The Cavs Are Playing Brilliant, Comfortable Basketball

This NBA season has been full of newness. Kevin Durant is on the Warriors, Russell Westbrook has his solo show in Oklahoma City, the Spurs are adjusting to post-Tim Duncan life, and James Harden puts up heretofore theoretical statistics under Mike D'Antoni in Houston. All this change has given the young year an unsettled appeal. Contenders have not yet found the habits that will let them cruise through late winter; they play their early games not only to bank wins but also to build and road-test the version of themselves that will stick.

The exception to all this tinkering is the Cleveland Cavaliers, last season's champion and this season's best team. It makes sense that they would not be tinkering; save for losing backup point guard Matthew Dellavedova in the offseason, they've kept their squad intact. Tuesday night, they overcame a late deficit to beat their foremost Eastern Conference quasi-challengers, the Toronto Raptors, 121-117. The win bumped their record to 9-1, the best start of any team LeBron James has ever played on. They've played coolly dominant basketball, but their start has also showcased the benefits of familiarity.

In beating the Raptors, the Cavs played more or less as they usually do. James worked at cruising speed, racking up a near triple-double (28 points on 10-for-15 shooting, 14 assists, 9 rebounds) without ever seeming to break into a full sprint. He nudged around screens, dropped in fadeaways, tossed ballistic crosscourt passes, and made timely cuts. When James rested, either by heading to the bench or by lounging on the perimeter for a possession, Kyrie Irving aerated the Toronto defense. Kevin Love chipped in, in his frustrating way—19 points, 13 rebounds, at least five of those off the kinds of misses that reduce James's already skimpy follicle count—and Tristan Thompson hung around the rim for 15 and 11.

It was brilliant, comfortable basketball. With half a minute left and the Cavs leading by two, Irving set a back-screen for James, and Love found him with a diagonal pass for a layup. The action was representative: there is nothing Cleveland needs to discover, only protocols to apply.

Besides basic continuity, one of the perks of Cleveland's routine—and of having neither reason nor inclination to build a whole new system—is that it makes little shifts easier. After he arrived from Orlando last season, Channing Frye stuck mostly to a peripheral role, spelling the Cavs' main big men and, on good nights, knocking in a three. This year, Frye has been more fully incorporated, and on Tuesday he went for 21 points on seven triples. He steps in for Thompson, sets picks for James, and pops instead of rolls. He just goes where he's supposed to go, and does what he's supposed to do. After a summer's work, it looks simple.

Really, it all looks simple for Cleveland these days. What they lack in the allure of the unknown, the Cavaliers make up in sheer competence. Three weeks into the season, we've already seen what they intend to do all year. They don't have to change; the rest of the league has to catch up.