The Cleveland Cavaliers’ NBA Playoffs campaign is in full swing. This squad has learned from the past after losing against the New York Knicks in last year’s first round. Paolo Banchero and the rest of the Orlando Magic got suffocated by JB Bickerstaff’s schemes. Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley disallowed any other member of the opposing squad from ripping boards from the air. All the while Donovan Mitchell blazed up in the Cavs’ first postseason game.
Now, the Cavs have all the momentum heading into their second game against the Magic. They can build on it by sending a statement and demolishing Paolo Banchero’s team while leaving them looking for answers. Before that happens, Donovan Mitchell posits that there are a few things that the Cavs need to retain and improve on to pull off the first-round NBA Playoffs win, via Cleveland.com.
“I think we do a lot of things. Obviously, just looking at the statistical standpoint, we can say that we can do a lot better. But also, I think we can play better and do a better job of creating for others. I only had three assists on four turnovers. Getting on the boards. I only had three, DG had two. We helped the bigs even though they dominated, we still helped them,” the Cavs star guard proclaimed,
Donovan Mitchell ended the game by sinking 11 out of his 21 field goal attempts and going a perfect five for five on the line for 30 points. Not a single person on the Magic was able to stop. However, this does not seem important to the Cavs star. He is more concerned about burying year-old narratives.
“Last year is over with. We flushed that. This is who we are, and this is who we expect to be… I won’t have that answer for you until we get four wins. At the end of the day, it’s only one. We’ve got three more times to do the same thing,” Donovan Mitchell declared.
Other Cavs respond
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Mitchell was not the only one who popped for the Cavs in this crucial NBA Playoffs win. Jarrett Allen unveiled that Coach JB Bickerstaff had quite the quest for him and Evan Mobley before they faced the paint-oriented Magic squad.
“That was our main priority coming in. JB challenged us, Evan and I, to go get every board. I feel like we did an excellent job on that tonight. We still have to keep doing it, we still have to keep on the boards. Max did an excellent job too. Don’t forget him. He had nine rebounds. We did what we were supposed to do. Attack and make sure that nothing was easy,” Jarrett Allen said.
True enough, Allen led the Cavs in rebounding. He recorded 15 of them on the defensive end and three on offense for a whopping 18 boards. Mobley was also able to notch 11 which made two Cavs players record a double-double. This heightened production might be odd for some casual spectators but Georges Niang outlines that things might even get more intense down the line.
“It’s the playoffs, right? You expect everything to be amplified to a whole new level. Whatever they were planning on doing, I was expecting to be as physical as it was. If not, more physical. That’s just how the playoffs are. It’s a battle. You may have friends out there but we’re not friends,” he concluded.
Three more games stand between the Cavs and the next round of the NBA Playoffs. Are you rooting for them now over the Paolo Banchero-led squad?