{"id":444836,"date":"2025-12-13T17:07:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T17:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/444836\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T17:07:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T17:07:12","slug":"should-the-cavs-look-at-the-thunder-as-a-barometer-for-their-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/444836\/","title":{"rendered":"Should the Cavs look at the Thunder as a barometer for their success?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Should the Cavs look at the Thunder as a barometer for their success?<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> lost to the skidding, shorthanded Portland Trail Blazers on December 3, Donovan Mitchell went on a tangent<\/a>. He was direct about the Cavs\u2019 approach to the season and how there aren\u2019t any excuses for their inconsistencies, referring to the Oklahoma City Thunder\u2019s historic start after winning the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOKC won a championship,\u201d Mitchell said following that Portland loss last Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019m not comparing us to them, but they\u2019re 20-1 or whatever it is. There\u2019s urgency around the league, and we want to be that. We want to be at that level. I don\u2019t know anybody else\u2019s record, but that\u2019s the one that stands out. We want to be that championship team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Thunder have since racked up four more wins, off to a 24-1 start and running roughshod over the league. Their latest win was a 138-89 throttling of the Phoenix Suns in the Emirates NBA Cup on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

One day removed from OKC\u2019s blowout win, ClutchPoints asked Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson<\/a> if he\u2019s paid attention to the defending champions when setting the standard he wants to<\/a> in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you do that in the NBA, I think you\u2019ll drive yourself crazy if you start looking at other teams and what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Atkinson said following Thursday\u2019s practice. \u201cI\u2019ve just really got to be focused on us. I look at our metrics, our KPIs [key performance indicators]. I looked at it the other day, I think we\u2019re kind of borderline top-10 in both offensive [efficiency] and [defensive efficiency]. It\u2019s not like, \u2018Oh shoot, we\u2019re 26th in this and 19th [in this].\u2019 So, there are some real positives here.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re not where we want to be, but we\u2019re not way behind. So I do think there\u2019s some positive signs. We look at all the expected stuff too, so that gives us checking our processes; those numbers are pretty good. That doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m satisfied with where we are, but I do think there\u2019s some positive signs that we\u2019re trending decently, and as we get healthier, we\u2019ll continue to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

It makes sense that Atkinson doesn\u2019t want to look elsewhere to galvanize Cleveland because motivation should be internal. With that said, the Thunder are proving that championship habits can carry over despite the notion that there can be hangovers from previous champions.<\/p>\n

Atkinson\u2019s Cavs didn\u2019t follow up a week off with the best performance in the nation\u2019s capital, narrowly escaping with a 130-126 comeback win over the banged-up, three-win Washington Wizards. It required Mitchell\u2019s heroics<\/a> for the umpteenth time this season, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t come out and just solve it just because you had five days off,\u201d Mitchell said postgame on Friday. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things where you\u2019ve got to keep chipping, gotta keep doing all the little things, all the little stuff. That\u2019s what it took to win [Friday]. We found a way. Now, can we do it again and again? Not really be on everybody else\u2019s timeline, but our timeline. Continue to build.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have to continue to go every single night. We can\u2019t look around the league and compare. No. Every single night, we\u2019ve got to be the best we can be. We\u2019re not there yet. Obviously, yeah, we\u2019re hurt, but I\u2019m not using that as an excuse. We have enough in this locker room, and we\u2019ve got to continuously be better as a group. But, it\u2019s good that we\u2019re going through this now and not during that stretch in March right before the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cavs sit at 15-11 with plenty of winnable games ahead against sub-.500 teams in this upcoming stretch. The Charlotte Hornets and Chicago Bulls will be their opponents for the next four contests. It\u2019ll be paramount for the wine and gold to stack victories and get back to their identity, as it\u2019s a prime opportunity to right the ship.<\/p>\n

Related: \u2018Superhero\u2019 Donovan Mitchell explodes with 48 points as Cavs escape with win vs. Wizards<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Two key Cavs players ruled out vs. Wizards, but there\u2019s a positive update<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Should the Cavs look at the Thunder as a barometer for their success? appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":444837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3118,3127,3128,39463,204935,1260,1268,1721,3133,62,67,132,68,3117],"class_list":{"0":"post-444836","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-charlotte-hornets","9":"tag-chicago-bulls","10":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","11":"tag-donovan-mitchell","12":"tag-kenny-atkinson","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","15":"tag-phoenix-suns","16":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-washington-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115713359594285032","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}