The Cleveland Cavaliers left Detroit frustrated by another missed opportunity, but Donovan Mitchell believes the problems are fixable as the series shifts back to Ohio.
After Thursday’s 107-97 loss to the Detroit Pistons gave the East’s top seed a 2-0 lead in the second-round series, Mitchell pointed to self-inflicted mistakes, rushed offense and rebounding lapses as the biggest reasons Cleveland could not finish its comeback.
“Timely makes by them, timely offensive rebounds, timely misses by us,” Mitchell said. “They countered, they hit and they did what they were supposed to do.”
The Cavaliers erased a 14-point deficit and briefly grabbed an 81-79 lead early in the fourth quarter after opening the final period on a 6-0 run. Detroit immediately responded behind Cade Cunningham and Duncan Robinson, while Cleveland went 0-for-11 from 3-point range in the fourth quarter.
Mitchell scored 31 points and repeatedly attacked the paint, but Cleveland could not sustain its offensive rhythm late.
“Playoff basketball is a different type of basketball,” Mitchell said. “Sometimes I think we overthink things because we’ve had some of the best offense towards the end of games for the past 82 games and we just start to speed ourselves up.”
The Cavaliers have now fallen behind by double digits in seven of their last eight playoff games, a trend Mitchell called “self-inflicted.”
“I think the biggest thing starts with just it’s our self-inflicted,” Mitchell said. “The way we started, I think hasn’t been great.”
Cleveland’s spacing issues also became a major topic after James Harden struggled through a 3-for-13 shooting night. Harden finished with 10 points and four turnovers while taking only two shots in the second half.
Mitchell defended his teammate and said the Cavaliers need to do a better job creating cleaner opportunities around him.
“He’s James Harden,” Mitchell said. “We’re not sitting here worried. He’s going to figure this out and we got to do a better job around him as well, whether it’s spacing or put him in different positions.”
Mitchell even referenced one late-game possession where he believed he could have helped Harden avoid pressure from Detroit’s defense.
“Last possession where he lost the ball, I could have stayed in the corner with Thompson,” Mitchell said. “Just little things like that, just get on the same page.”
The Cavaliers looked far more dangerous offensively in the third quarter when they increased their pace and forced Detroit to defend in transition. Mitchell said rebounding and stops are directly tied to that improvement.
“When we do get stops, we got to board it up and get going,” Mitchell said. “You can’t match up in transition. It’s a lot of scrambling.”
Jarrett Allen, who bounced back from a quiet Game 1 with 22 points and seven rebounds, echoed Mitchell’s comments about Cleveland rushing itself offensively.
“We speed ourselves up,” Allen said. “We don’t play our basketball. We start out slow and those things compound.”
Allen also defended Evan Mobley after Mobley finished with only one rebound despite playing 36 minutes. According to Allen, the stat sheet did not reflect Mobley’s impact boxing out and helping teammates collect defensive rebounds.
“The stat sheet, one rebound isn’t a lot, but the impact that he had on the glass was a lot more than that,” Allen said.
Detroit has now won five straight playoff games since nearly being eliminated by Orlando in the first round. Cunningham finished with 25 points and 10 assists in Game 2, while Tobias Harris added 21 points.
Now the series heads to Cleveland, where the Cavaliers swept Toronto 4-0 in the opening round. Mitchell insisted the team remains confident despite the pressure of an 0-2 deficit.
“We’ll be fine,” Mitchell said. “We’ll figure it out.”
