Winstreak serves as additional source of motivation for cavaliers

Getting to 11-0 wasn’t easy for the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night.

Playing the second night of a back-to-back, the Wine and Gold looked a bit sluggish through the second half of their matchup with the Brooklyn Nets. A 13-point third quarter left Cleveland trailing by 10 heading into the final stanza.

That lead eventually grew to 13 early in the fourth before the Cavaliers slowly chipped away. Finally, with about 2:31 left, the Cavs pulled even with the Nets at 96 per. piece, then proceeded to outscore them nine to six to close out the game and extend their season-opening streak to 11 straight.

The pressure to keep the streak going – especially in a tight, comeback performance – is starting to become a little extra source of motivation for the Cavs even unconsciously. As Kenny Atkinson even admitted, it also makes the games feel more high-stakes.

“You think about it,” Atkinson said after the game. “Normally, this is 11 games where you don’t think about a streak. But tonight, man, you’re thinking, ‘I don’t want it to end this way.’ It motivates you more to win. I mean, we compete and we try to win every game, but it’s kind of weird in the back of your mind when you’re out there competing like ‘man, we gotta keep this thing going?’ So we keep trying to do that.”

It is rare that games this early in the season come with increased pressure. Beyond this wild stretch is a 71-game stretch of a schedule that Cleveland must navigate. Its season will be defined by much more than these first 11 games when it’s all said and done.

And yet Atkinson is not the only one with the streak on his mind during games.

“It’s in the back of my mind, I don’t know with them,” Cavs guard Darius Garland said with a smile. “I mean, 11-0 is great. We’re coming up against a really good team and they’re having their night against us, they’re having their night. We’ve just got to get ready for the next one.”

At some point, the Cavaliers will lose a game. They will also lose a lot more after that. Until then, however, they are making the most of this historic and entertaining trip that they are on. And it has caught the attention of the NBA world.

“We don’t want to rush it,” Garland added. “It’s 82 games in a season, so an L isn’t really going to hurt us. We’ve got a bigger picture, we’ve got bigger plans. We’re trying to win a championship, we’re not trying to go 82-0.”