Cavaliers Tie Best Start In Franchise History With Win Over Bucks

The Cleveland Cavaliers start the season 8-0 for the second time in franchise history.

Nov 4, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland (10) celebrates with forward Isaac Okoro (35) during the second half against the Milwaukee Bucks at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

The Cleveland Cavaliers stay perfect with their eighth straight win to start the 2024-25 season. Cleveland clinched their latest win on Monday evening with a 116-114 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.

This is the second time in franchise history that a Cavaliers team has started the season at 8-0. The last time this happened was back during the 1976-77 season.

That Cleveland team finished with a 43-39 record and lost in the first round of the playoffs, but this Cavaliers roster looks like true Finals contenders just two weeks into the regular season.

Now, onto the game itself, which ended up much closer than it maybe should have been.

It looked like the Cavs would roll to their eighth straight victory with a strong first half on both ends of the floor. Cleveland took a 19-point lead heading into the locker room after the first 24 minutes, but Milwaukee found something in the third quarter, outscored the Wine and Gold 31-16 in the third quarter, and took an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter.

However, some late-game heroics from Darius Garland on the offensive end of the floor and a massive block from Jarrett Allen on Damian Lillard with less than 30 seconds left sealed the deal for the Cavs.

Nov 4, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland (10) celebrates after hitting a three point basket during the second half against the Milwaukee Bucks at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

DG easily put together the best performance of any member of the Cavaliers on Monday night. He finished with 39 points, eight assists, and two rebounds while shooting 68 percent (15-for-22) from the floor and 63 percent (7-for-11) from behind the arc.

Of Garland's 39 points, 12 of them came in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter when the game was truly decided.

The Cavs don't want to stop here, though. This Wednesday night, they'll travel to Louisiana to take on the New Orleans Pelicans and look to extend their winning streak to nine games.