Kenny Atkinson’s pre -match bottle of water launches the Spurs Cavars relief at the 60th victory

Cleveland-Non should not be complained about the 60 wins teams until May as soon as possible, for two reasons.

One, any team enough to win (at least) 60 out of 82 should arrive in May, or the second round of the NBA playoffs. Two, any team to win that many games have gained the right to finish the regular season, however it considers it appropriate.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are such a good team, and for most of the last two weeks they have been in a general malaise. Their coach, Kenny Atkinson, had widely attenuated by the rules I established above, shaking his shoulders, giving priority to health and rest for the post -stament season, foaming with formations and blaming the producers of programs while his team essentially sonnean after having insulted Sonnone after having put together five of the greatest months in the history of the NBA.

Well, Sunday, Atkinson took. And perhaps his team has reached 60 wins for this.

According to two of the best Cavs players, Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen, Atkinson entered the locker room before Sunday’s game with the Clippers and opened a light note.

“He entered, speaking of Duke and Final Four and S—, and then he launched (his) bottle of water on the screen (TV)”, as Mitchell described. “Just out of nothing, (he started screaming).”

“There was a very (explicit) message with many words chosen by Kenny who made us turn on,” Allen continued.

The result of Atkinson who lost calm in his team was a victory for 127-122 on the Clippers-the 60 ° of Cavs in this season-In what has been easily their best performance for some time.

Since they won their sixteenth consecutive game of the franchise record on March 14 in Memphis, the Cavs lost, then they lost again, then they shook their shoulders and get rid of collectively, then they lost more, then lost again on Friday evening in Detroit when the Pistons did not have Cunningham.

There were two ways to look at it. The first, which was the point of discussion for almost all the knights in public, was that a combination of fatigue, the program and having won so much in such a spectacular and historical way throughout the season put the team for a disappointment that almost everyone could see coming.

The other was that the Cavs were not up to the only real goal of the regular season they were preparing. Among the winning series – they opened the season by winning 15 in a row, then they ran away from 12 in a little later, and then, up to that victory of the road in Memphis, they scored 16 consecutive victories – the first thing they said that it was important for them was simply to play best when the playoffs arrived.

And this was preparing for not being so.

“We had, perhaps for psychological reasons, to get this game and get it positively,” said Atkinson.

“This really made us go on,” said Donovan Mitchell about the explosion prayer of the coach Kenny Atkinson, shown above. “He is fiery. We all knew about him who entered this job.” (Ken Blaze / Imagn images)

Mitchell was second in the team with a score (24 points), linked first with Allen in rebound (12) and led the club in memorable built play of the fourth quarter (at least two of whom I can think) against the Clippers. One was with 50.1 seconds left and the Cavs in front of seven when Los Angeles of Los Angeles brought a loose ball as he fell on the pitch, but Mitchell took him away from him and then called the timeout before anyone else could bind him.

And then 8.6 seconds from the end, Mitchell dropped the ball from James Harden, and while he had come out of the limits, Mitchell ran and launched the ball behind his shoulders to a teammate in half a field. Mitchell ran so strong after the ball that his momentum brought him to the tunnel of the chapters of the clippers and the passage turned out to be a perfect strike for a teammate. The Cavs dried the clock and won the game.

I can’t tell you that Mitchell has not made such an effort for weeks. But I can say that he shot 2 out of 18 in a game of the loser series and 9 out of 29 in another.

The 25 points of Allen and 12 bulletin boards were partially remarkable because it was combined against Ivica Zubac of the Clippers, who in a victory over Cleveland in Los Angeles on March 18 went for 28 points and 20 tables. In comparison, the 14 points of Zubac and 13 rebounds on Sunday seemed pedestrianized, especially with Allen playing in the middle.

Evan Mobley added 22 points and three blocks, one of which on Zubac in the fourth quarter. After blocking the shot from behind, Mobley both stroked Zubac on his butt and sculpted his finger, at Dikembe Mutombo, who did not seem to Zubac. He was shouting and lifting his arms in the general direction of an officer and Mobley, asking for a foul or a technical foul on Mobley for the trick. Mobley is not one for speeches on the trash, but he feels he needs to increase his evaluation Q to win the defender of the NBA year, so Zubac has scored a finger at his person.

Even Atkinson has intensified his coaching, beyond the improvised launch of the bottle. Before the Cavs took the field and before shattering his team’s collective sleep with the surprise speech/outburst, Atkinson sat in the medium room explaining to journalists who was trying to find a balance while navigating in the last eight games (now seven). He plays better, of course, but he remains healthy, from Craig Porter Jr., plays Javonte Green, you know, for any eventuality.

This is nothing against both players, but if one of them must be counted in the post -station, it would be because of more injuries to the rotation players or, more rotation players who perform so bad that Atkinson has no other choice than to try them.

If Atkinson wants to use the final stretch of the regular season to find out if they are practicable options, this is its prerogative, but it is also difficult to say to the whole team that these games count as it is experiencing formations in the event that a mallet should grasp and break the emergency glass in emergency games.

On Sunday, Porter did not play (even if the normal backup guard, Ty Jerome, was still out with a knee injury) and Green recorded only five minutes. Mitchell and Mobley played 37 minutes, and Atkinson otherwise attacked almost exclusively to the type of rotation of the player who should expect in the playoffs, where Mitchell or Darius Garland, and Mobley or Allen, are always on the pitch.

“I was just thinking:” Friend, this is a playoff game: this is how the playoffs will be and that group was rolling, staying with that group, “Atkinson said.” I think that if it had been the game 42, I would have done normal rotations, but I felt like if they were to (win) for many reasons. “

Mobley said the Cavs would play for the rest of the season as they did against the Clippers. What they have to do is play in this way for four of the remaining seven games or, I should say, they need a combination of four victories or losses of Boston Celtics to guarantee seed n. 1 in the East.

Cleveland has an advantage of 4 1/2 on the Celtics with seven games to play; Suming such an advantage, no matter how much Cavs claim to prioritize health for the playoffs, it would be a serious blow. Dasani should have sent trucks of water bottles in the city for all the whims that they would be (and should) follow.

The Cavs host the New York Knicks on Wednesday and then go to San Antonio to play the Spurs on Friday (Cleveland beat them last week). Then there are a couple of home games, a tough tough next week in Indianapolis and New York, and a season finale on the last Sunday of the regular season against the Pacers.

Only a couple of more nights like the game that the Cavs put together on Sunday in the playoffs and all the good feelings and habits built from late October to 14 March will certainly have passed, which is all they said they ever wanted to be outside the first six months of the season – to prepare for the part of the year that matters most.

Foul and Atkinson can save his arm.

“This really made us go on,” Mitchell said. “He’s fiery. We all knew about him who entered this job … Rick Pitino reminded me of college.”

(Top photo of Donovan Mitchell, on the left, fighting for a loose ball with Norman Powell: Ken Blaze / Imagn Images)