Cavaliers' winning streaks don't mean they'll have playoff success

The Cavs have won eight straight games and are going for their ninth in a row when they visit the Boston Celtics Friday night. It's their third long winning streak this season. They started the season 15-0 before losing Nov. 19, also in Boston. Then in December, the Cavs went on a 12-game win streak, winning the first 10 games by double digits, before dropping a game to the Indiana Pacers.

Only three teams have matched Cleveland's feat of stringing together three eight-game winning streaks in a season in the past decade: The 2017-18 Houston Rockets, the 2020-21 Utah Jazz and the 2021-22 Phoenix Suns. All put together dominant stretches, but none made the NBA Finals.

The 2017-18 Rockets got the closest, taking  3-2 lead in the Western Conference finals and leading by 15 points in Game 7 before falling short. The Rockets' longest win streak was 17 games, which helped them finish with a 65-17 record and home-court advantage for the playoffs. But Chris Paul got injured and the team missed 27 consecutive three-pointers in the deciding game.

The 2020-21 Utah Jazz were red-hot early in the season, stringing together winning streaks of 11 and nine games in a 20-1 stretch early. But in the second round of the playoffs, the Jazz lost Mike Conley to injury and the team's defense collapsed against the Los Angeles Clippers.

The 2021-22 Phoenix Suns had an 18-game win streak and finished with the best record in franchise history, 64-18. Another Chris Paul team, this one had CP3 on the court when they dropped the final two games of the series by a combined 60 points to the Dallas Mavericks, losing Game 7 at home, 123-90.

It could be the nature of teams that go on long winning streaks. To put together multiple streaks, a team needs to have depth, both to cover for stars having off nights and to take advantage of other teams' benches. Teams that are top-heavy with stars are vulnerable to one player's injury or fatigue — there's only been one LeBron James team to win more than 15 straight games. The 2012-13 Miami Heat, who had Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, won 27 straight with a very deep roster.

The Cavaliers are similar. Four of their starters have made All-Star teams before, and they have six players averaging double-digits points, with Max Strus just below that with 8.8 points per game. But in the playoffs, with more days off, shorter rotations and longer commercial breaks, it's often the team with the best individual player that wins.

Donovan Mitchell and Even Mobley each have the potential to be that player. But can they play better than Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown four times in seven games?