Atkinson accepts Redick’s praise of Cavs: ‘That’s the ultimate compliment’
No team has played “close to perfect basketball” to beat the Cavaliers in their last 10 games.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have been running through their competition all season. This has been seen in their 10 straight wins by double digits which featured a perfect Western Conference road trip with an impressive victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Afterward, Lakers head coach JJ Redick said that you had to play “close to perfect basketball” to beat them.
“That’s the ultimate compliment,” said Atkinson before Sunday’s win over Charlotte when he was asked about Reddick’s quote. “I did not know that he said that.”
Atkinson however, might not have fully agreed with that assessment.
“I’m a coach, so there’s always stuff [that I thought we could’ve done better],” Atkinson said. “I felt like the second half in Dallas they were in our paint all the time. We had six or seven blow-bys right? And I’m thinking, okay, Oklahoma City, Boston, when we play these great teams we have to be more perfect. I mean, literally. So I think the group has an appropriate fear for what’s coming and any slippage you can pay for later. So, we’re going to stay on these guys even though we’re [31-4].”
The Cavs have had a historically good start to their season. They’re on a 73-win pace and are hitting or nearly hitting the benchmarks some of the best teams in NBA history have hit. That isn’t something that Atkinson is dwelling on.
“Absolutely not,” Atkinson said when asked if he thinks he’s coaching a historically great team. “I think what’ll happen is probably in like 10 years, when I'm retired, I’ll look back and look at the scrapbook and look at what this team has done. But it’s really hard in the NBA to kind of celebrate in season because we know another game’s coming. Big-time playoff games are coming.”
We should get a good idea as to how ready the Cavs currently are for big-time playoff games as they face the Oklahoma City Thunder twice in the next 10 days.