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With another win, the Cleveland Cavaliers would have the second-longest winning streak to start an NBA season at 16 wins. That would be only behind the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, who began that year 24-0. Of 29 teams to win 16 or more games in a row in a season, 12 won the NBA Finals that year. While it all makes for great headlines and podcast fodder, Donovan Mitchell can't be bothered with it as he spoke candidly about what he's really worried about while on The Pivot podcast.
“We had adversity last year. I was out for about 15 games, DG was out for 20 games, and Evan was out for 20 games, as we’ve shown who we are. And I have no doubt when adversity hits, we’re going to get closer. But it’s easier when you’re with the group that you rock with but also Coach Atkinson has been phenomenal with his message of continuing to play with pace, selfless play, and team basketball.
This is great. It has been a historic start, but, like this s—t doesn’t matter right now. We’re building good habits, and I think that’s the best part, but at the end of the day, what matters is what we do after All-Star Break.”
Mitchell is not wrong, as evidenced by what happened to that 2015-16 Warriors team. They broke the regular season record for wins by going 73-9 but then lost 4-3 to the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals.
Cavaliers not losing sight of the big picture
Cleveland continues to dive deep into the details and pulled out a 2-3 zone scheme to get the job done against the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday night.
“Coach Max Strus,” Cavs guard Darius Garland said postgame. “We’re still learning from him, even though he’s on the sideline, he’s still preaching about the zone. The two-three definitely slowed them down from all their driving opportunities and just getting us in rotation a lot. So, I’ll definitely put it on the zone for sure. Saving us.”
“It’s an excellent scheme about how we guard the zone,” Jarrett Allen said. “Shout out to Max. He kind of put the zone in. He was a coach for a day telling us where to be and how to guard certain things, and just our energy in the zone. We communicate well. We know when to box out. We know that if Evan goes, I have his back. It’s just a good tandem of movement that works well together.”
The Cavaliers travel to Boston for their next NBA Cup matchup against the Celtics Tuesday night. The Cavs are 1-0 in the Eastern Conference's Group C.
