On Tuesday night, the Cleveland Cavs fell behind 0-1 in their Eastern Conference Finals series against the New York Knicks with a brutal collapse in Game 1. The Cavs led this one by 22 points in the fourth quarter, but a Jalen Brunson-led Knicks run, combined with a cold stretch from the Cleveland offense, ultimately resulted in a 115-104 win for New York in overtime.
Donovan Mitchell had a strong first three quarters of this one, but went silent in the fourth quarter in overtime, and one person not happy with the star’s performance down the stretch is former NBA guard Brandon Jennings.
“Donovan Mitchell, come on, man. The game is on the line, you’re supposed to be the number one option, and you give the ball to James Harden and go stand in the corner? I think that’s very unacceptable for a person that we call a superstar,” said Jennings, per Gil’s Arena on X, formerly Twitter.
Indeed, the problem wasn’t so much Mitchell missing shots down the stretch as it was the fact that he was barely taking them, frequently deferring to Harden in the clutch, despite the fact that the Beard wasn’t in much of a rhythm throughout the evening.
It’s unclear if Mitchell ran out of gas–after all, the Cavs were just 48 hours removed from their Game 7 win over the Detroit Pistons over the weekend. Whatever the culprit, the Cavs will need their best player to be a lot more aggressive if they find themselves in crunch time again later on this series.
For now, the Cavs’ resilience figures to be tested big time moving forward as they look to put one of the worst collapses in NBA playoff history behind them and steal a win in Game 2.