PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Donovan Mitchell scored 11 of his 23 points in the final three minutes of the game and the Cleveland Cavaliers became the sixth team in NBA history to start a season 13-0 with a 114 win -106 against the Philadelphia 76ers. Wednesday evening.

Mitchell also grabbed 13 rebounds and added nine assists as Cleveland became the first team since the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors to win 13 straight to start a season. This Warriors team holds the record for most wins to start a campaign 24 times.

Darius Garland scored 25 points while Evan Mobley had 14 points with seven rebounds.

Jared McCain had a career-high 34 for the 76ers, who played without Paul George and Joel Embiid for the second night of a row while nursing a left knee injury. Kelly Oubre Jr. had 20 points while Caleb Martin added 18 for the Sixers.

Takeaways

Cavaliers: On a night when Cleveland didn’t have its best game, the team had enough firepower to hold off a group of young Sixers who played perhaps their best overall game of the season.

76ers: The best news of the day for the Sixers came before the game when George and Embiid were cleared to play Friday night in Orlando. Head coach Nick Nurse said George’s minutes restriction would be lifted.

Key moment

Mitchell made three 3-pointers with less than three minutes remaining to extend Cleveland’s lead to seven, seemingly taking the starch out of the Sixers’ final drive.

Key statistic

The Cavaliers have won 13 in a row for the fourth time in franchise history. The other three times – in 2009, 2010 and 2017 – were when they had LeBron James on the roster.

To be continued

Cavaliers: Play Chicago Friday night.

76ers: Play at Orlando Friday night.

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