Dribbles: New-look Cavs having themselves a time, wallop Wizards along the way

CLEVELAND — Random dribbles from the Cavaliers’ 138-113 win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday.

1. This is the type of fun the Cavs and their fans have been waiting for all season. Ball movement. Energy. Intensity. Teamwork. Belief.

2. The Cavs had been playing pretty well for a couple of weeks before the trades that brought in James Harden, Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis. They’re on another level at the moment.

3. Harden doesn’t deserve all the credit — but there are plenty of things he has fixed. Namely, if you’re open, he’ll get you the ball where you want it. Sometimes, he’ll even do that when you’re not open.

4. Just ask Sam Merrill, who received countless great looks at the basket. With Harden and Donovan Mitchell drawing all the eyeballs, Merrill cooly fired in 32 points on 9-of-10 shooting on threes. No, really.

5. Everyone, it seems, is just playing with more confidence, more ease, more connection.

6. All this and the Cavs haven’t even held a practice since Harden arrived. They’ve had one since the trade for Schroder and Ellis.

7. Anyway, Merrill spoke about his eruption. “Haven’t had a night like that in a bit,” he said. “You just kind of feel like everything’s going in.”

8. Everything kind of did. And Merrill wasn’t alone. Mitchell did his thing with 30 points (11-of-19 shooting). Jarrett Allen continued his upward trend with 21 points, 8-of-8 shooting, and nine rebounds.

9. Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson says he’s not sure when Allen flipped the old switch. Clearly, though, he has. “He’s just completely different from the beginning of the year,” Atkinson said. “This might be the best Jarrett Allen I’ve seen.”

10. A lot of this, of course, leads back to Harden (13 points, 11 assists). He took just four shots and made one. But as he indicated, with this team, that’s all it will take some nights.

11. Atkinson touched on that, too. “He makes the game easy for everybody else. That’s hard to do,” he said of Harden. “You’ve got to be a great player to do that.”

12. Do you remember the last time Harden took four shots in a game? That’s OK. He doesn’t remember, either. “Nope,” he said. “I took four shots and we won by 25 points. So … who cares?”

13. Merrill said Harden has been “very vocal” at film sessions and during timeouts. It’s welcomed. “I’ve watched this guy my whole life,” Merrill said. “But you don’t really know him until you’re there.”

14. What makes this interesting is that Mitchell scored 30 points and it was barely mentioned after the game. Others like Jaylon Tyson, Schroder, Ellis, Nae’Qwan Tomlin and Thomas Bryant also had their moments. Right now, most everything is working and most everyone is contributing.

15. The Wizards (14-39) may be good someday, with Trae Young and (presumably) Anthony Davis eventually joining the team. But that day is not today. They have not hit 50 wins in a season since 1979. A long road may still await Cleveland product and Washington head of basketball operations Michael Winger.

16. Anyway, the Cavs (34-21) now have more than a week until their next game. Thank you, All-Star break. Soon, they will get in a real practice. But even without that, they look like a real contender again.

17. For the record, the Cavs are a league-best 17-5 since Dec. 29. They’ve won 10 of 11 and five in a row.