Key to Cleveland Cavaliers' Top Ranking: Consistency, Both Home and Away

LeBron James was blunt and straightforward when asked Thursday night to assess the Cleveland Cavaliers’ performance this year.

Interviewed on Fox Sports Ohio, James said his team's progress was "okay" compared to last year’s edition. He qualified that by saying they had figured some things out since the start of the season.

Austin Carr of Fox Sports interpreted: The Cavaliers have learned to play with Shaquille O’Neal, and it’s starting to show in their teamwork and execution.

James also said the difference between last year’s team and this year’s model is consistency.

He then declared, quite matter-of-factly, that the Cavaliers are still improving.

Or, as Campy Russell of Fox Sports put it: They’re bigger, faster, and stronger than a year ago—built to win at home and on the road.

James’ words represented a realistic appraisal by an increasingly savvy veteran. The assessment of Carr and Russell, both former NBA players, provided a seasoned perspective of almost two decades of combined pro basketball experience.

A look at the Cavaliers heading into Thursday’s game supported the views of all three.

Certainly, Cleveland’s season to date compared favorably to those of the two most recent league champions, the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Cavs entered Thursday’s action with a 30-10 record. They were 14-3 at home and a solid 16-7 on the road. Interestingly, they had compiled a .750 overall winning percentage while playing only 42.5 percent of their games in their own arena.

The Lakers were a comparable 30-9, but 24 of those games were at home—a whopping 61.5 percent of their schedule. They were a predictable 21-3 in those contests, but only 9-6 in their 15 games away from the Staples Center.

The Celtics, meanwhile, were 27-10 going into Thursday. Similar to Cleveland, most of their first-half schedule—56.8 percent—had been on the road, where they were a superb 16-5. However, they had managed only an 11-5 record at home.

Much has been said this year about the Lakers’ early-season schedule. They played 17 of their first 21 games at home, a key factor in their blazing 18-3 start. Contrast their favorable slate with the more balanced schedules of both the Cavs (10 of 21 at home) and the Celtics (11 of 21 at home) over comparable periods.

The Lakers have come down to earth a bit in the 17 games since then, turning in a more modest 11-6 record over that span.

So where does it leave us? Where just about everyone predicted—with those three teams atop the NBA at the season’s midpoint.

While Bleacher Report’s most recent power rankings left the Lakers in the No. 1 spot, writers at some of the most respected sports sites on the Web saw things through a different lens.

David Del Grande of CBSSports.com, Marc Stein of ESPN.com, and Chris Mannix of CNNSI.com all placed Cleveland at the top. So did writers as diverse as Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News and Geoffrey C. Arnold of The Oregonian, illustrating the respect for the Cavaliers’ play from coast to coast.

Regardless, the Celtics and Lakers have made it happen where it matters—on the court—over the past two seasons.

The Cavs are too familiar with being the best on paper, leading the league in that manner from wire to wire a year ago. Their goal is the real thing, an NBA championship.

In the final analysis, power rankings mean little. They’re a best guess of where teams stand at any given time.

However, Cleveland’s performance on the court—both at home and on the road—has placed them squarely in the mix as the second half of the season gets underway.