CLEVELAND — The win total is growing quickly, and so is the Cavaliers’ confidence.
At 8-0 so far, they are the only unbeaten team left in the Eastern Conference. And at this point, they might as well win them all.
“That’s the plan,” center Jarrett Allen said with a wide smile.
The Cavs kept their unblemished record intact Monday night with a 116-114 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, who pushed Cleveland to the limit despite playing without injured two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Darius Garland scored 39 points to pace the Cavs, outdueling Bucks star Damian Lillard in the final minutes as the point guards put on a dazzling display of shotmaking to the delight of another rocking crowd inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
“It was amazing,” said Garland, who made 7 of 11 3-pointers, including a go-ahead trey with 45 seconds left that put the Cavs up 113-111. “I grew up watching Dame. It was super cool playing some one-on-one basketball.”
It has been team ball that has gotten Cleveland off to its pristine start.
With the triumph, the Cavs matched the best start in franchise history, equaling the 1976-77 squad that went 8-0 before finishing 43-39 under coach Bill Fitch.
“We’re not doing that,” All-Star Donovan Mitchell said, cutting off a reporter who mentioned the franchise record for fear of jinxing the team’s early run. “I did not know that. It’s great. Obviously, you want to enjoy the little things on the road, and it’s great to have that; but at the end of the day, it’s been eight games.”
Maybe so, but the Cavs have won them all under first-year coach Kenny Atkinson, and they’ve done it with a new catalyst emerging almost every night.
“We’ve won in so many different ways,” said Mitchell, who signed a three-year contract extension with the Cavs this summer. “That’s been more impressive to me than the eight wins, just how we’ve done it. We’ve had blowouts. We’ve had close games. We’ve come back. Every night, it’s somebody new.”
Atkinson has been willing to go deep in his bench almost every game. Although he was missing starter Dean Wade and top reserve Caris LeVert against the Bucks because of injuries, the coach used 10 players, including rookie Luke Travers, who appeared in just his second game.
“It just shows the belief in the group, from top to bottom,” said Mitchell, who beat the Bucks on Saturday with a jumper in the final second. “And the belief we have in each other.”
The Cavs know the first loss will come at some point, and it’s unlikely they’ll threaten the NBA record held by the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, who opened 24-0. But they’re having fun, and nothing is more fun than winning.
“We’re all just locked in,” Garland said.