Donovan Mitchell was in a state of disbelief after the Cavaliers’ second-round flameout.
“I love playing in that (bleeping) arena,” Mitchell said of Cleveland’s Rocket Arena after the team’s Game 5 elimination by the Pacers on Tuesday, per ESPN’s Jamal Collier. “That energy, that crowd. We were 0-3 at home, let the city down. This place is special. This place is really special and we didn’t get it done.”
Mitchell said the early exit will provide extra motivation heading into the offseason.
“We’ve had a lot of positives,” Mitchell said. “But we didn’t capitalize. Now we’ve got to use this motivation. Everybody’s going to write us off.”
The Cavs became the fourth team in NBA history to win at least 64 regular season contests and check out in the first or second round.
“I do feel like we got better,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “From the team aspect and then we had a lot of individuals make a step, so I just want to make that clear. But the truth of the matter is we didn’t get to the level we wanted to get to. So, I’m not pleased with that. And we’re not celebrating the season, if that all makes sense. But I do think we made strides. I think we took a jump. Now we got to figure out this last piece, how to get over this hump. And I was quite honestly expecting more, especially coming off the [first-round] Miami series.”
We have more on the Cavaliers:
- The Cavs’ lack of toughness was evident in the postseason, Jason Lloyd of The Athletic opines. They were pushed around physically, and overmatched and overwhelmed by what was supposed to be an inferior opponent. Jarrett Allen, in particular, has failed to provide a nasty streak in the interior during recent postseasons, Lloyd writes.
- Cleveland is deep into the luxury tax and projects to operate over both tax aprons next season, ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes. Re-signing second unit star Ty Jerome is a priority — they hold his Early Bird rights. However, Jerome’s salary would cost exponentially more due to luxury tax penalties. Adding a reserve big capable of playing rotational minutes and turning Jaylon Tyson into a rotational player are some other priorities, in Marks’ view.
- Trading Darius Garland, who has three years left on his deal and is eligible for a two-year extension this offseason, might be the Cavaliers’ best option in a summer filled with hard choices, John Hollinger of The Athletic writes. That could potentially reinvent the team, ease some of their financial burden and keep the Mitchell-Evan Mobley core in title contention.
- Atkinson won the 2024-25 Rudy Tomjanovich Award, which honors an NBA coach for his cooperation with the media and fans, as well as his excellence on the court, the Professional Basketball Writers Association announced in a press release. “Kenny has always brought great candor, humility and a sense of humor to the job, and to his regular sessions with the media,” PBWA president Howard Beck said. “He’s always eager to explain the nuances of the game and to discuss the bigger issues across the league.”
Great year for the Cavs anyhow…
Sadly the entire season has to be viewed as a failure.
Everybody runnin their mouth how great cavs are
64 wins! #1 seed! Indy cant win. They wont win. Not now not ever, not for a million years. Hali is overrated. Cavs will cruise, no contest.
I was way off tho. I said pacers in 7, only took em 5
In fairness, it should be 3-2 right now going into a game 6…. and no, I’m not going to let that go. That FT lane violation at the end of game 2 changed the outcome of that game. Not saying the Pacers don’t eventually take the series… but you have to play it out. The Cavs were definitely taken out of their game and took the Pacers way too lightly early in the series.
in fairness this series was never even close not for 1 second
pacers dominated from start to finish, historic Ws for indy + legendary performances by tyrese “overrated” haliburton
when is nba gonna do something about the corrupt incompetent refs?? how much more can we possibly take at this point? cavs went to the line 77 times in games 4 + 5, indy only 42 times. mitchell had more FT attempts by himself in game 5 than the entire pacers team. absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable. this s*** happened vs knicks last yr and it happened again this yr. they still ball out, everyone contributes, its not centered on any 1 player, the most underrated coach in nba today maybe in history carlisle, just amazing gutsy bball time after time after time. i am not surprised 1 bit bc i actually watch indy and watch nba. 99% of people watch knicks lakers warriors giannis donovan and then are shocked when a tm like indy beats cavs? this is the best pacers team in franchise history, better than reggie’s pacers, better than PG’s pacers. they can legit go all the way. nobody ever gave them a chance. its beautiful to watch.
