Cavs Notes: Sam Merrill, Jarrett Allen, Donovan Mitchell, East finals

Nothing has come easy for the Cavaliers. Seven games in Round 1. Seven more in Round 2. Physical teams. Real pressure. No shortcuts.

They’re not complaining.

“Listen, you’d love to sweep every series,” guard Sam Merrill told reporters after the Game 7 win over Detroit. “But I think these have been great opportunities for us to get to know each other a little better, develop some more belief and just continue to get better.”

That’s the vibe inside the locker room. Not relief. Growth.

“And that’s what the playoffs are about,” Merrill added. “You got to keep getting better, make adjustments, and then find a way to win.”

Allen answers

If there were questions about Jarrett Allen in the postseason before, he’s doing his best to quiet them now.

Allen followed up one strong Game 7 with another, finishing with 23 points and seven rebounds in the win over the Pistons. Active. Physical. Present.

He also had a little extra motivation.

As relayed by Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, Cavs chairman Dan Gilbert sent Allen a text about two hours before tipoff. Then, at a team dinner the night before, Gilbert made his stance clear to coach Kenny Atkinson.

“He goes, ‘You know who the key to this whole thing is?’” Atkinson said. “I was thinking (James) Harden, Mitchell. He goes, ‘The key to this whole thing, the spark, is Jarrett Allen.’ I said, ‘Really?’”

Turns out, maybe really.

“Sometimes you have people who observe from afar,” Atkinson added. “Plus, Dan knows the team well and he knows these guys.”

Quick turnaround

There’s no time to soak it all in.

Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Knicks is Tuesday in New York. The Cavs were planning ahead, too. Oversized suitcases made the trip, with the expectation this wouldn’t be a quick stop.

Still, nobody inside that locker room is acting like the job is finished.

“For us, we can’t really look at it and say, ‘All right, we did it, we got to conference finals.’ That’s not the end all,” Donovan Mitchell said. “We’ve still got more to do.”

That belief hasn’t wavered.

“It’s all about the belief in the locker room,” Mitchell said. “We’ve got each other’s back and that’s the biggest thing. I believe we’ve all been a believer since day one, and we’ve got more work to do.”

The message is simple.

“We’ll go to war with each other any day of the week.”