Cavs are the sixth team in NBA history to start the season 13-0

PHILADELPHIA – It wasn’t easy, but the Cleveland Cavaliers saw their season-opening winning streak blown away on Wednesday night.

Thanks to Donovan Mitchell, who scored 13 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter, the Cavaliers became the sixth team in NBA history to win at least 13 consecutive games to start a season by posting a 114-106 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers won, who made it without All-Stars Tyrese Maxey, Paul George and Joel Embiid.

“We just stick together,” said Darius Garland, who led Cleveland with 25 points. “We’re just taking it game by game. We know we have a target on our backs, so we have to come in with that aggressiveness and the confidence that we’re going to win every game, and we have.” Even though, as I said, we have long nights and don’t sleep much, but we have to stay together and just keep going. That’s what we’re trying to do.

Of the previous five teams that started 13-0, four reached the NBA Finals, but only the 1993-94 Houston Rockets won the title, according to ESPN Research.

Despite Mitchell’s brilliance down the stretch, he was upset after the game for passing from a wide-open dunk late in the game to record the first triple-double of his career – something he apologized to his teammates for , after which he hit a pair of 3-pointers to officially put the pesky 76ers away.

“I’m not going to lie,” Mitchell said with a sheepish smile. “That was eight years ago. I mean, if there’s any indication, I missed a wide-open dunk. That’s out of character, it’s not my fault. That’s why I didn’t understand it. You don’t get rewarded for not doing it yourself.

“It was a selfish moment. … We all have these moments, but I apologize to the Cav fans, to my teammates. That’s not me. And that’s why I didn’t understand it, because I’m going to do something selfish. That’s it.” I’m not selfless like I preached myself.

However, Mitchell, his coaches and his teammates could all laugh about the moment, as it was just one more for the All-Star guard and the night resulted in the Cavaliers maintaining their undefeated start to the season.

For most of this game, it wasn’t clear that would happen, as Cleveland struggled to get out of the way against a severely undermanned 76ers team that is currently 2-10 this season and in 14th place in the Eastern Conference to come out in second gear. Not only were the 76ers without Maxey (hamstring), George and Embiid (both out with left knee injuries), shortly before the game the team also announced that backup center Andre Drummond would also be out due to illness.

As a result, Philadelphia opened the game against Cleveland’s two elite big men, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, with a front line that featured 6-foot-11 Guerschon Yabusele at center and rookie Adem Bona supporting him. And yet the 76ers managed to hold on thanks to another outstanding game from rookie guard Jared McCain, who scored a career-high 34 points in his first career start – the most by any rookie in a game this season.

Ultimately, however, Cleveland’s sheer talent advantage prevailed, as the Cavaliers opened the second half with a 12-5 lead to retake the lead, then let the lead hover around five points for much of the fourth quarter, ultimately holding it alive to suppress the game.

“We had an honest conversation at halftime,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We showed some clips. They just didn’t feel us. They ran wherever they wanted. We had no pressure on the ball. Our energy was low, our physicality wasn’t great and these guys are a winning group and they turned it up again.

Still, the Cavaliers see room for improvement. While they’re obviously happy with their winning streak, they’ve picked up narrow victories over the Chicago Bulls, Brooklyn Nets and the Giannis Antetokounmpo-less Milwaukee Bucks in the last 10 days. In many ways it’s a perfect situation: continue to win games while identifying things to work on.

And they are doing so while further widening the gap between themselves and the rest of the Eastern Conference. It’s only three weeks into the season and Cleveland already has a six-game losing lead over everyone except the defending champion Celtics, who they face next Tuesday, when they could be 15-0.

But for a team hoping to move into the class of true championship contention this season, it will have to get used to getting the best out of its opponent every night – something Mitchell said he’s glad his team even has now gets the chance to experience this. We know that there is still a long way to go before the actual tests begin next spring.

“That’s what you want,” Mitchell said. “At the end of the day, if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. But to be the best, which is what we’re trying to continue to be, you have to go out there every night.” And it’s a mental thing. Do you want to be satisfied? I’m not winning a championship at the moment, but these are good tests.

“The fact that we are 13-0 is great. We could be 9-2. That doesn’t matter to me. I think the most important thing is how we continue to build the habits by getting each team’s best shot night in and night out.