Viewing Alert

Thursday if the first night of a national TV back-to-back for the Cs. Eight p.m. Eastern at Washington, on TNT.

The Wizards suck -- to be fair, they've had some injuries -- but they sucked last year and that didn't stop us from going 1-3 against them (after blowing them out in the season-opener). We never play well in Washington, but hopefully last year caught our attention and we'll come out focused and do what we need to tonight.

Those who don't follow the NBA should know that the Cleveland Cavaliers, our chief rivals in the East, are apparently playing out of their minds right now. Sure, they only have a ten-game winning streak to our twelve-gamer, but over that stretch, they are just eviscerating people, winning by an average margin of 20 points per game. Granted, the nine teams they've beaten over that stretch (they had the Knicks twice). That's a huge margin in this league, and people are taking notice. My daily newsletter from NBA.com had this story that mentioned the Cavs as contenders for the magical 70-win mark.

Allow me, however, to temper Cavs' fans enthusiasm just a bit: Of the nine teams the Cavs have beaten during their streak (they had the Knicks twice), only one (Atlanta, at 12-9) has a winning record. Collectively, the group is 72-116, a winning percentage of .383. While the Celtics' victims during their current streak haven't exactly been world beaters (.438) winning percentage, we have beaten Orlando (third-best record in the East); Portland (fourth-best record in the West); and Detroit (11-9).

We've had some close games; Cleveland hasn't. The streaks are comparable. I'm not ready to hand over the crown yet, nor am I prepared to say that either team has a good probability of 70 wins. There's a reason it's only happened once. Too much has to go right, and you have to bring it every night. Just a few weeks ago there was talk of the Lakers getting 70, but they went out and lost to the Pacers and then the Kings. The league is too good right now, in my opinion, for a team to hit that mark.