National Basketball Association

Secret to success: Even off nights resulting in fun & wins for Cavs

Published Feb. 25, 2015 11:30 a.m. ET

foxsports

When the Cavaliers do what they did Tuesday night in Auburn Hills, Mich., it's hard to find a reason for doubt.

Lately, even when the Cavs are bad, they're still pretty good.

"The sky is the limit," Cavs center Kendrick Perkins said after Tuesday's 102-93 win over the Detroit Pistons.

Perkins, of course, is new to the team. His contract with the Cavs was finalized mere hours before Tuesday's tip. He played two minutes, took one shot, and made it. Yet the backup center already has a feel for how far this team can go -- and how it can get there.

"We just kept getting stop after stop," Perkins said.

He speaks the truth. The Cavs came out flat. They lacked energy. They allowed the Pistons to score 62 points in the first half. They trailed by 15 points in the third quarter. Then, as Perkins said, the Cavs turned up the defense.

"We just decided to wake up and start playing like we have for several weeks now," said Cavs coach David Blatt. "We weren't defending. We came out of timeouts without energy and without the grit. We made the point to each other and we lived up to it and then the game changed."

It just goes to show that the Cavs (36-22) are winning by any means necessary these days. They have won three in a row and 17 of 19, and are just a half-game behind Chicago for first place in the Central Division. The Bulls may have lost Derrick Rose for the season to another knee injury, and the No. 3 seed (at worst) is likely to soon be sole property of the Cavs.

But there are still 24 games to go, and the Cavs won't get too far ahead of themselves. As LeBron James and Kyrie Irving have said repeatedly, there's still plenty of work to be done, plenty of improvements to be made.

On Tuesday, we saw both the worst and the best of the Cavs. At worst, they're a team that turns the ball over too much (James committed nine) then sort of lollygags when the idea is getting back in transition.

At best, they're a team that values possessions, makes crisp passes, finds the open man (James had 11 assists), gets good shots and defends with passion.

Kevin Love was the beneficiary of the strong ball movement Tuesday, burying eight 3-pointers on his way to 24 points.

"Kevin had it going, so I was looking to get him the ball," James said. "That's how we play. Find the hot guy, and keep him going."

Some nights that guy may be Irving (18 points vs. the Pistons). Others it may be Love, or J.R Smith, or Iman Shumpert, or even starting center Timofey Mozgov. Most nights it will be James (19 points, seven rebounds). And of course, when things are really clicking, it'll be two or three or four of them at once.

That's what makes the Cavs elite, a true championship contender. Unlike the early part of the season, when everyone outside the organization was freaking out, the Cavs are cohesive and deep, with an ability to break opponents in a number of ways.

The sky, it seems, truly is the limit.

"We know what we have to do," Smith said. "We just have to go out there and do it."