The Cleveland Cavaliers joined a stellar quartet of NBA clubs that started their season 15-0 with a 128-114 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday.
With the win, Cleveland joined the 1948-49 Washington Capitols (15-0), the 1993-94 Houston Rockets (15-0) and the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors (24-0). All four of these teams ultimately ended the season in the NBA Finals, but only the Rockets won the championship.
The Cavs played without leading scorer Donovan Mitchell, who was held out of the game before halftime, according to the NBA injury report. Through Cleveland’s first fourteen games, Mitchell averaged 24.6 points and shot 42% on three-pointers.
Ty Jerome took Mitchell’s place in the starting lineup and continued the stellar play he had contributed to the second unit, scoring 24 points (4-for-7 shooting from 3) with eight assists.
“Ty played great. He deserved that,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson explained before the game. “Complete confidence. He also gives us a ball handler. It’s more about him playing great on both ends now.”
Darius Garland led the Cavs with 25 points and 12 assists. Evan Mobley scored 23 points and 11 rebounds, while Jarrett Allen scored 21 points with 15 rebounds, taking advantage of their frontcourt size advantage over the Hornets.
Wearing their powder blue City Edition uniforms, the Cavs got off to a strong start, outscoring Charlotte 38-28 in the first quarter behind Jerome’s 10 points. Cleveland went into halftime with a 72-59 lead.
However, the Hornets fired three-pointers relentlessly and that got them back into the game in the third quarter, narrowing the margin to 82-79 and keeping the game competitive throughout the second half. For the game, Charlotte made 52 three-point shots, 39% of which were successful.
LaMelo Ball led the Hornets with 31 points and 12 assists (5-for-15 shooting from 3s), followed by Miles Bridges’ 19. Josh Green, Brandon Miller (3-for-12 on 3s) and Grant Williams each added 15 for Charlotte, whose record for the season fell to 5–8.
The Cavs face the toughest test of their first fifteen games Tuesday against the 11-3 Boston Celtics at TD Garden. The teams met in the playoffs last season, with Boston winning the Eastern Conference semifinals, four games to one.
