Cavaliers finding a home on the road with sixth-best NBA record as visitors

Road, sweet road.

The Cavaliers have found a comfort zone away from the friendly confines of Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Entering Monday's game against the Brooklyn Nets, the Cavs at 26-18 were holding onto sixth seed in the Eastern Conference, the final spot that would keep them from needing to take part in the play-in tournament.

The Cavs have their deficiencies but have also enjoyed a considerable amount of growth this season along the way. One of the contributing factors to such a severe year-to-year turnaround is the complete reversal of their play on the road.

Last season, the Cavs went 9-27 on the road, the third-worst record in the league. This season, they're 15-9 in visiting arenas, the sixth-best road record in the NBA. They have also averaged more points (102.8 to 101.9) and fewer turnovers (12.7 to 13.7) on the road than at home this season.

How did the Cavs become one of the NBA's best road teams?

So what goes into winning on the road, particularly for such a young, inexperienced roster? Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff has repeatedly this season spoken to the the team buying into the message, finding an identity and coming together in perhaps a larger way than in the recent past. The road environment, in a way, facilities all of that.

"Well, I mean, it's the time that's spent together," Bickerstaff said on the recent road trip. "We’re not going out and separating on the road. We're in the hotel, we're at the gym and when you go into adverse environments where nobody's cheering for you, all you have is one another.

"And I think the guys feel that and they know it's us against the 20,000 that are in the building. And we've got to figure out a way together to overcome it. And that's really brought us together and you see it, how they're supporting each other, how they're lifting each other up and how they're competing for one another."

Something Bickerstaff has mentioned multiple times dating back to last season is the need for younger teams to learn how to win on a consistent basis.

Pulling out a win here and there is one thing. Finding that level of consistency, being able to stave off comebacks, winning on the road and being able to find success in the fourth quarter are all things that can simply require more experience at the highest level. The Cavs have been checking off items on that list time and time again this season.

"I mean, one, how hard it is to win, period. Winning in this league isn't easy and understanding what it takes. And understanding that they can do it," Bickerstaff said. "Different arenas, different circumstances, different teams, different styles like they figured out how to get it done. And I think there's that common belief between the group that they can. But our job now is to be greedy."

The Cavs just finished up a rather greedy road trip in which they went 5-1 and concluded the trip with four consecutive wins. If anything, it showed the younger Cavs haven't had trouble closing more experienced teams out.

The road trip started with a win over the Portland Trail Blazers and was followed by a loss to the Golden State Warriors. The Cavs then rattled off wins over the Sacramento Kings, Utah Jazz, San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder.

The win over the Thunder was particularly impressive because, playing on the second night of a back-to-back, the Cavs erased an 18-point deficit to extend their winning streak to four games.

"One thing I would say is every single game there is a certain learning experience that we can take away from the game," center Jarrett Allen said. "I feel like we close the game out pretty well. So we're taking things from games where we need to learn something and applying it to our next one."

The Cavs scored at least 107 points in each game on the trip, with the exception of a 96-82 loss to the Warriors in a game that featured the return of guard Klay Thompson which energized the Golden State crowd.

"I'm going to take that back to the Klay [Thompson] day in Golden State," guard Darius Garland said after the 107-102 win over Oklahoma City Saturday night. "It was the loudest arena I played in, in a long time. And like I think we got kind of bottled up in all the Klay day and all the media being there and stuff like that. ... So I think tonight with the crowd being rowdy, super packed in the arena on a Saturday night, I think that really helped us a lot to just stay mentally locked in, everybody's on the same page. So I think that really helped us in this road trip and hopefully go forward."

Darius Garland named Eastern Conference Player of the Week

Garland on Monday was announced as the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, the first time in his career he's won that award. He's also the second Cavalier to win it this season after Allen was also awarded the distinction.

In the past week, Garland averaged 20.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 12.8 assists per game, including three double-doubles and one triple-double, in four road victories.

Cavaliers at Bulls

Time: 8 p.m. Wednesday

TV: Bally Sports Ohio

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Cavaliers are one of NBA's best road teams