It was another spectacular night as the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night, 129-122, in what some have called a possible NBA Finals preview. As the Cavs hope to have a handful of All-Stars on their team, their frontman in Donovan Mitchell boasted a strong message focused towards the media after the huge victory.
What made the win more impressive was that while Mitchell leads the team with 22.9 points per game, he only finished with 11 points on three of 16 shooting from the field in what was an off-night. He would say after the game that there is no doubt that Cleveland belongs at the level they keep playing at and not relying on the “national media” to say otherwise according to ESPN.
“It’s very clear that we belong here,” Mitchell said. “I don’t think we are waiting for the national media to be like, ‘Oh, they belong.’ I think for us we knew, but you got to go out there and prove it. We went 31-4, people still don’t believe, we win tonight, people still don’t believe, we got to continue to just to be us.”
The Thunder entered the game with a 15-game winning streak that the Cavs snapped in what was a showing that made the efforts of possible MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams futile as each had 31 and 25 points respectively.
Cavs’ Donovan Mitchell on their “growth”
Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
Now that the team is on pace for around 70 wins, Mitchell expressed about the “growth” of the team saying that last season, they wouldn’t win a game like this.
“It just speaks to our growth,” Mitchell said. “I told everybody after the game, as a unit, we don’t win this game last year. … Everybody that came in did something positive to affect the game, whether it was scoring, rebounding, defending, whatever it may be. That’s a team win, and that’s what it’s going to take for us to be the team we want to be.”
“And honestly, man, that’s a big win,” Mitchell continued. “I think we’re all excited about it, and obviously, this is one game and no championships are won tonight, but it’s something to be proud of.”
Though Mitchell has made an All-Star case for Evan Mobley, he would double down and add himself, Darius Garland, and Jarrett Allen to that list, saying it would be a “shame” if they didn’t end up being honored according to Danny Cunningham.
“It would be a shame if all four of us weren’t [All-Stars],” Mitchell said.
Allen led the team with 25 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists while Mobley had 21 points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists with the former shouting out his front-court teammate in his post-game presser.
“They finally learned who Evan Mobley is, and they still have a lot more to learn,” Allen said Wednesday. “He was doing everything for us. On the defensive end, he was getting stops. On the offensive end, we literally just drew up a play and gave him the ball and said go to work, and he got us a big bucket at the end. So they’re learning about him.”
At any rate, Cleveland is now 32-4 which puts them comfortably at the top of the Eastern Conference for now as they next face the Toronto Raptors on Thursday night.
