The Cleveland Cavaliers, sitting atop the Eastern Conference, appear to have refreshed their mojo. It was never far away, although consecutive home and away losses to the Atlanta Hawks carry an air of illegitimacy as long as the Hawks remain the only team in the NBA to have lost twice to the abominable three-win Washington Wizards. The Cavaliers appear to have recovered from the slump, and that’s all business as usual in basketball in November and December, but suffice it to say the team has regressed after the best start in franchise history. That was inevitable. The questions revolved around how far their form would fall – whether they would be as capable of overcoming agonizing lows as rare highs – and where exactly they would be in the league hierarchy once they settled in.

This may be the most assured and evasive basketball story ever written about a team that suffered just four losses per period in the NBA regular season. I swear part of this is trying to contain my own enthusiasm for this Cavaliers team. I find them very easy to like, regardless of the few minutes Donovan Mitchell spends each game waving his personal stamp around like a crazy postal worker. On Monday night, they defeated the Brooklyn Nets with a vengeance, recovering from a quick opening deficit with a vicious 16-0 run and then going one better, treating the last 39 minutes or so of a 48-minute contest like an…exhibition . Cleveland’s scoring efficiency was downright outrageous: The four starters not named Donovan Mitchell combined for 56 points and missed a total of just five shots and one free throw. Caris LeVert and Georges Niang made 8 of 14 three-point attempts off the bench. Without anyone having a standout performance, the Cavs climbed to 130 points, and only Darius Garland, who uncharacteristically threw the ball around, and Sam Merrill, who forgot how to shoot, kept them from sniffing 150 points.

Her team-wide ability to always be in the right place is impressive. The Cavaliers are the best three-point shooting team in the NBA in terms of accuracy, but this is not a five-bomb offense on the road. They prefer to crush the opponent: The Cavs rank third in the NBA in drives per game and lead the league in shooting efficiency on drives. There’s a bit of a crappy quality to Mitchell and Garland’s determination to dribble into the paint at times, and when the mood strikes they do have a noticeable amount of banter, but it’s easy to see their sense of creative freedom and the latitude they have understand. are expanded as ground spacers and exhaust valves due to the precise positioning of their supporting teammates. LeVert, who is also happiest going downhill, uses the same distance; Even the small and relatively bagless Ty Jerome gets to shake and bake. Somehow, there’s always a Niang, a Merrill or a Dean Wade passing on one side of the floor and Jarrett Allen or Evan Mobley lurking on the other side waiting for a drop.

Even though the Cavs aren’t quite as in shape as they were for most of November, they’re still in great shape. According to Cleaning the Glass, they rank second in the NBA in points per possession, behind only the incredible Celtics, who attempt a hilarious 12 more three-pointers per game. That difference in style is one reason the Cavaliers are so welcome as a sudden contender: While Boston does cold math with even less joy than a graphing calculator expresses, Cleveland seems more directly involved in a contest. Their three-point volume isn’t so preordained: Instead, it’s preordained that they’ll bust someone’s ass with deft ballhandling, and the things that happen next flow out of the crack that opens up. Sometimes – a lot of times, in fact – this is a whip pass into the weak corner for a catch-and-shoot three-pointer from Wade. But Cleveland’s guards don’t just try to get help: When a defense can’t muster a convincing deterrent, Mitchell prefers to make them feel stupid and small with a big dunk.

Cleveland’s defense has slipped. Their main guards are exploitable, and some of their standoffs have heavy feet, no matter how pure their intentions. It’s funny to say that about a roster that began its rise a few years ago with a rotation comprised primarily of centers, but the Cavaliers could use another reliable big guy. On the other hand, Allen and Mobley are incredible defenders, and the team can only slip so far while both are healthy.

Mobley, in particular, begins to see the Matrix’s code in real time. What I’m about to describe isn’t as easy to see in the highlights, but please be patient. A responsible NBA help defender gets to the right spot on the court early. The Nets’ Cameron Johnson demonstrated this behavior a few times on Monday night, a very Shane Battier-esque ability to stand with his feet and hands rooted either straight up in the air or covering his tender cock and balls, with enough time to spare to make it a physical barrier. I’m sure coaches love this; I am sure that coaching each of their players successfully is what they dream of most.

Mobley can do that, and he always did it for the first three seasons of his NBA career because he’s a good basketball player. But there is a way a defender can be that is only accessible to players with his specific mix of physical tools and defensive instincts. Mobley is still on time, but he’s learned that it’s up to mere mortals to use their bodies to stop an opposing player from reaching the basket. Instead of arriving early at a point that blocks an opponent’s path to the basket, Mobley appears just off that path, long and dangerous, like Slenderman suddenly standing up in the bushes along your jogging route. His positioning shows an opponent that he can make a difficult shot, yes dare he be a hero by all means, while also filling potential passing angles with his spindly and too-quick limbs.

Spend a night watching Mobley move around on defense, and a funny thing will happen: For the first few minutes, you’ll cringe because he can’t seem to fully commit to being a reliever, and then it will start to make sense and then at the end of the game you will remember that he came to the NBA with Kevin Garnett and you will stroke your chin and feel like maybe those comparisons but not so far-fetched were. The Cavaliers are better on defense by more than nine points per 100 possessions when Mobley is on the court; When he’s not on the field, they defend about as well as the Charlotte Hornets, who stink and are forever doomed to the land of the non-serious.

This is stupid, but I can’t say if I’m underrating or overrating the Cavaliers. They’re great to watch, and the sickening East desperately needs their stellar performance, if only to force the Celtics to at least pretend to pay attention. But the season is only a third over, the Cavaliers haven’t performed all that impressively in the playoffs with this core, and we’ve seen Mitchell-led teams look unbeatable in the regular season without ever settling into the seriousness , which it takes to advance to the playoffs. I’ll choose optimism, I think: Kenny Atkinson has fresh ideas, Cleveland’s guys are among the best in the game tactically, and Evan Mobley is shaping up to be a winner. Consider them legitimate until proven otherwise.