CLEVELAND — Reaching 60 wins is far from the ultimate goal for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to savor reaching the milestone.
Cleveland’s 127-122 victory over the LA Clippers on Sunday afternoon gave the Cavaliers at least 60 wins for only the third time in franchise history.
“Celebrate the small victories, and we will,” said Donovan Mitchell, who had 24 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. “It’s been a great year. All of our sacrifices and hard work is paying off. It is big for the organization and the city.”
First-year coach Kenny Atkinson said he didn’t expect 60 wins at the start of the season, which is why he wanted his group to savor this.
“My internal goal was how we could improve from last year, even if it was for one or two wins. For this team to take it to another level and shatter that says a lot,” said Atkinson, who became the 13th coach in NBA history with 60 wins in his first season with a new team. “We still can add to that. We have to celebrate this. It’s not the end goal but take a deep breath and celebrate.”
The last time Cleveland reached 60 wins was 2009-10, when it went 61-21. The franchise-high mark is 66-16 from 2008-09. Those were the final two seasons in LeBron James‘ first stint with the Cavaliers.
Without being asked, center Jarrett Allen recognized how meaningful it was to do something again for the first time without James. The Akron native remains an icon in Northeast Ohio after he led the Cavaliers to the region’s first professional sports title in 52 years in 2016.
“Whether we like it or not, LeBron is the face of this city and has done so much. It is tough to break away from that notion or the records, the first to do it with LeBron here,” he said. “We’re trying to do something special and hopefully we can.”
The Cavaliers have faced their share of adversity since they had a 16-game winning streak snapped by Orlando on March 16. The loss to the Magic started a season-high, four-game slide, but Cleveland has won four of its past five.
Atkinson said before the game that the focus was on his own team, instead of figuring out ways to contain LA’s James Harden, Norman Powell or Ivica Zubac.
Atkinson was not pleased with his team’s play in a 133-122 loss to Detroit on Friday night. He also wanted to see a better response level after the Clippers won the first meeting by 13 points on March 18.
“We were struggling a little,” he said. “Thinking about the Detroit game we had some not great performances. Thinking about our Clippers game in L.A., they took it to us. We needed to for psychological reasons to get it in a good manner.”
The Cavaliers began separating themselves from James’ shadow last season when they beat the Magic in seven games in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. It marked the first time since 1993 they won a series without James.
“Everything since I have been here has been a stepping stone. Something has improved every year,” said Allen, who had his team-leading 39th double-double of the season with 25 points and 12 rebounds.
Cleveland is 4 1/2 games ahead of Boston for the top seed in the Eastern Conference with seven games remaining. With a couple days to rest up before hosting the New York Knicks on Wednesday, Atkinson is stressing other things supersede getting that top spot.
“If I had priorities I would rather be playing well and having everyone healthy. Hopefully the first seed will come with that and I think it will,” he said. “We have to keep the philosophy and mentality that we’re growing.”
Source: espn.com