No Mitchell, no problem.
The Cleveland Cavaliers stamped their membership and joined an elite and rare fantastic foursome of NBA clubs that began their season 15–0 with a 128–114 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday night.
With the victory, Cleveland joined the 1948-49 Washington Capitols (15-0), 1993-94 Houston Rockets (15-0) and 2015-16 Golden State Warriors (24-0). All three of those historic teams eventually capped off the season in the NBA Finals, but only the Rockets won the championship, beating Patrick Ewing and the New York Knicks.
The Cavaliers played without their best player and leading scorer Donovan Mitchell, who was kept out of the game for rest, according to the NBA injury report. Mitchell has been cooking, averaging 24.6 points and shooting 42% from 3-point range this season.
Ty Jerome, out of the University of Virginia, took Mitchell’s place in the starting lineup and continued the great play he has contributed to the second unit, scoring 24 points, shooting 4 for 7 from downtown, with eight dimes.
“Ty’s played great. He’s earned that,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson explained before tipoff. “Complete confidence. He gives us another ballhandler too. It’s more about him playing great on both ends right now.”
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Cavaliers had three players that collected 20-point doubles-doubles. Darius Garland, who is coming into his own as a player, led the Cavs with 25 points and 12 assists. Evan Mobley contributed 23 points and 11 boards, while Jarrett Allen scored 21 points with 15 rebounds, taking full advantage of their size mismatch in the frontcourt over the undersized Hornets. Both Garland and Allen buried nine free throws.
Donning their retro powder blue City Edition uniforms, the Cavaliers did not waste any time and raced out to a double-digit lead, outscoring Charlotte 38–28 in the first quarter behind Jerome’s 10 points. Cleveland went into the locker room with a 72–59 lead.
However, to start the second half, things began to take a turn. The Hornets went on a 3-point barrage and that got them back into the game during the third quarter, making it a one-possession game, 82–79, and keeping the game competitive throughout the second half. For the game, Charlotte took 52 3-point shots, hitting 39% of them.
Fresh off being fined $100,000 by the NBA for using an anti-gay term during a postgame interview, LaMelo Ball led the Hornets with 31 points and 12 assists, shooting 5 for 15 from the great beyond.
Miles Bridges followed with 19 points (4 of 8 from distance), eight rebounds and eight assists. Josh Green, Brandon Miller (3 for 12 on 3s) and Grant Williams each added 15 for Charlotte, whose record dropped to 5–8 for the season.
The Cavs face the toughest test of their opening 15 games on Tuesday when they play the 11–3 Boston Celtics at TD Garden. The teams met in the second round of playoffs last season with Boston winning the Eastern Conference semifinal series in a gentlemen’s sweep, 4-1.
Charlotte travels to Brooklyn on Tuesday to face Cam Thomas and the Nets in an NBA Cup game, the same day the Cavaliers play at the Celtics.
