Cleveland – Reaching 60 victories is far from the final objective for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
However, that does not mean that they are not going to savor reaching the milestone.
Cleveland’s 127-122 victory over the Clippers on Sunday afternoon gave the Cavaliers at least 60 victories for the third time in the history of the franchise.
“Celebrate the little victories, and we will do it,” said Donovan Mitchell, who had 24 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. “It has been a great year. All our sacrifices and hard work are paying off. It is great for the organization and the city.”
The first -year coach Kenny Atkinson said he did not expect 60 victories at the beginning of the season, so he wanted his group to savor this.
“My internal goal was how we could improve since last year, even if it were for one or two victories. For this team to take it to another level and break that says a lot,” said Atkinson, who became the 13th coach in the history of the NBA with 60 victories in his first season with a new team. “We can still add to that. We have to celebrate this. It is not the ultimate goal, but to breathe deeply and celebrate.”
The last time Cleveland reached 60 victories was 2009-10, when it was 61-21. The franchise brand is 66-16 since 2008-09. Those were the last two seasons in the first period of LeBron James with the Cavaliers.
Without being asked, the Jarrett Allen center recognized how significant it was to do something again for the first time without James. Akron’s native remains an icon in the Northeast of Ohio after leading the Cavaliers to the first professional sports title in the region in 52 years in 2016.
“We like it or not, LeBron is the face of this city and has done a lot. It is difficult to separate from that notion or records, the first to do it with LeBron here,” he said. “We are trying to do something special and we hope we can.”
The Cavaliers have faced their share of adversity since they had a winning streak of 16 games broken in Orlando on March 16. The loss of magic began a four -game slide, but Cleveland has won four of its last five.
Atkinson said before the game that the approach was in his own team, instead of discovering ways of containing James Harden, Norman Powell or Ivica Zubac of the.
Atkinson was not satisfied with his team’s game in a 133-122 defeat against Detroit on Friday night. He also wanted to see a better level of response after the clippers won the first meeting for 13 points on March 18.
“We were fighting a little,” he said. “Thinking about Detroit’s game, we had some non -excellent performances. Thinking about our clippers game in Los Angeles, they took it. We needed for psychological reasons to obtain it in a good way.”
The Cavaliers began to separate from the shadow of James last season when they beat the magic in seven games in the first round of the East Conference playoffs. He marked the first time since 1993, they won a series without James.
“All since I have been here has been a springboard. Something has improved every year,” said Allen, who had its double double of the season with 25 points and 12 rebounds.
Cleveland is 4 1/2 games ahead of Boston for the best sown at the East Conference with remaining seven games. With a couple of days to rest before organizing the New York Knicks on Wednesday, Atkinson is stressing that other things replace that first place.
“If I had priorities, I would prefer to be playing well and have everyone healthy. I hope the first seed will come with that and I think it will,” he said. “We have to maintain the philosophy and mentality that we are growing.”
