Donovan Mitchell gets brutally honest about the Cleveland Cavaliers’ collapse in Game 1 originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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The Cleveland Cavaliers were in control for most of the game against the New York Knicks. They even had a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter, but they let Jalen Brunson take over the game, coming back to win in overtime.
As the Cavaliers‘ leader and best player, Donovan Mitchell had to address what happened. He accepted that they blew the game, and he wants his teammates to know that they can come back from this significant defeat.
Donovan Mitchell’s candid response to the Cavaliers’ Game 1 collapse
Mitchell himself had a good performance, scoring 29 points to lead the Cavaliers. Of course, he struggled to get the ball late in the game as the Knicks found ways to prevent him from getting the ball.
This led to players like James Harden and Evan Mobley taking most of the shots. That is not the best way to win a game, especially when Mitchell was playing so well earlier in the game.
MORE: The final score between the Knicks and Cavaliers in Game 1
Thankfully for the Cavaliers, Mitchell is not the type of player to blame certain teammates. He made sure to hold himself and the Cavaliers accountable for such a massive collapse that saw them blow a 22-point lead.
“Keep your head up. Don’t let one quarter affect you for the rest of the series. It’s a long series, there are things we can do, things that we did were positive to look forward to,” Mitchell candidly said after losing Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
“We should’ve won the game, but we didn’t. That’s one game. As I said in the locker room, we lost, we blew it. Respond for Game 2. Simple as that.”
That is the right mindset to have because the Cavaliers should not shy away from the mistakes they made in Game 1. They can learn from what happened, and as they proved in their previous series, they can bounce back in a major way.
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