The star guard believes what Boston showed is simply the "standard" that Cleveland must be able to reach.
The Cleveland Cavaliers were humbled on Sunday at home, absorbing a 109-98 loss against the Boston Celtics.
James Harden
James Harden
James Harden
MIN: 35.08
PTS: 24.24 (57.41%)
REB: 4.85
AS: 8.13
ST: 1.17
BL: 0.39
TO: 3.61
GM: 54
The defeat against the Celtics is simply a reminder to Cleveland that they still have a lot of work to do before it is considered a genuine contender. For this, James Harden shared the important words he delivered to the Cavs right after the game.
"I told everybody this—that's the standard right there. That's the standard," Harden tol reporters. "Part of the game of basketball is missing and making shots, but our competitive nature, our competitive spirit, for a game, no matter if we're making shots or not, that's what we do. We force the game to be in our hands. I think in that second half we found some in ourselves.
"So me, this being my 10th or 11th game here, that's the level that we got to get to in Boston. Once we get there, because I know we're good enough, we will get there. Then we'll be a much better team. If we're making shots, we're going to throw teams out. Tonight we didn't make shots and we still gave ourselves a chance."
The Celtics played exceptional basketball over the weekend against the Cavs. With Jaylen Brown and the returning Jayson Tatum leading the way, the rest of Boston followed through and stepped up with 41 bench points over Cleveland's 13.
The Cavs struggled in dealing with the Celtics defense. They endured a rough first half out of a 21-10 second-quarter scoring, and just went 2-for-22 shooting from downtown in the first 24 minutes.
Donovan Mitchell dropped 30 points, while Evan Mobley and Harden went off for 24 and 19 markers, respectively. No other Cavalier showed up to help.
Still, Harden remains pretty optimistic about what lies ahead for him and the Cavs.
"Tonight was good for us," he said. "We found out how they're playing this with the full team, so we'll figure it out. Of course you want to win the game, but I'd be more worried if I didn't see the success that we could potentially have—not just against Boston, but against any team we come across. The beauty of it is we got another one tomorrow."
The fourth-seeded Cavs will look to bounce back against the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday for the second night of their back-to-back home stand.
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