Seventeen wins in the first 20 games of the season certainly gave the Cleveland Cavaliers a good feeling going into hosting the defending champion Boston Celtics on Sunday night.

Although Boston came into town on a seven-game winning streak, it was without two of its top players in Jaylen Brown (illness) and Derrick White (foot) and was coming off a 138-129 slump against the Bulls in Chicago the nights earlier .

Cleveland had the perfect opportunity to get revenge on the Celtics and didn’t miss it.

The Cavaliers handed Boston its first loss since Nov. 12, earning a 115-111 victory after facing a 12-point deficit with 8:09 left in the fourth quarter.

And Cleveland fans should enjoy this win to the fullest, because the Cavaliers are simply not at the level of the Celtics – no matter what was on the scoreboard on Sunday.

When these two teams met two weeks ago, Cleveland was shorthanded, with Isaac Okoro, Caris LeVert and Dean Wade all missing in a 120-117 loss that ended the Cavaliers’ season-opening, 15-game winning streak.

Cleveland was also crushed by Darius Garland, who went 3 for 21 from the field in the Nov. 19 matchup.

We haven’t seen Boston and the Cavaliers square off at full strength yet, but we can tell you that Brown and White are moving the needle far more than Okoro, LeVert and Wade. The Celtics faced a lot more adversity during their loss on Sunday than Cleveland endured during its mid-November setback.

It also took a superhuman performance from Donovan Mitchell to get the Cavaliers to even the season series with Boston at 1-1. Mitchell scored 20 points in the fourth quarter on 6 of 6 shooting from the field and 4 of 4 shooting from 3-point range. He had to be perfect in every sense of the word to ensure Cleveland got the win.

Impressive? Yes. But such a performance only won the Cavaliers the battle, not the war.

While Sunday’s game is important, it won’t be on anyone’s mind when Cleveland clashes with the Celtics at some point in the playoffs, especially if that clash comes in the Eastern Conference Finals. At this point, it’s a seven-game series. And if both teams are fully healthy, Boston won’t let the Cavaliers get four wins any sooner than before.

Cleveland is a regular season team until they can prove otherwise. The Cavaliers have earned two playoff berths in the last six seasons and advanced to the first round of the 2023 postseason before falling to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals last spring.

In those same six seasons, Boston reached the Finals twice, the Eastern Conference Finals twice more, and the Semifinals once more. In 2021 it was eliminated in the first round.

This Celtics team is special. Don’t let a loss make you forget that Boston shoots 19.1 three-pointers per night, has five scorers averaging at least 16.0 points per game and hasn’t lost three games in a row since the 2023 playoffs.

Celebrate now, Cleveland. In six months there will no longer be any reason for this.