Cavaliers keeping perspective as first team since 2015 to start season 13-0

Sport

Cavaliers keeping perspective as first team since 2015 to start season 13-0

2024-11-14 12:48 Last Updated At：12:50

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Amid the giggles and the talk of history that filled the Cleveland Cavaliers' locker room, Donovan Mitchell tried to add a little perspective about the team's 13-0 start to the NBA season.

“We’re the hunted, but it’s also November,” Cleveland’s star forward said after he had 23 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists in the Cavaliers’ 114-106 win over Philadelphia on Wednesday night. “Let’s relax. You know, I’m saying its November and we’re not winning a championship right now. But these are good tests for us.”

Cleveland became the first team since Golden State in 2015-16 to win 13 straight to start a season. That Warriors team holds the record for most wins to begin a season at 24 straight.

The Cavaliers are just the sixth team in NBA/BAA history to start 13-0. Four of the previous five teams went on to reach the championship round. It also tied Cleveland’s franchise record of 13 straight wins set three previous times — in 2009, 2010 and 2017 — all with LeBron James.

“It’s an 82-game season and we’re only 13 games in,” said guard Darius Garland, who led Cleveland with 25 points in their latest win. “It’s a lot of stuff that we have to clean up. But it’s a good thing that we can have these wins as well. It’s a good balance that we have right now because we know that we can get a lot better, even though we’re still undefeated.”

Part of the Cavaliers' success has been based on ball movement and scoring. Six Cleveland players — Mitchell, Garland, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, Caris LaVert and Ty Jerome- entered play on Wednesday night averaging double figures in scoring.

“We’ve all been able to play a lot of games, and you can be mentally and physically tired,” Mitchell said. “But you have to be able to continue to to the little things for one another. That’s what it’s going to take on a night like tonight (to win).

“You have to be the team that does the little things for one another through those moments and continues to make the right plays.”

Wednesday night turned into more of a struggle than most expected against a short-handed Philadelphia lineup that was missing Joel Embiid (left knee injury maintenance), Paul George (left knee injury maintenance), Tyrese Maxey (right hamstring strain) and backup center Andre Drummond (illness).

It also showed how big of a burden Cleveland is carrying with its winning streak.

“If you were the Sixers coming in, you’re thinking ’We could end the streak,'” Cleveland first-year coach Kenny Atkinson said. “That always motivates players and coaches that you know you can knock someone off their block. I know our players feel it and they’ve talked about it.”

Rookie first-round pick Jared McCain scored a career high 34 points and had Philadelphia within three with just over three minutes to play.

“He came out and showed that he’s got some game,” Garland said. “He is looking for a spot on that team as well. It was good, it was a good showing for all of us.”

That’s when Mitchell got hot, closing the game with 11 points in the final three minutes and just missing his first career triple-double.

“He made those big step-back 3’s,” Atkinson said. “We’ll forgive him (for missing the triple-double).”

After a day off on Thursday, Cleveland will host Chicago on Friday and Charlotte on Sunday before its ultimate litmus test — a Tuesday night game at defending NBA champion Boston.

“We have a mature group and a steady group that doesn’t get too high or too low,” Atkinson said. “They are a humble group. I don’t know if they are reading the media quotes and I don’t think that anyone is pounding the drum or saying how great we are. Donovan is always saying that we haven’t done anything yet, so they understand what we need to do and what the next step is. And they are keeping that chip on their shoulder.”

AP NBA: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NBA

NATO's chief avoids talk of Ukraine's membership. He says the priority is helping Kyiv defend itself

2024-12-03 22:15 Last Updated At：22:20

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Tuesday sidestepped questions about Ukraine’s possible membership in the military alliance, saying that the priority now must be to strengthen the country’s hand in any future peace talks with Russia by sending it more weapons.

Rutte’s remarks, ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that extending alliance membership to territory now under Kyiv’s control could end “the hot stage" of the almost 3-year war in Ukraine, where Russian forces are pressing deeper into their western neighbor.

“The front is not moving eastwards. It is slowly moving westwards,” Rutte said. “So we have to make sure that Ukraine gets into a position of strength, and then it should be for the Ukrainian government to decide on the next steps, in terms of opening peace talks and how to conduct them.”

At their summit in Washington in July, leaders of the 32 NATO member countries insisted that Ukraine is on an “irreversible” path to membership. But some, led by the United States, have balked at moving forward while the war rages and before the country’s borders are clearly demarcated. All 32 countries must agree unanimously for Ukraine to join.

NATO was founded on the principle that an attack on any ally should be considered an attack on them all, and the alliance has consistently tried to avoid being dragged into a wider war with nuclear-armed Russia.

Zelenskyy argued that once open conflict ends, any proposal to join NATO could be extended to all parts of the country that fall under internationally recognized borders.

Pressed on this by reporters, Rutte said: “I would argue, let’s not have all these discussions step by step on what a peace process might look like.”

The first step, he said, must be to “make sure that Ukraine has what it needs to get to a position of strength when those peace talks start.”

Ukrainian officials made it clear Tuesday they won’t countenance any half measures or stopgap solutions on NATO membership.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry issued a strongly worded statement saying Ukraine “will not settle for any alternatives, surrogates or substitutes for Ukraine’s full membership in NATO,” citing its “bitter experience of the Budapest Memorandum.”

Under the international agreement signed in the Hungarian capital 30 years ago, Ukraine agreed to give up its Soviet-era atomic weapons, which amounted to the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal, in return for security guarantees from Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The Foreign Ministry statement called the Budapest agreement a “monument to short-sightedness in making strategic security decisions.”

“We are convinced that the only real guarantee of security for Ukraine, as well as a deterrent for further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other states, is Ukraine’s full membership in NATO,” it said.

At NATO headquarters in Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha showed reporters a copy of the Budapest document.

“This document, this paper, failed to secure Ukrainian security and transatlantic security. So we must avoid to repeat such mistakes,” he said in English.

Reflecting on his recent meeting with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Rutte said he had underlined that China, North Korea and Iran were weighing in on Russia's side, putting the United States and the Asia-Pacific region at risk.

“Whenever we get to a deal on Ukraine it has to be a good deal, because what we can never have is high-fiving Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping and whoever else," Rutte said, saying this would only encourage the leaders of North Korea and China to endorse the use of force elsewhere.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Ukraine’s allies must “do what it takes to support their self-defense for as long as it takes,” but acknowledged that the war will end in negotiations and potential compromise.

Starmer said in a speech late Monday that allies must “put Ukraine in the strongest possible position for negotiations so they can secure a just and lasting peace on their terms that guarantees their security, independence — and right to choose their own future.”

Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Jill Lawless in London contributed.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine