How big a deal is this Boston-Cleveland game, anyway?

The undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers will look to keep winning against Boston, the defending NBA champs whose journey to Banner 18 included knocking off the Cavs in the playoffs last season.

The Boston Celtics, led by Jayson Tatum (center) are still the kings of the NBA. Is Cleveland ready to dethrone them? (Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images)

BOSTON — As the defending NBA champions, the Boston Celtics are used to seeing the best of teams.

That challenge is on an even higher level than usual tonight when the Celtics host the still-undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers.

Having won its first 15 games of the season, Cleveland continues to be the league’s leader of the pack.

And while the Celtics (12-3) have been a top-tier squad this season as well, their overall play hasn’t been as dominant as what we’ve seen thus far from the Cavs.

But before we get too caught up in the always-hyped narrative about these matchups being “statement games,” let’s keep this in perspective.

Whoever wins this game, will feel good about beating one of the better teams in the NBA.

Whoever wins this game, will keep their hopes alive of surviving the pool play round of the Emirates NBA Cup.

But whoever wins this game also knows the journey to being the last team standing when all is said and done, is a long one; one that is filled with a slew of mile-markers.

And that has to be the context from which this game should be viewed; a good matchup between two good teams in this still-early NBA season.

However, there are some storylines that jump out and in doing so, will make this more than just another good regular season game.