CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Cavs begin the home stretch Thursday night – the first of the 21 games remaining on the schedule – against the Denver Nuggets.
“It's like a post All-Star break, it's time to go,” All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell said. “These next 21 games are the most important in the season but I don't think we can kind of turn it into looking at 21 games. You got to look at one game individually because that's how you start to get all over the place. So just continuing to take a one game at a time.”
At 38-23, the young Cavs hold the No. 4 spot in the Eastern Conference – two games behind Philadelphia and 1.5 games ahead of Brooklyn.
“It always seems that after the All-Star break, there's a ramp up in intensity and obviously the importance of what it feels like each game is,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “We try to preach that a game in December is just as important as a game in February, March, April, but when you see the finish line and you see where teams are and what they're fighting for, it just seems to be a little more real.”
Cleveland looks to make the playoffs for the first time without LeBron James since the 1998 season but the intensity and competition for playoff positioning is going to heat up starting with the Nuggets.
“We have high expectations for ourselves, but our expectations are we performing the right way and to our standard and what we believe in,” Bickerstaff said. “If we play the way that we believe we're capable of and play to our values, that's a success for us. And then the wins and losses come from there.”
Cleveland is one of three teams to have played 61 games already, but the good news is that they only have two more back-to-backs, including this week against Denver at home and Friday at Atlanta.
“We have some good challenges ahead,” newcomer and veteran Danny Green said. “Denver's a great team. Atlanta's another really good team.
Toronto, then we have obviously Brooklyn, a couple times Miami. Those are really good teams in the east and we can use all those games to prepare for playoff like games against those top teams that are good teams, playoff teams and use those as practice for the playoffs.”
Pick it up – The Cavs went into the All-Star break fairly hot winning nine of 11 but the challenge coming off a week-long layoff is trying to pick up where they left off.
“Whatever momentum or rhythm that you had before the break, you don't know where it stands right now,” Bickerstaff said. “That can be good, that can be bad.
“When we had our first practice Tuesday night it wasn't like we had a bunch of guys just go home and sit on their butts and do nothing. They went home and continued to work. You could tell. So you know, don't know the unknown of where our mindset is. I thought we were in a really good place. We appear to be in that same place but we'll go out and find out after that break.”
After having eight days off thanks to the All-Star break, center Jarrett Allen admitted it might take a moment to get back on track, but it shouldn’t take too long.
“It's really just getting back into the mindset of playing,” Allen said. “You know, coming off vacation, you might have a little vacation hangover and it's just getting locked back in to finish the season.”
Resting Rubio – The Cavs continue to be careful with Ricky Rubio, who sat Thursday night coming off the break.
“I think it's just something we'll keep an eye on,” Bickerstaff said. “What we want to do is err on the side of caution, understanding that this is a ramp up period for us hopefully as a group. But his safety is the most important thing and we'll always just monitor that, pay attention to how he's feeling and then go from there.”
Bickerstaff is hopeful that before the regular season ends they won’t have to watch Rubio’s games and minutes as much as they are now.
Rubio is expected to play against the Hawks Friday night.
“That’s the plan,” Bickerstaff said.
Full strength – The Cavs will get the Nuggets best shot Thursday night.
Jamal Murray, who missed the previous seven games, played along with Bruce Brown, Nikola Jokić, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Michael Porter Jr.
Quote of the day – “I did not, no. I was told he was going for milk and cigarettes and he just never came back.” Allen asked if he knew Kevin Love wanted a buyout.
