Cavaliers: Maybe a backcourt of Donovan Mitchell and James Harden isn't such a bad idea after all

Well, so much for that theory. Don't forget, you read it here last. You're welcome. Remember the good old day earlier this week, when I foolishly suggested that having Donovan Mitchell and James Harden in the same backcourt at the same time was asking for trouble? You don't? Ok, good. Never mind. Whew! I must not have written it. Except that I did, and boy did I whiff on that one. Big time. Actually, what I meant to say was that having Mitchell and Harden in the same backcourt at the same time was not asking for trouble. It was sheer genius! That alone should earn coach Kenny Atkinson a second consecutive NBA Coach of the Year Award. Final score Monday night: Cavs 119, Nuggets 117. In hindsight, the whole point of the Cavs trading for Harden was so they could play Mitchell and Harden, their Hall of Fame-bound backcourt stars, simultaneously, particularly when it comes to winning time. If you watched the final pulse-pounding minutes of the Cavs' win over Denver, that strategy worked just the way they drew it up. The backcourt combination of Mitchell and Harden at winning time equals bad news for Cavs' opponents, especially in big games. Double especially at the end of playoff games, when Mitchell and Harden reprise LeBron-and-Kyrie's record-breaking performances in leading the Cavs' electric, record-setting Game 7 championship victory over the Warriors in 2016. Remember? "Cleveland! This is for you!" Well, that was then, this is now, and holy cow! In the days leading up to the upcoming playoffs, the Cavs' roster now includes a group of plug-and-play from a stable of young and hungry ballers, who have quietly emerged as a group to be reckoned with, both offensively and defensively. All of them appear to be anxious to contribute to a roster that continues to evolve as a group. Not a moment too soon. Mitchell and Harden anchor the top of the pyramid and Atkinson can pick and choose from a suddenly deep and talented bench, which is suddenly standing room only, and a force to be reckoned with in its own right. Meanwhile, Jarrett Allen is playing better than he ever has in his career. So, all and all, let the opposing teams try to find their way out of that jungle. The Cavs' thrilling win over the Nuggets gave us an early peek at how that might work, all the way down to, conceivably: "Cleveland!" This is for you!" But for now, with the addition of Harden to a backcourt that already included Mitchell, and with Allen playing better than he ever has, well, let's just say the plot is thickening. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. What matters most is that the trade for Harden has already been a bullseye, which gives the Cavs two home run hitters (Mitchell and Harden) capable of doing much of the heavy lifting. The Cavs' thrilling overtime win in Denver over Nikola and the Jokettes is starting to smell like something important. It sure looked like something important. At the very least, how ironic that, perhaps, the Cavs' biggest win of this year came in Denver, and helped validate and ignite the same winning gene, and spirit, that LeBron and Kyrie flashed while leading the record-setting 2016 Cavs to an NBA championship. Remember? "Cleveland! This is for you!" Well. We will see. It's a long way from here to there, but the Cavs have already been there once, so, who knows? Here is what we do know, though: The Cavs have the ballers, and the deeper they get into the season, the better they seem to play. All that was validated in the win over Denver, in the kind of game the Cavs should have won, because, at the end of close games they now have at their disposal two sticks of dynamite, instead of one. As the clock was ticking down Monday night, it was the Cavs, not the Nuggets, who blinked. Anyone who thinks the Cavs were in the driver's seat near the end of that game has never been in the driver's seat. It's amazing how NBA games can change so dramatically at the end of games, especially when one of the two teams has two players better than any two players from the other team. Double-especially, if one of those two players is Mitchell, or Harden, two NBA stars who take a backseat to no one when the time comes for someone to take a backseat. No, really. In the world of the NBA, go ahead, YOU tell LeBron to take a back seat with 20 seconds left in a tie game. In a situation like that, anyone who thinks that somebody else should take a back seat should, in reality, be the back-seat-taker-of-choice. Contact Jim Ingraham at jingraham4@gmail.com.