Cavs’ Atkinson makes his case for Mitchell while praising his team’s depth

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Cleveland Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson takes issue with the notion that his team doesn't have a legitimate MVP contender.

But he also realizes that it's the NBA-leading Cavs' depth that has played the chief role in helping them produce three extended win streaks during this magical season.

"It's the reason we have the best record in the league, because we're deep," Atkinson said Sunday after the Cavs (54-10) beat the Milwaukee Bucks 112-100 for their 14th straight victory. "I keep saying we go 13 deep. I think you wear people down that way."

Yet he also believes one of those 13 should get more MVP consideration.

Atkinson fielded a question Sunday about how the Cavs (53-10) have put together this remarkable season without anyone who's likely to finish in the top three or perhaps even in the top five in the MVP voting. The presumed favorites are Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver's Nikola Jokic.

That's when Atkinson made his case for six-time All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell, who entered Sunday's action scoring 24.4 points per game and shooting a career-best 38.8% from 3-point range.

"If you look at Shai, and Shai's having a great year, but Donovan, we think he's right there, just for argument's sake," Atkinson said. "Best team, best player on best team."

Mitchell's banner season has helped the Cavaliers produce three winning streaks lasting at least a dozen games. Cleveland won 15 straight to open the season and 12 in a row from Dec. 13 to Jan. 9.

This current 14-game win streak is particularly notable because the Cavaliers have scored at least 110 points in each of those victories. The only other team to win 14 straight games while scoring 110-plus points in each of them was the Boston Celtics during their 1985-86 championship season.

"We're not really focused on that," All-Star forward/center Evan Mobley said. "We're just trying to keep stacking wins."

This latest victory showcased Cleveland's extraordinary depth. Mitchell shot just 4 of 15, yet the Cavs still won decisively on the road. Eight different players scored at least nine points.

"We just keep finding ways to win," said Max Strus, who led the Cavs with 17 points, matching his season high. "That's the most dangerous thing about this team, is any given night, anybody could step up and help us win a game."

There's no doubting what the Cavs have accomplished so far this season. They own an eight-game lead over defending champion Boston in the Eastern Conference and a one-game advantage over Oklahoma City in the race for the NBA's best overall record.

The challenge is whether Cleveland can carry this success over to the playoffs. The Cavs earned their first playoff series victory since their run to the 2018 NBA Finals last year before losing 4-1 to Boston in the second round.

Bucks coach Doc Rivers says he can think of teams in the past whose sparkling regular-season records masked shortcomings that made them vulnerable in the playoffs. But he believes this Cleveland team is a legitimate title contender.

"I've seen teams win all year, and in my mind, as a coach, whoever that team is - I won't mention them - in the past you'd think, 'Eh, we'll beat them,' or 'I don't know if they'll go deep,' " Rivers said before Sunday's game. "This is not one of them. They have all the parts."

They also have the hunger that comes from never having made a deep postseason run before.

"We still have the edge because we haven't gotten to the mountaintop yet," Atkinson said. "We can't be on cruise control. We've got to keep improving, keep our playoff focus. We can't wait till the end to do that."