Cavs (15-0) stay unbeaten despite resting Mitchell
CLEVELAND — Darius Garland scored 25 points, Ty Jerome matched his career high with 24 in place of Donovan Mitchell, and the Cleveland Cavaliers stayed unbeaten with a 128-114 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday night.
The Cavs are the fourth team to start 15-0 and are tied for the second-best start to a season in NBA history, trailing only the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors (24-0). The Warriors set the league record by winning their first 24 games on the way to a 73-9 season.
The 2015-16 Warriors, 1993-94 Houston Rockets (started 15-0) and 1948-49 Washington Capitols (15-0) all made the NBA Finals.
Evan Mobley had 23 points and 11 rebounds, and Jarrett Allen had 21 points and 15 rebounds for Cleveland, marking the second time the Cavaliers have had four 20-point scorers in consecutive games in franchise history, and the first time since 1972.
Although they wanted to keep their winning streak alive, the Cavs felt getting Mitchell rest was more important. It’s a long season with bigger games ahead, and first-year coach Kenny Atkinson, who has yet to lose with Cleveland, said sticking to the plan with Mitchell was a priority.
The Cavaliers barely missed a beat without Mitchell, who was coming off a season-high 37-point performance. One of the many pluses during the winning streak is that it’s allowing Atkinson to further develop his bench.
Cleveland shot 67% (26-of-39) in the first half. Jerome tied a career best with eight assists.
LaMelo Ball had 31 points and 12 assists, and Miles Bridges scored 19 for the Hornets.
The Cavaliers will look to move to 16-0 on Tuesday against the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics. This is the fourth time in NBA history a team on a win streak of 15-plus games faces off against the defending NBA champion, and the first time since the Chicago Bulls faced the Rockets in 1996. One of these instances came in 1972, when the Los Angeles Lakers saw their NBA-record 33-game win streak come to an end against the Milwaukee Bucks.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
