Cavaliers Following Similar March Trend As Recent NBA Champions

Anytime a team loses five of eight games, it's bound to become a source of panic among fans that something isn't quite right. What's even more concerning for the Cleveland Cavaliers is that this recent slump is coming just a few weeks out from the start of the playoffs.

This is a time of year teams want to be playing their best, not their worst. But history actually shows that March struggles are actually pretty common in the NBA. Even for some of the recent NBA Champions.

Cleveland is 10-5 in the month of March, its worst record in any month this season. All five of those losses have come during a brutal, two-week road trip, and the home and away back-to-back that greeted the team this week after it ended.

It's easily the most difficult stretch of the schedule the Cavs have endured this year. Throw in the fact that March in general is a grind for NBA teams each and every single year. It also doesn't have to define their 2024-25 campaign.

Take the 2022-23 Denver Nuggets. Before embarking on a run to hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy, Nicola Jokić's squad went 9-8 in March, including a four-game losing streak that spiraled into a stretch where Denver lost five of six games.

The Nuggets actually ended that season going 500 over their last 12 games. Two months later they were NBA Champions.

Let's go back one season earlier. The 2021-22 Warriors' core of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green won their fourth title in eight years to essentially close the book on the franchise's dynasty.

That group won just five games total in March, going 5-11 overall. That stretch included two separate four-game losing streaks and a three-game losing streak.

Golden State followed it up by going 5-0 in April leading into the postseason, before cruising through each round of the playoffs by never losing more than two games in any series.

The 2020-21 Milwaukee Bucks actually had a pretty solid March before their run to a championship. Of course, that season had a delayed start after the COVID-19 pandemic halted the previous campaign, birthing the bubble playoff later that summer.

Still, the Bucks did have a three-game losing streak during that month and posted their worst record in any month (9-7) in April before the playoffs started in late May.

There are more examples. The Raptors championship team in 2018-19 went just 9-6 in March. The 2016-17 Cavaliers, which some argue was better than the team that won a title the year prior, went 7-10 in March – granted they didn't win the championship.

Nobody is more disappointed by the Cavs recent slump than the Cavaliers players themselves. They understand better than anyone that they have some issues to correct before their playoff journey begins in three weeks' time.

Their situation is not only unique to them, though. Other previous champions have experienced similar inconsistencies leading into the postseason. A rough March is not the kiss of death to Cleveland's Larry O'Brien hopes. It may even be a bout of adversity the team needs to be primed for chasing them.

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