Dave McMenamin, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Cavs put together first complete-game win

CLEVELAND -- Before Saturday’s 127-94 drubbing of the Atlanta Hawks, here’s the rundown of the Cleveland Cavaliers' rather pedestrian victories in their 4-3 start to the season: beat a Chicago Bulls team in overtime that didn’t have Jimmy Butler in the lineup and was without Derrick Rose for most of the second half; beat a Denver Nuggets team (that is currently 2-6) after a 21-point late third-quarter lead was cut all the way to 6 with just under 4 minutes to go in the fourth; beat a New Orleans Pelicans team at home with a legitimate all-around effort that may or may not have been aided by the Pellies' plane being delayed six hours on the runway the night before; and beat a Boston Celtics team in a game they gave up 121 points and had to stage a furious rally down 19 points in the fourth.

Calling it a spotty start would be generous. Yet there was coach David Blatt spinning it to a positive as best he could in his pregame media session prior to tipoff against the Hawks.

“I do want to say we’ve been doing pretty good lately,” Blatt said. “Everybody’s been talking about what’s been bad, but we’ve been doing pretty good ... As far as I know, if you score more points than the other guy, that’s what’s most important.”

(Never mind that it’s a negative narrative that Blatt is responsible for breathing life into in the first place, choosing to lambaste his troops for their “lethargic” defense that he deemed was “disturbing” following that Pelicans win earlier this week.)

Blatt didn’t have to do any spinning after the Cavs’ record-setting performance against Atlanta. Playing on the second night of a back-to-back, Cleveland came out with a Benjamin Button-like burst of reversed-order liveliness. It scored a season high in points, aided by a 9-for-9 mark as a team from 3-point land in the first quarter (setting both a franchise and NBA record for most makes without a miss in a quarter, according to the Elias Sports Bureau), and accumulated 39 assists on 49 buckets in the romp. And it played well on defense, holding the Hawks to 43 points on 43.5 percent shooting in the first half as Cleveland opened up a 28-point lead at the break.

So, is this the start of the Cavs steamrolling the rest of the league? On this point, Blatt’s take was a bit more believable.

“I’m going to tell you what I’ve told my teams over the years,” Blatt said. “Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it appears.”

He’s right. There is a see-saw syndrome that occurs when evaluating a team in its nascent stages. A single win can be declared as the moment everything clicked. A lone loss can be construed as an indictment against its ultimate potential.

Yet, a team can make major strides right before your eyes. It was less than 10 days ago the Cavs seemed to be reeling from a blowout loss in Portland followed by a last-second loss in Utah when the ball moved on offense about as well as the participants during breakdance night at the old folks' home.

James was asked about the juxtaposition of the Jazz loss, when the Cavs had just 6 assists on 30 made field goals, with the Hawks win. And his dialogue with the reporter was pretty telling.

Reporter: “How disappointing was that night when you guys had a low assist total?”

James: “Six?”

Reporter: “Yeah, six. I forgot about that.”

James: “I didn’t.”

Kyrie Irving ended up being the goat for that Utah loss, with people wondering how someone could call themselves a point guard and then go out and score 34 points with zero assists. In the Cavs’ four-game win streak since then, Irving has an assist-to-turnover rate of 25-to-2.

“We’ve learned from that and we know that in order to win basketball games, in order for everyone to feel comfortable, we have to share the ball,” James said.

Everybody got theirs Saturday, from James pumping in 32 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds through three quarters before taking the fourth off to rest, to Irving leading five other Cavs players in double figures with 20 points on an efficient 6-for-9 clip.

Irving was asked if the Cavs are finally there yet.

“There’s never going to be a ‘there,’” he said. “There’s never going to be when everything is complete because there’s never going to be a perfect game, ever. So this is just a process and process is the word for this team right now.”

It might not have been a perfect game, but it was a complete one. Their first top-to-bottom win of the season. And it came at a great time, too, with an early test against those top-to-bottom San Antonio Spurs looming on Wednesday.

The Cavs hope to stay moving in the right direction with that potential Spurs pitfall. But the championship-tested players on their roster, James included, know the season is a journey, a long and winding road.

They’ll have to continually find their way.

“Have we turned the corner?” Blatt asked rhetorically after the game. “Heck, I didn’t even think there was a corner yet. It’s so early. It’s just so early.”

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