! #nbavine https://t.co/iW4W8hZsVg
— NBA (@NBA) November 14, 2016
MORE: NBA scoreboard — stats, info, highlights from the Association
What's next
Nets (4-5) at Clippers (9-1), 10:30 p.m. ET — All hail the mighty Clippers, who are off to the hottest start in the NBA behind Blake Griffin (20.2 ppg), Chris Paul (19.0 ppg) and DeAndre Jordan (10.8 ppg, 12.2 rpg). The Nets are getting what they expected out of Brook Lopez (19.4 ppg), as well as a surprising start from new point guard Jeremy Lin (15.0 ppg, 6.2 apg).