On Wednesday evening, the Cleveland Cavs retook control of their first round series against the Toronto Raptors with a narrow Game 5 win at home, giving themselves a 3-2 lead heading back to Toronto. It wasn’t a pretty performance for the Cavs, who found themselves trailing for most of the evening, but ultimately, Cleveland took advantage of the Raptors’ ice-cold fourth quarter to secure a 125-120 win.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Cavs found themselves trailing, but they went on a run and got the lead back, ironically with both Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell on the bench.
Now, head coach Kenny Atkinson has revealed the stars’ selfless decision that helped spur the Cavs’ momentum.
“I was going to put Donovan (Mitchell) and Evan (Mobley) back in and they said, ‘no, this group’s rolling.’ That never happens in the NBA,” said Atkinson, per 92.3 The Fan on X, formerly Twitter.
It goes to show the selfless nature of both Mitchell and Mobley, each of whom has been rather inconsistent in this series but made some plays when they needed to on Wednesday.
Of course, both stars would end up re-entering the game for the stretch run, where the Cavs executed just enough down the stretch in order to hold off the Raptors and earn their third win of the series.
Now, the Cavs will head back to Toronto looking to close things out in a building that has not been friendly to them in their first two games on the road. Mitchell will look to have his first good performance of the series away from home, and the Cavs will look to punch their ticket to the second round to face either or Orlando or Detroit, when Game 6 gets underway on Friday evening.