CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Cavs are headed back to the playoffs.
Donovan Mitchell scored 26 and Evan Mobley collected his 28th double-double of the season to lead the Cavs past the Heat 112-107 at Rocket Arena.
Here’s the top Wine & Gold nuggets from Wednesday night.
Playoff bound – The Cavs became the first team to clinch a top-6 playoff spot with their 52nd win of the season, but other than cheers from fans, there wasn’t much of a celebration. “We've accomplished so many different things, but this making the playoffs, it's great to do it in front of the home crowd, great to do it early, but this is bare minimum for us with the expectations and the goals we have,” Mitchell said. “This is just to be expected.” It’s the third straight year the Cavs have made the playoffs outright and fourth consecutive season if you include the team’s play-in tournament appearance in 2022. “[We] Came a long way, went through a lot of different trials and tribulations getting here, but I feel like where we're at right now is a great spot and we still got 20 more games or so to go,” Mobley, who had 16 points and 13 rebounds, said. “So we want to finish strong, that's the main thing and be as prepared as possible for playoffs.”
Goin’ streaking – Cleveland became the second team in NBA history to tally three-win streaks of 12 or more games in a single season joining the 2006-07 Dallas Mavericks. “Sure, there's luck when you do this. There's got to be luck,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “It's so hard to win in the NBA and we've stayed healthy…. Tyler Heroes out tonight. We have had some fortune, let's be honest. So all those things in a tumbler, and that's the kind of season we're having, but it's special. This is really special. We know what we're going to be judged on, but we have to enjoy this. We have to enjoy a season like this.”
Clutch Cavs – After allowing a 17-point first half lead slip away, the Cavs finished with a 19-7 run over the final 6:11 to erase a 7-point deficit and pull off another comeback. “They call it a Cavalanche, right,” Mitchell said. “Tonight we got stops, but I don't think this is one of our better fourth quarters. I mean, we hit shots, but I had two terrible turnovers. DG [Darius Garland] had a turnover. Just different things that we can definitely clean up…I think it's something that just shows our maturity as a group and how we've continued to take our steps.” The Cavs made six consecutive defensive stops to close out the game to hang on despite committing three key turnovers late. “They're going to be mistakes during the game,” De’Andre Hunter, who scored 16 points and had five rebounds off the bench, said. “We can't get flustered, especially in a game like that when a team's hot and they're scoring, we can't get flustered whenever we do turn the ball over or things don't go our way and we just got to stay mentally tough and fight through those things and that's what we did to get those six stops at the end.” It also helped that Duncan Robinson stepped out of bounds before hitting what would’ve been the tying 3 with 17.4 remaining for Miami – all for naught. Cleveland improved to 45-0 when either leading or tied entering the fourth quarter this season. The Cavs rallied from 22 down to beat Celtics last Friday, 18 to beat the Trail Blazers Sunday and from 15 down to beat the Bulls Tuesday night in Chicago.
Feel the Love – The Cavs honored Kevin Love, whose defense of Stephen Curry in the closing seconds of Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals helped secure the NBA Championship, with a tribute video during a first quarter timeout. “His impact is huge,” Mobley said. “Winning a championship here and all the years he spent here with the fans and I mean, it's Kevin Love, so whenever he comes into this building, it's just a treat. All the fans love him and it's great to see him out there playing against him again.” Love acknowledged the crowd after receiving a rousing ovation. “Cleveland and Ohio and this organization will always mean a lot to me,” Love said. “I'll always come back. I'm really happy for those guys down there….My number will, because I've been told, eventually go up there, make some [room] Nick Gilbert. So it's an exciting time. It's good to finally be back after over two years now.” Prior to the game Love visited with Cavs reserve Tristan Thompson and ESPN color commentator Richard Jefferson, also members of the 2016 championship team. “That gives you goosebumps, to me at least, and I wasn't a part of it. I wasn't here,” Atkinson said. “That was really, really neat. And Richard Jefferson too, I thought that was really cool.”
Starting 5 – Atkinson started Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Max Strus, and Jarrett Allen Sunday night.