How Cleveland Cavaliers Can Still Be Eastern Conference's Best Team

The Cleveland Cavaliers are starting to get hot, and that could mean third-degree burns for the rest of the NBA.

Cleveland ripped off a 108-98 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday, Jan. 25, marking their sixth straight victory. The fifth-place Cavaliers now stand at 25-20 overall, just five games back of the Washington Wizards for second in the Eastern Conference.

With nearly half of the schedule yet to be played, how far in the standings can the Cavs reasonably rise? After all, the Atlanta Hawks sit alone at the top of the East with a sparkling 37-8 record. Cleveland, despite its recent strong play, is still 12 games back of the conference's top spot.

No disrespect to the Hawks, but the Cavaliers can absolutely still come away as the East's best team, and here's how.

Band Back Together

Just a few short weeks ago, the Cavs were severely shorthanded, decimated by injuries and one poorly-timed trade.

One could say they hit their low point in a Jan. 5 loss to the woeful Philadelphia 76ers. LeBron James was resting a sore knee and back. Kyrie Irving didn't make the trip due to his own back soreness. Dion Waiters, the team's sixth man, was supposed to get his first start since early November against his hometown Sixers.

With news of a trade breaking, the Cavaliers pulled Waiters from the floor before the game had begun, even after his name was announced as a starter. Backup bigs Lou Amundson and Alex Kirk were held out, as they were also included in the deal.

In all, Waiters was sent to the Oklahoma City Thunder while Amundson and Kirk landed with the New York Knicks. Cleveland in turn received J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and a 2015 first-round pick from the Thunder, which they later packaged together in a deal for Denver Nugget's center Timofey Mozgov.

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This meant the Cavs were forced to start rookie second-round pick Joe Harris at shooting guard. Matthew Dellavedova, he of 34.6 percent shooting this season, filled in for Irving at the point. Mike Miller slid down to small forward, while James Jones, A.J. Price and Brendan Haywood saw a good amount playing time off the bench.

The result? A lowly 92 points, some hurt pride and a lot of questions over which direction the team was headed.

The Cavaliers' depth, or lack thereof, was being exposed.

According to Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group, this was causing some problems in the locker room as well:

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Under the condition of anonymity, some Cavs players admitted that they had lost faith because of the team's lack of depth. A handful of players said they came to realize the roster, as it was constructed before the trades, wasn't equipped to go any further than the second round, if that.

One player said the frustration of an "unbalanced roster probably contributed" to the players' poor body language and effort level. Another said "it was never Coach [David] Blatt's fault."

"

Fast forward three weeks.

James is back and looks more explosive than he has all season. Irving is putting up 22.5 points on 49 percent shooting in 10 games since. Waiters may be gone, but in his place stand Smith, Shumpert and Mozgov.

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It's hard to recognize the roster that lost to the Sixers that day compared to the one that's captured six straight wins now. Miller, Jones and Harris, who all logged at least 24 minutes that game, have now been bumped from the rotation all together. Price isn't even with the team, released following the trade for Mozgov.

The Cavaliers are now loaded with talent at every position. Their bench, comprised of Tristan Thompson, Shawn Marion, Dellavedova and Shumpert, were all starting at some point this season.

Smith has fit in beautifully as a spot-up marksman in the starting lineup, averaging 15.2 points on 38.8 percent shooting from deep. Mozgov has helped transform the team's defense, while James, Love and Irving are all started to click.

The Cavs finally have a roster that's healthy and talented enough to win the Eastern Conference.

Win Streak Numbers

Stats show that the Cavs are among the East's best teams on offense already, and they're slowly closing in defensively as well.

Cleveland currently sits at fifth in the East behind the Hawks, Wizards, Toronto Raptors and Chicago Bulls

The Cavaliers' recent win streak, combined with previous season meetings, prove they can play with anyone in the East. Here's how they match up against all four teams currently ahead of them in the standings.

Cavs vs. East	Hawks	Wizards	Raptors	Bulls	All Others
Record	1-2	1-1	2-1	2-0	11-5

Altogether, Cleveland is 6-4 against teams with superior records. Their only losing head-to-head matchup is with the Hawks, who the Cavaliers faced one time without James and actually beat by 33 points with him on Nov. 15.

Clearly, there's no one in the conference the Cavs can't take down.