Agree. It was never close. Cavs don’t have the toughness to be an elite team. To claim they lost game 2 because of 1 bad call is ridiculous. Basketball more than any other sport is not decided by one call. It should never have even gotten that close to begin with. Anyone who watched the Cavs this year knew they weren’t going to get far. The team is highly overrated
in fairness, there were nowhere near enough fouls called against the Pacers… Nesmith fouls on practically every possession. Mathurin also. But to some extent you do have to wear down the opponent in a 7 game series and the Pacers are playing with that sort of energy right now. I think the Knicks are showing the same sort of energy so it should be a good ECF.
I can’t stand seeing constant whistles in a game and the refs do let more go in the playoffs in order to make the games more watchable… but don’t expect the Knicks to be bullied. And spare me the disparity in FTs nonsense.
Only a crybaby complains about refs……
Especially when you win. Thats just brilliant.
Mitchell goes to FT line cause he goes to the basket. Pacers
“ In the 2025 NBA playoff series between the Cavaliers and Pacers, the Pacers attempted 24 shots from inside 5 feet. They won the series 4-1, reaching the Eastern Conference finals. “
Best Pacers team ever …. I needed a laugh
This is Marty in Indiana……. Knicks lost their whole team to injuries before Pacer series last year.. You never heard us complain. Best Pacers team ever to never win. Go polish your ABA chips. That’s all you are seeing this year. And for a long time after that. Pacers are one of TEN teams to never win an NBA title. Cavs, Celtics, Knicks, all are better now. Only reason you are here is injuries. And you think crying about the refs makes you legit. I can’t wait to play Pacers ….
Its good to dream ….. its obvious you haven’t learned to win yet .
If complaining about refs is being a cry baby…what does that make someone complaining about injuries??
Pacers no injuries but Cavs had a bunch of injuries. Playoffs is all about being healthy. 3 of the series that will be over was because of injuries and the healthy team wins them all. The only series going longest will be the series with 2 healthy teams.
Massive choke from Mitchell missing all 3 free throws at the end. Nothing but heroball from the guards, only 10 ast on 35 fgm with Mithchell and Garland bricking 12-41 combined.
And leaving Hali open is just dumb basketball.
Spot on. Mitchell seems preoccupied with stuff other than winning at all costs. He’s basically a slightly better Zach Lavine.
When Garland and Mitchell kept fake limping after bad turnovers, then to be fine the next possession when they touched the ball, those were the final shovels of dirt thrown on the coffin. Lack of toughness and desire on full display.
@Druu..
you’re entitled to an opinion but you’re completely wrong. both guys had well documented injuries during the Heat series. They just played thru it
Backcourt of Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell will never be good enough to win a title. It’s time to break those two apart and try something new. Good season, but Pacers were a bad matchup all season long for them. 0-5 versus them at home and 36-5 against everyone else.
@raz
I agree, such a small backcourt is a liability, and Garland is overrated due to his poor defense..
They are a tough matchup for them. But you can’t count the playoffs when the Cavs are not 100%. Only thing Cavs need to do. Tweak their bench. And stay healthy.
One thing I noticed is that the Pacers play at such a ferocious/frantic pace that Cleveland’s guys were worn down on both ends of the floor late in games. Indiana kept going at them HARD and by the time the game was on the line, they all were worn out due to the high pace style Indiana plays. Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen are great defenders but they do not have the conditioning to keep up with this type of an offense that goes up and down for 48 minutes. Pacers exposed that all series long.
Didn’t the Pacers go through 3 big men to start the season? Maybe they had to work harder to get where they are? The playoffs are where teams come together.
Los cavalier en el papel eran superiores, pero les faltaron agallas y fue lo que lo Indiana le sobran.
Donovan Mitchell couldnt get it done in Utah, blamed Rudy Gobert. Gobert made a conference finals with Minnesota, Mitchell never got close to one.
Seems like the problem in Utah was not Rudy…
It also shows me how Edwards >>>> Mitchell lol
What has Edwards won?
Cam- They told you exactly what Ant has done. What has Mitchell won?
It also doesn’t take winning anything to see Ant is the better talent.
