Cavs become sixth team in NBA history to start season 13-0

PHILADELPHIA — It wasn’t easy, but the Cleveland Cavaliers saw their season-opening winning streak reach a dozen on Wednesday night.

Thanks to Donovan Mitchell scoring 13 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter, the Cavaliers became the sixth team in NBA history to win at least 13 consecutive games to start a season with a 114-106 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers, who were without stars Tyrese Maxey, Paul George and Joel Embiid.

“We just stick together,” said Darius Garland, who led Cleveland with 25 points. “Just taking it game by game. We know we have a target on our back, so we have to come in with that aggressiveness and that confidence that we’re going to win every game, and that’s what we have.” “Although, like I said, long nights, we don’t get much sleep, but we have to stay together and continue to be great. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

Of the five previous teams that started 13-0, four reached the NBA Finals, but only the 1993-94 Houston Rockets won the title, according to ESPN Research.

Despite Mitchell’s excellent play down the stretch, he was kicking himself after the game for passing out on a wide-open dunk late in the game in an attempt to chase his first triple-double, something he said he apologized for. with his teammates. , and followed by hitting a pair of three-pointers to officially chase away the pesky 76ers.

“I’m not going to lie,” Mitchell said with a sheepish smile. “It’s been eight years. I mean, if there’s any indication, it was passing up an open dunk. That’s out of character, that’s not me. That’s why I didn’t get it. You don’t get rewarded for not being yourself.

“It was a selfish moment… We all have those moments, but I apologize to the Cav fans, to my teammates. That’s not me. And that’s why I didn’t understand it because I did something selfish. It was.” “It’s not selfless, like I’ve been preaching to myself.”

Mitchell, his coaches and his teammates were able to laugh about the moment, however, because it came in a fantastic period for the All-Star guard and the night resulted in the Cavaliers maintaining their undefeated start.

For much of this game, it wasn’t clear that would happen, as Cleveland struggled against a very shorthanded 76ers team, which is 2-9 on the season and sits in 14th place in the Conference This. Not only were the 76ers without Maxey (hamstring), George and Embiid (both out with left knee injuries), shortly before the game the team announced that backup center Andre Drummond would also be out due to illness.

As a result, Philadelphia opened the game against Cleveland’s pair of elite big men, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, with a front line featuring 6-foot-7 Guerschon Yabusele at center and 6-foot-10 rookie Adem Bona backing him up. . And yet, the 76ers managed to hang on thanks to another stellar game from rookie guard Jared McCain, who scored a career-high 34 points, the most of any rookie this season, in his first career start.

In the end, though, Cleveland’s sheer talent advantage won out, as the Cavaliers opened the second half on a 12-5 run to retake the lead and then had the margin hovering around five points for much of the fourth quarter.

“We had an honest conversation at halftime,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We showed some clips. They just weren’t feeling us. They ran wherever they wanted. We didn’t have ball pressure. Our energy was low, our physicality wasn’t great and these guys are a winning group and they turned it up again.”

Still, the Cavaliers see room for improvement. While they are obviously happy with their winning streak, they have escaped with narrow wins over the Chicago Bulls, Brooklyn Nets and the Giannis Antetokounmpo-less Milwaukee Bucks in the last 10 days. In many ways, it’s a perfect situation: keep winning games while also identifying things to work on.

And they’re doing it while continuing to widen the gap between themselves and the rest of the Eastern Conference. It’s only three weeks into the season and Cleveland already has a six-game lead in the loss column over everyone but the defending champion Boston Celtics, whom they’ll face Tuesday when they could be 15-0.

But for a team that hopes to move up to true championship contenders this season, it’s adjusting to life as a club that gets its opponents’ best shot every night, something Mitchell said he’s glad his team does. have the opportunity to experiment, even knowing that there is a long way to go before real testing begins next spring.

“That’s what you want,” Mitchell said. “At the end of the day, if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. But to be the best, which we are trying to continue to be, you have to go out every night. And it’s a mental question. How big do you want be? Do you want to be satisfied? We’re hunting, but it’s also November. I’m not winning a championship right now, but these are good tests.

“The fact that we’re 13-0 is great. We could be 9-2. I don’t really care. I think the most important thing is how we can continue to develop habits by getting the best shot from each team.” night after night.”