CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Another game, another milestone for these Cavs.
Jarrett Allen scored 25 points to go with 12 rebounds, Donovan Mitchell had 24 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists as the Cavs held off the Clippers 127-122 at Rocket Arena.
Here’s the top Wine & Gold nuggets from Sunday afternoon.
60 is nifty – The Cavs won their 60th game in a season for just the third time in franchise history Sunday. “I didn't expect 60 wins,” Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “My internal goal was can we improve from last year? If that's one win great, if it's two wins, great. That was kind of where my mind was. But for this team to take it to another level, shatter that says a lot and we're not done, we still can add to that, but told them we’ve got to celebrate this. It's not the end goal but we should take a deep breath and celebrate 60 wins.” It is also the first without LeBron James on the roster. “This is definitely something to celebrate,” Allen said. “I mean that's something special for the city of Cleveland and something special for us… But 60 is a lot of wins. That's a lot of things to be proud of and happy for.”
20 times 3 – The Cavs had three or more players score at least 20 points in a game for the 23rd time this season. Evan Mobley joined Allen and Mitchell in the 20-plus club Sunday with 22 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Mitchell tied his career-high with his sixth double-double of the season after also having six last season.
Campaign trail – In the locker room, Tristan Thompson, and Mitchell surrounded Mobley’s media scrum to urge him to campaign for Defensive Player of the Year. “They definitely support me,” Mobley said. “I feel like this year how I've been playing definitely deserves Defense Player of the Year.” Mobley scored 15 of his points in the third quarter and had three blocked shots to go with six defensive rebounds. “I think it's on E to speak on it,” Mitchell said. “I've been telling him that because we have guys who are speaking on it. At the end of the day, he has to speak on it, which he did, and I'm very happy that he's continually doing that. I'm going to continue to pressure him to do that. His play speaks for itself. He's a very low key guy. He wants to just go out there, but that's just unfortunately, that's just not how it goes. You can say something and then next thing you know you're there. So that's what he did today. And then I challenge you guys to continue to make the case, not to say, but y'all are with us every day. Y'all see how great he is and how much he means to this team.”
Hit the boards – Atkinson had been frustrated recently with the Cavs defensive rebounding. They bounced back in a big way beating the Clippers 35-10 on that end of the floor with Mitchell leading the team with 11. “Led by Donovan Mitchell. Really,” Atkinson said. “He showed the way, and we preach guard rebounding is important. It's not just Evan and JA and Tristan and Dean and you big guys. You got to rebound. It's the way the game is now with everybody doing this…. It's important. And we've had slippage there. Like I said, he showed the way tonight.”
Hang on – The Cavs led for much of the game, which featured just two lead changes and Cleveland being up by as many as 18 in the second half, but the home team had to hang on late. Leading by 11 with 2:15 remaining, the Clippers were able to slowly chip away and cut it to 3, 125-122, after a pair of James Harden free throws with 19 seconds remaining. But Darius garland, who finished with 19 points, hit two free throws and Mitchell came away with a steal with 8 seconds left and threw the ball up the floor to run out the clock.
Powerful Powell – Norman Powell scored 20 of his game-high 34 points in the second quarter for L.A., including ending the half with a floater that brought the Clippers within 68-64 at intermission. Powell made 13 of 24 field goals in the loss.
Starting 5 – Atkinson started Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Max Strus, and Jarrett Allen.
