By Claire Garceau

Recently, the Cavs have been going on a steady run, and they’re looking better than ever this season. Coming back from all-star break, here are some things you can expect to see. Kevin Love is no longer with the team as his contract has officially been bought out by the Miami Heat. This is very sad to see as he has been with the team for 9 years and even helped us win a championship. On February 23, the Cavs played the Nuggets and lost in a close game which puts them in 4th in the Eastern Conference. The Cavs are seemingly contenders for the Eastern Conference Champions and their pick up of Donovan Mitchell has made the biggest difference this season. They are eager to fight their way into the playoffs but the chances of them going to the NBA Finals are slim to none. Personally, I would put them behind the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, Denver Nuggets, Phoenix Suns, and the Philadelphia 76er’s. The Cavs have an extremely young team meaning they have a lot of room to grow and space for improvement.

Currently, their star player, Donovan Mitchell, is averaging 27.2 points per game, leading the team in points and coming in 8th in NBA for points per game. Jared Allen is currently getting 9.9 rebounds a game and Darius Garland is racking up 7.9 assists per game, 7th in the NBA for assists per game. Many news outlets are saying Evan Mobley, a versatile power forward, continues to get ignored in the fourth quarter during their last game against the Nuggets, but he  was still able to score 31 points. I think if he hadn’t gotten ignored as much, they possibly could have defended themselves against the run the Nuggets went on in the fourth quarter to get the win. The odds for tonight’s game (February 24) are so far in favor of  the Hawks over the Cavs. The odds of the Cavs winning the Eastern conference are +1100, the odds of their head coach JB Bickerstaff winning coach of the year are +1400 and the odds of Donovan Mitchell winning MVP are +25000. All of these are extremely unlikely but I think if we get a couple good pick ups in the draft and make some trades we can go even farther next year.