Jim Ingraham: These Cavs are in the running for best Cavs team ever

When it was over, LeBron James walked directly off the floor, straight to the locker room. None of the usual NBA postgame glad-handing. Just like that, LeBron was out of there. Poof! Gone! He never looked back. Why? Probably because his current team had been Cav-ed by his former team. The King had been Konged by the Lakers, 122-110. It was 34-30 in the first quarter, 24-23 in the second quarter, 29-25 in the third quarter and 35-32 in the fourth quarter. The Lakers were peddling as hard as they could, but they couldn't catch the Cavs — and it was glorious. In Tuesday night's game in La-La Land, the Lakers tried to give their Hollywood fans what they came to see. Instead, the Cavs gave the Lakers and their fans what they were going to get, which was a 122-110 trip to the woodshed. By quarters, the Cavs swept the Lakers by four, one, four and three points, and the Cavs did it in the Lakers' gym. So this seems like a good time to just throw this out there: Is this Cavs team the best Cavs team ever? Better even than LeBron's 2015-2016 world champion Cavs? Consider this: Cleveland's 12-point win on the Lakers' floor on Monday capped a stunning three road wins in five days over three teams (the Lakers, Warriors, and Nuggets) who have combined to win six NBA championships in the last 16 years. How is that for a résumé? Could this be Cleveland's year? Is this Cavaliers team the best Cavs team ever? From a basketball purist's standpoint, even LeBron's 2015-2016 champions didn't make hay the way the current Cavs do. The current Cavs are an amalgam of styles, unselfishness and relentlessness that can drive opponents loopy. It's hard to keep up with this version of the Cavs because all the players are all in, but mostly all in not for themselves but for each other. You rarely see a basketball team with this much talent and so little ego. At times, from the outside, it can be frustrating to watch all that ball-sharing. You almost want to scream out: "Will somebody please shoot the ball?" With the Cavs, it's almost like nobody wants to shoot because they are having too much fun passing the ball up and down and all around the court. Even when the bench guys are on the floor, nothing changes. It's all for one and all for everyone, and if anything breaks down late in the shot clock, a quick pass to Donovan Mitchell or Darius Garland or lobs to Jarrett Allen or Evan Mobley usually takes care of everything. This Cavs team is relentless. It can drain an opponents' will to compete because the when Cavs have the ball, sometimes they spend so much time helping a teammate find the right shot that the opponents have trouble keeping up. Basketball has always been the sport that is most easily to produce selfishness. These Cavs don't fall into that trap. If anything, they over-pass to a fault. High school coaches could do a lot worse than tape some Cavs games and show their students the way the game is supposed to be played. These Cavs always make the right pass, take the right shot and defend the right opponent the right way. Indeed, you really have to struggle to come up with anything to be critical about when the Cavs are clicking on all cylinders, which they almost always are. They are a coaches' dream, and it's clear that coach Kenny Atkinson and his players are constantly on the same page, which is the right page. It's a team without flaws, a team that is extremely connected and a team that understands and has a feel for the game to a degree that many teams don't. So is this the best Cavs team ever? LeBron's championship 2015-16 heroes were a lot like this version of the Cavs, right down to having the go-to guy who could bail out a shaky possession, offensively or defensively. LeBron covered all that territory for the championship Cavs. Mitchell, though not the force of nature that LeBron was in his prime, is still the go-to guy at crunch time for the current version of the Cavs. However, this current version of the Cavs is more dynamic than the 2015-16 group. The LeBron's championship Cavs were willing to defer to the big man when all else failed, and he usually delivered. The current Cavs have more dependable options than LeBron's Cavs. It shows in almost every game, every possession. The current Cavs, I would argue, have as a group a higher basketball IQ than LeBron's championship group. The current Cavs rarely make mistakes offensively or defensively, which makes them very hard to beat. So is this the best Cavs team ever? It's close, and it's getting closer with every win. Contact Jim Ingraham at jingraham4@gmail.com and follow him @Jim_Ingraham on X.