Since the start of the playoffs, Donovan Mitchell begs his teammates to take their chance, and support him in attack. The All-Star guard can't do it all, and Cleveland suffers from overdependency. A stat proves it: in the series against the Celtics, the Cavaliers' attack displays an efficiency of 68.9 points over 100 possessions when Donovan Mitchell is on the bench, and a negative differential of -66! When he is on the field, the differential is positive (+6), and above all the Cavaliers display an offensive efficiency of 110 points per 100 possessions.
“In the end, we didn’t score…” regrets Donovan Mitchell after his Cavaliers scored 93 points in the 3rd inning. “We didn’t score when we needed to. We will do better. There are many things that depend on us. There are many things that are our fault. They should be congratulated, but there are a ton of things we can do better. »
Evan Mobley must do violence to himself
Jarrett Allen absent, the game lacks alternation, and Donovan Mitchell asks Evan Mobley to be more aggressive and not hesitate to take his chance. “That's really my mindset for the rest of this series. I'm just trying to be aggressive, find my spots and shoot.” he assures. “There were times when we failed to achieve the goals we set for ourselves. They slowed down our attack or we got going a little late in the 24 seconds. We have to watch the video, realize what awaits us and get to it a little faster.”
Donovan Mitchell especially lacks a regular Lieutenant. Someone capable of scoring twenty points per game, and all eyes are on Darius Garland, very disappointing for a former All-Star. He only scored 15 points in the 3rd round, and that's true to his performances since the start of the playoffs with 14.7 points and 5.3 assists per game. Power X factor, Max Strus contributes less than 9 points per game with a mediocre 30% from 3-point range.
Holder, Isaac Okoro confirms his limits in attack in the series against the Celtics, and Caris LeVert is too irregular to be a real leader of the “second unit”. This does not help the affairs of Donovan Mitchell, obliged to string together big performances to keep the Cavaliers alive, but also his managers who fear that their star player will leave them quickly, if the team has already reached its glass ceiling.
