CLEVELAND — First, the necessary disclosure statement: It’s only five games.

Now with that out of the way …

The Cleveland Cavaliers are good. Really good.

It’s been such a great start to the season that even coach Kenny Atkinson is trying to replace the brake pads on his new sports car, and his players keep burning right through them.

“It’s still early, so I’d just put a caution sign up,” Atkinson said. “We’re shooting a little bit above our heads right now.”

That was before the Cavs shot 58 percent and made 17 3s in hammering the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, so yeah, the helium is still on. Atkinson is off to a terrific start in changing the offensive culture while clinging to the defensive principles that carried this team to the Eastern Conference semifinals last season.

The Cavs have outscored their first five opponents by 91 points; they’re nearly halfway to their point differential from all of last season (plus-198).

Now for the juicy part: The last four teams to start 5-0 and outscore their opponents by at least 91 points all went to the NBA Finals. Two of those four won championships, including last year’s Boston Celtics, who outscored teams by 92 points through their first five games.

The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors team that won 73 games before losing to the Cavs in the NBA Finals started 5-0 with a point differential of plus-104. It’s not really fair to compare any team to those Warriors, who started 24-0 and ran up a 340-point differential while doing it. We’ll likely never see numbers like that again.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are 5-0 & have outscored their opponents by 91 points. Other NBA teams to do that in the first 5 games of a single season:

23-24 BOS*
15-16 GSW*
09-10 BOS*
08-09 LAL*
71-72 MIL
66-67 PHI*
64-65 BOS*

* = made NBA Finals that season#LetEmKnow | @cavs pic.twitter.com/XcWowO13zu

— Luke Potosky (@LukePotosky) October 31, 2024

Five games isn’t enough of a sample size to start printing NBA Finals T-shirts, but it’s certainly an attention-getter and proof the Cavs are on a rare course to start the season.

How are they doing it?

Mostly by inverting the way they played from last season in both pace and concept. They’ve significantly cranked up their pace, leaping from 24th last year to top 10. It didn’t really translate into more shots until Wednesday when they took 97 against the Lakers, but it is getting them into offensive sets more quickly and theoretically giving them more options and better looks earlier in the clock.

More importantly, they’re excelling as a drive-and-kick team.

The Cavs were among the league leaders in elbow touches last year and middle of the league in drives. This year, they’re among the league leaders in drives and hovering near the middle in elbow touches. The way they’re deploying Evan Mobley is a big part of the change. It opens the floor, creates driving lanes, leads to more drive-and-kick opportunities and more quality looks from 3. They certainly weren’t terrible on catch-and-shoot 3s last season, but they’re even better through five games. That could be part of the caution sign Atkinson is warning about: A course correction might be coming as the percentages stabilize.

The Cavs also haven’t gotten to the line very much yet, which could become problematic as the season progresses. Of the eight teams since 1964-65 to start the year 5-0 with a point differential of at least 91, the Cavs have the second-worst free-throw differential. Just something to watch.

Atkinson has two distinct offensive lineups. He referred to them Wednesday as the big lineup and the spread lineup.

“They’re two different animals,” he said.

The big lineup is the starters: Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Mobley, Jarrett Allen and Dean Wade, who has fit right in with the starters.

The spread lineup includes either Mobley or Allen surrounded by shooters. Mitchell, Mobley, Sam Merrill, Georges Niang and Caris LeVert is the spread lineup Atkinson has favored the most early, in part because it has outscored opponents by 22 points in 24 minutes together.

Wade’s insertion into the starting lineup in place of Max Strus leaves the Cavs thin in frontcourt depth, but he has been such a natural fit that it’s worth the trade.

Wade is a good rebounder and an underrated defender, particularly in switches. Mobley and Allen are excellent individual defenders and can serve as anchors regardless of whose coaching principles they’re following.

Mobley’s and Allen’s presence on the defensive end is why the Cavs legitimately have a chance at drastically improving the offense without giving back too much defensively. They entered Thursday’s games with the league’s highest offensive rating (123.4) while ranking fourth defensively.

“It gives us freedom to make mistakes because they clean a lot of mistakes up,” Atkinson said.

You’ll have to take his word on it. Right now, the Cavs aren’t making very many mistakes at all.

— The Athletic’s James Jackson contributed to this report.

(Photo of Donovan Mitchell: Jason Miller / Getty Images)