Thank you. Lol
Edwards better passer, rebounder, defender, leader, clutch player. More efficient. ESPN and NBA never even considered labeling Mitchell as the “face of the nba” like the way Ant has been getting billed as last few years. It doesn’t take a genius to see that winning will follow him, because he already has developed a winning brand of basketball and game. LeBron at 23 they kept saying “his time is coming”. And it did. Same with Anthony Edwards.
Yeah, I think this is less about Mitchell and more about Gobert and his situation.
Rudy gets clowned on because he misses gimmes on offense and gets blown by a couple times a game for easy buckets, but he is a game changer the vast majority of the time on D. People often don’t pay attention to how frequently he forces opponents to stop in the lane and kick it out after driving, take horrible layup or runner attempts, cause guys to dribble back out, force turnovers, or cause redirections/get blocks.
That Jazz team had to deal with a ton of difficult opponents in the west and the timing was tough with a Warriors club in the midst of a dynasty, but they were very good year in and year out. To me, that shows both are great players who were just unlucky. And Gobert is severely underappreciated.
100% agree Gobert has been severely underappreciated and it’s due to the new NBA fans who want bigs to shoot 3’s and be offensive minded only. Gobert would thrive in any era with his game. Doesn’t need the ball in his hands to be an impactful player.
100%, raz. People sometimes forget that directly stopping 2 is just as valuable as getting 2.
Appreciate your posts all the time. Good stuff. What is your team btw? Or are you just a fan of the game?
Right back at you, raz!
I’m born and raised in Seattle so I grew up a Sonics fan, of course. When they moved, it took me awhile to find a team. Around 2013 or so, I decided to root for the Wolves due to family in Minnesota, being able to watch a team build it from the ground up, etc.
I’m hoping the Sonics come back and the Wolves are moved to the east in realignment haha. At this point, I’m so invested in them, I couldn’t just drop them fully for the Sonics.
Appreciate you asking! Is it all Chicago teams for you?
Sonics fan! Oh man I’m sorry for what happened in 1996 :) lol
Hoping they get a team back soon. Loved their vibe and how cool of a team name it is. Still mad they left.
No I’m a Bulls fan since 89, 49er fan since 94 (Steve Young is a lefty like myself) and Dodgers fan due to Koufax and reading about him as a kid in those books about MLB history at the library. But now it’s obviously Kershaw who I followed his entire career since his minor leagues. I post more on here than MLB/NFL because MLB forum is toxic lmao and NFL is only during certain periods of the year. But I do live in Chicago and have been raised here since birth.
Appreciate you! I am looking forward to your analysis and thoughts.
Never mind shooting threes, how about the fact anything else than a lob thrown at him might as well have been thrown out of bounce lol
And the way he gets pushed around by much smaller guys and can’t even get to his spot half the time. Please man .. ‘shooting threes’ :D
You’re absolutely right that his brick hands are frustrating, muthuh! Lol, I have to remind myself that he makes up for it with his rim protection and by forcing opponents to change their offensive games.
Warriors fans will tell you the Rockets are soooo much better defensively–which they are better, I’ll give them that–but it’s not like we’re slouches on that end or we wouldn’t have won 49 games given our streaky offense. Butler has shied away from contested layup opportunities any time he’s seen Gobert in front of him. It’s been delightful to watch.
Fair enough :)
Gobert gives you 10 pts per game in rim protection/misses that show a up no where in the stat sheet. Plus any steals, blocks, and offensive putbacks that do.
Cavs were the best team in the Esst this year. I guess you think they were lucky to do that. Cavs are a rising team. Their core is just hitting their prime. They will only be better next year. Only thing they need to do. Is fix and strengthen their bench.
They are just another team who had injuries at worst time. Part of sports
Al, I agree that the Cavs were the best team in the East.
Honest question. I’m curious, do you agree that over the years, some stars lose their confidence? I’m thinking of Dominique, Carmelo, T-Mac, Karl Malone, maybe even Iverson later in his career…
It just seemed like the reputations that they gained earlier in their careers, maybe undeservedly, eventually defined them. We all remember the missed shots and FT’s in huge games. Eventually, the local fans and local media see the player that way as well, and it’s too much to overcome.
