Cavaliers Accomplish Their Goal On West Coast Road Trip

The Cleveland Cavaliers are now 30-4 after sweeping their West Coast road trip.

Jan 3, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley (4) celebrates with Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) during the first half against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Four games, nine days on the road, all against contending teams, and the Cleveland Cavaliers managed to walk away with a West Coast sweep, which brings their record to 30-4 on the season.

From the outside, the Wine and Gold showed again why they're true championship contenders this season by beating some of the Western Conference's best teams.

However, the Cavaliers did more than score more points than their opponent. They learned more about themselves and won their games in different ways.

"That was the goal all along. Coming on this trip, we wanted to win all four of them, and that's what we went out and did. Started the new year, I felt like we started it right," said Evan Mobley after Cleveland's win over Dallas.

Donovan Mitchell echoed a similar message but also got into some of the specifics as to why this was a successful road trip for the Cavaliers, outside of what the final score said.

"Always, we expect to win every game," said Mitchell with a smile.

"My biggest thing out of the road trip, like I said, was to see how we continue to get better. Whether that results in wins or losses, it is what it is. You always want to win games, you want to learn from wins, and I think we have. I think the biggest thing is we did a lot of positive things in these four wins. It's not so much about that we win, but how we win. We did it four different ways."

Jan 3, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) shoots over Dallas Mavericks forward Maxi Kleber (42) during the first half at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Mitchell went on to describe how the Denver Nuggets win was because of Cleveland's strong start, the Golden State Warriors game was much more physical, their victory over the Los Angeles Lakers was a back-and-forth battle, and the Cavs overcame some fatigue in their win against the Dallas Mavericks.

At the end of the day, yes, the Cavaliers won all four games. Maintaining the top seed in the Eastern Conference is certainly important for this team. But, as Mitchell has said on many occasions now, the Cavaliers will be judged on how they perform in the playoffs.

The only way to prepare for this is to learn throughout the regular season, and that's exactly what the Wine and Gold did during this road trip.