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Looking more closely at their streak, both the offense and defense have taken tremendous leaps. James is averaging 30.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 2.1 steals on 51.4 percent shooting since returning from his much-needed time off. As he told Bleacher Report's Ethan Skolnick following a win over the Thunder, "My first step is back."

Perhaps even more important than James is the Cavaliers' defensive effort and intensity. Before, Cleveland was far too soft, allowing teams to score on them from seemingly anywhere they chose. Shots weren't challenged, and no one on the roster was considered a shot-blocking threat inside.

"I think our mindset wasn't there before. I felt like people never felt us on defense. They knew we were good offensively, but defensively teams thought they could have their way against us. We're changing that," Thompson recently told Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group.

Getting bodies, both new and returning, has given the Cavaliers the personnel necessarily to be a good defensive team. It appears their willingness to defend has picked up as well.

The past six games have given us a glimpse of what the Cavs are capable of with their new roster, and how they can shoot up the East standings.

Here's where the Cavaliers rank among Eastern Conference teams in key offensive categories, via NBA.com/Stats:

Cavs in Win Streak (Offense)	PTS	OREB	FG%	3P%	ORtg	FTM	FTA
Statistic	114.3	13.7	49.2	39.4	119.0	21.2	29.0
Rank in East	1st	2nd	2nd	4th	1st	1st	1st

Offense shouldn't be a problem for the Cavs, given the talent they possess on that side of the ball.

NBA teams need to be able to defend to win titles, however, and Cleveland has recently made a nice improvement on that end. Shumpert, arguably the Cavaliers' best wing defender, is still on a minutes restriction following a separated shoulder. His increased playing time should only help the team as well.

Here's how Cleveland's defense has improved during their streak:

Cavs on Defense	PTS	FG%	3P%	REB	DRtg
During Streak	99.5	42.8	33.6	40.7	103
Before Streak	100.1	47.1	35.4	40.9	106.3

The Cavaliers have allowed just 93.5 points per game over their last four contests, even holding the Thunder to 39.4 percent shooting from the floor.

While no one will confuse them for Hawks or Bulls defensively just yet, Cleveland has made some tremendous strides now with James, Shumpert and Mozgov in the rotation.

Road Through Atlanta

To be clear, it will be almost impossible to catch the Hawks in the regular season. Atlanta has won 16 straight games and shows no signs of slowing down. The Cavaliers could push their winning streak to 10 or more and still not gain any ground.

This isn't about the regular season, however, but rather an Eastern Conference Finals matchup.

Cleveland should be able to capture the No. 2 seed in the East if they continue their strong play. At the very least, a top-four spot and home-court advantage in the first round seems inevitable.

Seeing how a team led by James has never lost in the opening round of the playoffs, an advancement to the East semifinals would be a safe bet. From there, the Cavaliers would likely draw either Chicago or Toronto, teams they've gone a combined 4-1 against.

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So how could Cleveland take down the mighty Hawks in a seven-game series? By controlling the three-point line, of course.

When the Cavaliers knocked off the Hawks by 33 on Nov. 15, Atlanta was just 3-of-22 from deep. Marion bothered Kyle Korver all night, holding him to zero points on just one shot attempt. Cleveland made a franchise-record 19 three-pointers, starting the game a perfect 11-of-11.

A month later, the Hawks demolished the Cavs 127-98. This time, Atlanta connected on 16-of-28 from deep while Cleveland hit just 8-of-30. Shelvin Mack scored 24 points off the Hawks bench, nailing six three-pointers. He's only scored in double digits four times all season and has yet to crack even 14 points in any other game.

Atlanta can be beaten as long as teams take away the three-ball, which is precisely what Cleveland is now showing it can do.

We've seen the improvements the Cavs have made with their new roster when it comes to guarding outside shots. Opponents are converting just 23.7 percent of their shots from 25-29 feet, the lowest percentage of any team in the league, via NBA.com/Stats.

James, Shumpert and Marion give the Cavaliers a strong defensive wing presence, while Irving and Smith have stepped up on that end as well.

If Cleveland can control the three-point line for four out of seven games against Atlanta, they will be the East's best team.

While the Cavaliers don't have the sparkling record that the Hawks possess, it's Cleveland that could very well finish on top of the conference this spring.

Greg Swartz has covered the Cleveland Cavaliers for Bleacher Report since 2010.

All stats provided by Basketball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.