CLEVELAND -- When Kendrick Perkins was in the process of choosing which team he’d be joining out of his many high-profile suitors -- Cleveland, Chicago and the L.A. Clippers comprising the final three -- the veteran center relied on good, old-fashioned film study to aid his decision.

He knew that his former coach, Doc Rivers, would pull on his heartstrings from their glory days together in Boston to try to woo him out West. He knew his former AAU teammate, LeBron James, could list the four straight Finals appearances he's enjoyed and the two rings he's earned as promise of what would be in store for him in Cleveland. He knew the Bulls, with their veteran roster and defensive-minded head coach, Tom Thibodeau (who also coached him in Boston), would carve out a place for him in their community of hard workers.

But Perk wanted what his eyes saw from his potential team and his brain registered from that observation to match up with what his heart felt.

So, he watched the Cavs. He saw guards, such as Kyrie Irving, fighting over screens out on the perimeter possession after possession, never ceding that extra inch. He saw big men, such as Kevin Love, helping out the guards when they got beat and, in turn, the next big man on the court helping out the helper. He saw offensive-minded players, such as J.R. Smith, covering 94 feet on the defensive end, giving the effort on plays they would have given up on in the past.

The video evidence was enough: The Cavs proved to Perkins they were the genuine article.

And Thursday’s impressive, 110-99 win over the league-leading Golden State Warriors proved to many more that they are real and they're to be reckoned with.

"We don't really want to send a message to anybody right now," Smith said. "We just want to keep impressing ourselves. I'm sure the rest of the league looked at it like, 'Oh my God, they beat arguably the best team in the league,' but we feel as though we're the best team."

The internal belief the Cavs have makes Smith's statement less boasting and more matter of fact.

The win over the Warriors was Cleveland's 18th in its past 20 games, its 11th straight at home and its 10th straight against a Western Conference foe, but it's not the streak that convinced James his team is ready. It was what came before it: a whirlwind 19-20 start to the season full of daily dramas, disappointment and discord.

"You just learn who you are," James said. "You learn who individuals are. Guys go in a shell or guys break out of it. And it's easy to hide who you truly are when things are going great. You define yourself when things are not going as well. And as a team, we never pointed fingers. We didn't come in here and say we needed to do this, we needed to do that. We kept it all internal and said we need to find a solution. Stop worrying about the problems and find a solution, and we did that."

Now that the Cavs have found that confidence as a group, there will be room to push some individual agendas.

The Cavs are all about proving themselves -- David Blatt proving he belongs as a coach in this league; James proving he is still the MVP he once was; the team proving it has changed by beating yet another team that dismissed them earlier in the season and doing it with, gasp, defense; Smith proving he can be a team-first guy, right on down the line.

Let's start with Blatt. After an extremely difficult start to the season for him personally, with his credentials being called into questioned frequently, he is riding the Cavs' wave and making sure people are noticing who is at the helm.

"I've been a head coach for 22 years," Blatt said before the game. "People overlook that too easily. And I know that I'm the new kid on the block in the NBA and I recognize the greatness of this league and difficulty of this league and the fact that I had to make and still am going through adjustments that I have to make to coach in this league, but I am not now, nor was I, nor have I been for quite some time, a rookie coach."

Then, there's James, the four-time MVP who feels like guys such as Stephen Curry, James Harden, Russell Westbrook and Anthony Davis are getting a disproportionate amount of attention in this season's MVP race that could net him his fifth.

"If you ask me, there's no discussion about the MVP if he's not involved in it," Blatt said of James before the All-Star forward went out and dropped a season-high 42 points on the Warriors on 15-for-25 shooting to go with 11 rebounds.

"I think he took it a little personal between a lot of MVP chants that he's not in that," Smith said.

James smartly sidestepped the discussion and focused on his team ("Wherever I end up at the end of the season, that's what it is," he said), but the fact that he showed up at 5:30 to get up shots for the 8 p.m. tip told you how serious he was treating Thursday's stage.

And then there was Smith, cast off along with Iman Shumpert for peanuts by Phil Jackson and the New York Knicks and seen as an ill fit for the triangle offense, now doing everything he can to fit in with Cleveland, starting with defense.

"J.R. Smith played 35 minutes tonight and Iman Shumpert played 31 minutes. Between the two of them they had four points, but the "Splash Brothers" were 10-for-30 from the field," Blatt said, referring to Curry and Klay Thompson's combined shooting line with Smith and Shumpert guarding them for major portions of the night. "That's why they were on the court, and that's why we’re winning, because of that selfless attitude and the willingness to do what it takes to help the team win -- which is what is important."

Smith finished with only one made shot but tied James for the team lead with five assists (several coming on the "extra" pass) and also swiped four steals.

"I look at it as, if I wasn't doing it, somebody else would do it, so I know that my teammates would do the exact same thing for me," Smith said. "Whether it's making the extra pass, helping on defense, whatever it is. So I feel like it's only right to give it back."

There was Love proving he's adaptable, picking his spots to finish with 16 points and eight rebounds. There was Irving, proving his toughness, re-entering the game with an injured left shoulder that will require an MRI on Friday and finishing things off, just like when he played through a knee sprain in Oklahoma City earlier in the season.

There was a group proving that you better not judge them yet, because they plan on getting even better.

"We're building," Love said. "We're definitely moving in the right direction, but we feel like those last games that we have heading into the postseason, we need to keep validating ourselves."