CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Cavaliers are still streaking while avoiding another let down.
The win streak hit seven Monday night following a 117-109 win over the Spurs but it was a game that should not have been as close as it ended up being.
Here’s a look Beyond the Box Score from another learning experience for the Cavs.
1. Wins are wins, but head coach J.B. Bickerstaff was clearly annoyed with how his team played – especially the second half.
2. In the end, the Cavs did what they were supposed to do – handle their business against an inferior opponent – even if it wasn’t pretty after watching a 21-point advantage cut to four in the final quarter.
3. It speaks to the culture Bickerstaff is building that he won’t allow his players to get away with substandard effort. “We didn't play to our standard. It was that simple,” Bickerstaff said. “We didn't do the things we needed to do at the level we're used to doing them. We got lucky to get away with a win.”
4. There was no argument from the locker room either. “Sometimes when you have success, we've been playing, well the past two and a half, two weeks or whatever it is you have lapses and tonight was a lapse,” Donovan Mitchell said. “We played a team to their record and how they've been playing and that can't happen. So for us take this as a learning lesson. All right, we can't really play around, and we kind of came in here expecting things to just go well, and they did because we're talented. But then at the end of the day, that's how you fall into being up four in the fourth quarter, having little mistakes, different turnovers, bad situations, defensive lapses and that can't happen. We gave up 30, 32 in those second and third quarters after holding the 19. We get out to a great start and then we kind of just say, all right, it's in the bag. That's not what a great team does.”
5. Don’t blame Mitchell for the letdown. He was his usual sensational self. Mitchell finished with 41. It was his sixth game of at least 40 points this season. Late in the second quarter he shook Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan out of his shoes with a nasty crossover and step back before burying a three as Sochan ended up on the floor. “I've had a few like that. I just don't remember the last time,” Mitchell said. “It's been a while…That's kind of like my go-to in those situations. But it's been a while. I will say that it's been a while.” Mitchell hit five from deep in the first half, tying his season high in a half.
6. Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley continue to abuse opponents with San Antonio serving as their latest victim – at least early in the game.
They combined for 23 points and nine rebounds in the first half as both players finished the night with double doubles – Allen 17 points and 11 rebounds and Mobley 15 and 10 but what could have been a big night for both never materialized. “Donovan got going,” Allen said. “We're selfless enough to take a step back and let Donovan do his thing and he did. And I do think we backed off the pedal a little bit, Evan and I, but we still got the job done, got 15 and 17. So we still found our spaces to be effective, but we let other people take the wheel.”
7. No team celebrates a defensive three seconds technical better than the Cavs when they are whistled for one. Even the bench goes nuts, but the celebrations are starting to draw mixed reactions from opponents. “I was yelling and they were like, you're happy about that? And I could see how it come off as different to some teams, but that's just how we roll,” Allen said. It’s all part of Bickerstaff’s emphasis on guarding the paint. “We want to protect the paint, so we'll just be in there whenever they call three seconds, everybody will cheer,” Cedi Osman, who had eight points off the bench, said. “So I think it's really funny, but I think most of the times works. I don't know what the stats on it [are], but whenever we had it, three seconds, I think most of the times the shots have been missed, the free throws.”
8. Bickerstaff won a replay challenge late in the third when Allen was called for a foul after he got all ball to reject Blake Wesley’s drive to the basket with 2:15 remaining in the quarter. “One of the things you get used to, that they're not going to challenge you at the first [try at the rim], they're going to try to do the reverse layup,” Allen said. “So I was ready for it and it's good that JB had my back on that one.”
9. The seven-game win streak puts the Cavs a win away from tying their season high streak of eight straight when they started the campaign 8-0.
10. The Spurs matched their longest losing streak in franchise history with their 13th consecutive loss, tying the 1988-89 streak, and ironically, the 13th loss that season was also to the Cavs.