I sense that the same thing is happening with Donovan Mitchell. I love the player, but he got unfairly blamed at Utah. And then Ainge said publicly after trading him that he wasn’t a #1 on a Championship team. Listening to his interview last night, the media were asking him about this and you could tell he has been thinking about it.
It’s true. This seals it. Mitchell has the loser label and he doesn’t deserve it. He knows interviewers will be asking him about it forever.
The only way he breaks free is by winning it all. Unlikely
CLE made a huge jump this year (jumping to the league’s top tier teams is the hardest jump of all, and they did it as comfortably as a team can). I wasn’t completely surprised to see them do this, believing they were just waiting on Mobley, and it would all fall into place. I thought they were smart not to put too much emphasis on their playoff losses to the NYK and (certainly) to BOS the past two seasons, and run things back. If Mobley, Garland and Hunter never returned to the court after game 2, or were clearly compromised, I would be tempted to put this in the same category. BUT they did, and they didn’t appear to be. Watching this series as a whole, I think it would be a mistake for CLE to try to flush this. I accept that injuries still played a part, and no doubt that Game 2 was a tragedy for them.
But it would be a mistake for CLE to ignore that their most global problems in this series were quite similar to their problems in the NYK series two seasons ago. Namely, their loss of the physicality battle inside, and their reversion to a “DM or bust” halfcourt offense. At least in the NYK series, CLE was getting pushed around by a team who’s identity was tied to its physicality, particularly inside, and CLE’s own best big was then only 21. Offensively, the CLE core 4 was in its first season together, and only DM and Garland were considered legitimate options, and the two were still learning to play together. Two more seasons for the core 4 together, and some smart additions along the way, should have put the team they were back then deep into their rear view mirror.
CLE is talented and its core is still young. But a core generally peaks together in its 2nd or 3rd year together, regardless of their age. They could give it another year if they have to, but its not the best option. In their case, it needn’t be about blowing anything up, but it would have to be about more than tweaks around their core 4 (they did that the past two seasons, and pretty well IMO). This offsesaon, they need to modify the roster at the level of the core 4. VERY HARD to do in today’s NBA. Because it has to start with what’s available, and that’s rarely very much. But, IMO, they at least have to try.
CLE had Drummond when they got Allen and I always said that they made a mistake as Drummond was a better scorer, rebounder, passer and defender than Allen… they could do with getting a center that can score and rebound, that’s what you want from a center, right?
Why did their trash can coach win Coach of the Year?
Because he was a great regular season coach who didn’t adapt in the playoffs. But the Cavaliers were also extremely banged up between Mitchell, Garland, Hunter, and Mobley. One player is one thing, but it’s tough to overcome all of that.
I think the Cavs are close, but need to work out the kinks.
a) It’s great to have the two bigs and they can be effective, but I’m sorry. Having them out on the perimeter setting screens on offense and guarding Hali on defense isn’t setting them up to succeed. Their should be a mandatory rule that no 3pt shot goes up unless they’re at least 1 big in position to rebound. I felt they kept moving away from the paint too much and being too reliant on perimeter shooting.
b) It was clear that Mitchell was gassed and Garland was trying to play thru the pain of that big toe. Several times you can see him limping. Often he would bring the ball up and kind of mind to the corner and disappear out the play.
c) Atkinson picked the wrong time to shorten his bench. Although he’s struggled, he should’ve brought in Ty to give the other guards some rest. With Merrill out and Bates not even on the bench, they went to Okoro who struggles at times to fit in offensively. Defensively, he’s good but not good enough to be in a game and only take 3 shots.
d) I’d like Koby to build out the bench. I believe in a 4-man guard, 4 man big and 3 man wing rotation. And you need to get those guys into rotation even if it’s only 5 to 10 minutes a game. We need a vet guard with size and a motor as well as a big who can rebound and give you points off the bench. Think of a Westbrook like guard and a Kevin Love from 3 years ago.
e) Keep the starting 5 and Ty and Hunter. Bring in some veteran dogs to toughen this team up.
f) Advise Emoni Bates to hit the weight room and put some weight on and prepare to compete to be in the backup guard rotation.