• last week
Transcript
00:00For the Cleveland Cavaliers DRS now a perfect undefeated start at 13 and 0, 8-point road win
00:10last night in Philadelphia against the shorthanded Sixers. No Paul George, no Joel Embiid of course
00:16would not expect him to play a back-to-back after his season debut on Tuesday night. That wasn't
00:22overly prolific by the way for JoJo or the Sixers, but first the focus on the Cavs. A perfect 13
00:29and 0 start. They have covered in 9 of 13, not last night as an 11 and a half point road favorite,
00:36but they've scored at least 110 points in 12 of these 13 victories. DRS does the best start in
00:43the NBA in a near decade. It's the fourth best start at 13 and 0 in the history of the association.
00:50Yeah this is a team that we were waiting on for the past two to three years to really show that
00:54moxie because the talent no doubt is there. Maybe it's just a head coaching change which
00:57has them going in the right direction, but I do want to start here which is something that's just
01:01an issue with the NBA. The back-to-backs, like the way the NBA game is played now, it should never
01:07happen. Like this should have been a really good marquee game for the Cleveland Cavaliers to go in
01:11the Philadelphia and take on Paul George and Joel Embiid. Now granted, whether or not it's a
01:14back-to-back wasn't going to play, but you knew the setup here. The Sixers are going to go all
01:18in for that cup game against the Knicks here with George and also Joel Embiid, but then you stack
01:23them up with the back-to-back with an unbeaten team which should have been a national game. Like
01:26hey everybody wants to watch it and then nobody played which included even Andre Drummond didn't
01:30show up. Credit the Sixers for staying within the number because I thought they would get blown out
01:34at least a double-digit victory and I didn't think they would score over 103 points which
01:38they did. So they were competitive all the way through, but I just feel like you know yes 13-0
01:42was awesome for the Cavaliers, but last night was a skate there that should have been one of those
01:46roadblock games where hey you're on the road against the Sixers with some quality players
01:50you shouldn't be able to beat them so handily. Again they didn't cover the spread but the air
01:54was taken out. Great win for the Cavaliers. We'll see when that first loss is going to come
01:57because this team is doing everything right now. Superstar play. Fantastic action from Donovan
02:02Mitchell. You know he's late in that game not shooting the three-point great drains a couple
02:05in the fourth quarter. Love Darius Garland as the point 10 of 16 from the floor. There's a
02:09lot of really good things on the Cavaliers. The question is how long can they hold this unbeaten
02:13streak? NDRS the questions last night really for Cleveland right a balanced effort as we have seen
02:21to lead them to 13 consecutive wins with the first year head coach Kenny Atkinson who of course
02:26has been a longtime NBA coach whether an assistant bench boss or a head coach at times previous like
02:33during his time in Brooklyn for Philadelphia now two and nine but the second cover in those nine
02:40losses last night and if you're looking for a sliver of optimism for Philly it's the rookie
02:46first round draft pick Jared McCain out of Duke 34 points six made triples 10 dimes as well to
02:53keep the Sixers within the number of 11 and a half now for Cleveland updated win total already up by
03:00seven in the first three plus weeks of this NBA season it was 48 in a hook entering the year it
03:06is now 55 and a half the favorites to win the division not necessarily all that important in
03:11the NBA at minus 470 but a better and improving price in the eastern conference trying to keep
03:17pace with the reigning champs in the Celtics and other teams around the east that are even in front
03:22of Cleveland in the standings at this moment and Donnie when you think about what the Cavs are doing
03:28here a historic start to this year perfect 13 and oh the best we have seen in nearly 10 years
03:34in the NBA but the Cavs haven't been a bad regular season team the last two years either 51 wins two
03:41years ago 48 a season ago but they have never gone past the second round despite being one of
03:48the top five seeds in the east each of the past two years it led to this to the dismissal of J.B.
03:53Bickerstaff it of course led to the hire of Kenny Atkinson and the immediate returns very solid but
03:59still the postseason will be the question for Cleveland absolutely it is and also you do have
04:04some quality wins on that schedule already so far you knock down the Knicks you knock down the Lakers
04:08you beat the Bucks twice who again aren't a great team record wise but you know the the end of the
04:12season they're going to be a problem in the east and also the Warriors which you beat 136 to 117 so
04:17it's not as if it's like hey we're running and hiding and sooner than later we'll get our come
04:20up and they've actually been pretty good we'll see how long it goes because on the 19th they're
04:24going to be at the Celtics maybe that's that real test here where you know the garden is going to be
04:29ready for that up in Boston yeah absolutely so and that will be a huge game for the Cavaliers are
04:36they going to start 25 and 0 like the Warriors did in 2015 are they going to go 82 and 0 probably
04:43not absolutely not to the second question in that uh you know hypothetical situation but DRS in terms
04:50of what Cleveland is doing they're trying to catch Boston the Celtics still the short favorites in
04:55the east the Knicks in front of them despite being sub 500 at this moment in fact the Cavs who are
05:02perfect the Celtics the reigning champs and now the magic where they win last night for Orlando
05:08those are the only three teams above 500 in the eastern conference everybody else at least the
05:13game below 500 or worse so that plus 850 price on the Cavaliers third best in the eastern conference
05:21at this moment

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