Donovan Mitchell’s NSFW message on Cavaliers’ undefeated start

With another win, the Cleveland Cavaliers would have the second-longest streak to start an NBA season with 16 wins. That would be behind only the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, who began that year 24-0. Of 29 teams that won 16 or more consecutive games in a season, 12 won the NBA Finals that year. While it all makes for great headlines and podcast fodder, Donovan Mitchell can’t be bothered as he spoke candidly about what he is really worried about while on The Pivot podcast.

“We had adversity last year. I was out for about 15 games, DG was out for 20 games and Evan was out for 20 games as we’ve shown who we are. And I have no doubt that when adversity strikes, we will get closer. But it’s easier when you’re with the group you rock with, but also Coach Atkinson has been phenomenal with his message of continuing to play with tempo, unselfish play and team basketball.

This is amazing. It has been a historic start, but that’s how it is right now. We’re building good habits, and I think that’s the best part, but at the end of the day, it’s what we do after the All-Star Break that matters.”

Mitchell isn’t wrong, as evidenced by what happened with that 2015-16 Warriors team. They broke the regular season record for wins by going 73–9, but then lost 4–3 to the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals.

The Cavaliers don’t lose sight of the big picture

Cleveland continues to dive deep into the details and pulled out a 2-3 zone scheme to get the job done against the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday night.

“Coach Max Strus,” Cavs guard Darius Garland said after the game. “We’re still learning from him, even though he’s on the sidelines, he’s still preaching about the zone. The two or three definitely slowed them down from all their driving options and just got us into rotation a lot. So I will definitely put it on the zone. Save us.”

“It’s an excellent scheme of how we guard the zone,” Jarrett Allen said. “Shout out to Max. He kind of set the zone in. He was a coach for a day telling us where to be and how to guard certain things and just our energy in the zone. We communicate well. We know when to box out. We know if Evan goes, I have his back. It’s just a good tandem of movement that works well together.”

The Cavaliers travel to Boston for their next NBA Cup game against the Celtics on Tuesday night. The Cavs are 1-0 in the Eastern Conference’s Group C.