Donovan Mitchell is optimistic that he and his Cleveland Cavaliers squad will be able to bounce back against the New York Knicks upon losing Game 1 this Saturday, 101-97.
The rocking Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse were left shocked and disappointed with the Knicks channeling a balanced attack to get the upper hand on the first-round opener, but the All-Star guard got every ounce of confidence that they’ll be able to respond heading to Game 2.
“This isn’t the end of the world,” Mitchell said, per Chris Fedor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “It’s more people watching so you can lose one game at home and they can feel like the end of the world if you allow it. They came in there and took one from us, we’ve got to go get one right back. There’s no room to sit here and feel sorry or feel upset and get down. It’s one game. We will respond.”
Even featuring an imposing twin tower of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen who combined for 25 rebounds, the rest of the Cavaliers just registered a lowly amount of 13 to complete 38 collective boards. The Knicks, on the other hand, got 51 boards with 17 accumulated offensive glasses.
And despite Mitchell’s game-high 38-point output, Cleveland’s supporting cast didn’t provide much help. Their bench units just churned 14 markers, while New York massively overlapped them with 37 points behind the lead production and hustle of Josh Hart’s 17 points and 10 boards.
The Cavs have entered the playoff scenes having no such relative playoff experience, with Mitchell only possessing a rich familiarity of the grinding atmosphere. As the franchise just went back to the postseason for the first time since LeBron James carried them in 2018, coach J.B. Bickerstaff is positive that this will serve as a new learning curve for his promising team after amusing the entire league last regular season.
“Our guys are learning,” Bickerstaff said after the loss. “We play a ton of guys a ton of minutes who are learning what playoff basketball is about. We’ve talked about it. You have to experience it to understand it. This was a lesson. We experienced it and we’ve got to bounce back from it and correct the things we can correct, which I think there was a lot of.”
The Cavaliers will look to split the series and grab a home win against the Knicks on Tuesday.
