CLEVELAND — It’s been more than four hours since Game 2 ended. I’m not sure how exactly the Cleveland Cavaliers dropped this one.
This would’ve been a bad loss even if it were in January. It coming in the playoffs with their 64-win season on the line takes it to an entirely different level.
I’m not sure how the Cavs pick up the pieces for Game 3 against the Indiana Pacers on Friday night. But they will have to if they want to keep their season alive.
This was the worst Cavs single loss in my lifetime. I wasn’t around for the Michael Jordan shot over Craig Ehlo. Maybe that one was worse. But none that I saw were as demoralizing as this.
The other games that come to mind are Game 1 of the 2015 NBA Finals. The Cavs had multiple chances to win in regulation, but didn’t, and Kyrie Irving was injured in overtime. That was bad.
There was also the Orlando Magic series in 2009, but there wasn’t one painful loss. It was a slow, miserable march to the finish line. Game 6 against the Boston Celtics in 2010 was also rough, although the game itself wasn’t what was bad. LeBron James ripping his jersey off while leaving the court is what actually hurt.
No, this was different. It was the game of basketball that hurt us today.
The Cavs blew a seven-point lead with less than a minute left. We don’t need to go into a blow-by-blow of what happened. The Cavs turned it over twice. Once in the backcourt. Once from not getting it inbounds. They allowed two offensive rebounds off missed free throws. And the Pacers capitalized.
Tyrese Haliburton ripped the hearts out of all 19,432 that were on hand to see it.
It was also a shot he should’ve never had an opportunity to take.
Cleveland practices out-of-bounds plays “daily” according to Jarrett Allen, but you wouldn’t have known it from watching Game 2. They couldn’t get the ball in cleanly after a timeout when they needed to do so.
As unfortunate as some of the bounces were, you don’t deserve to win a game if you can’t execute the simple things you practice daily.
Donovan Mitchell delivered one of the best games in Cavaliers history. He was the only reason this game was close. The Cavs needed someone to step up with Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and De’Andre Hunter out of the lineup, and he did.
You don’t even need to qualify it by saying ‘it was one of the best, not including LeBron.’
No, this was just one of the best in team history. And the Cavs wasted it by throwing it away in the 48th minute.
Indiana doesn’t have an answer for Mitchell inside. He continually drove through Indiana’s defense, took the contact, and converted at the rim.
Mitchell finished the game shooting 9-16 in the restricted area and 14-21 in the paint. That’s remarkable considering that’s the shot that Indiana is trying to take away with their drop coverage.
Donovan Mitchell’s shot chart vs. Pacers Game 2
via NBA.com
This continues the trend from Game 1. Mitchell is now 17-28 in the restricted area. The 60.7% shooting is slightly below league average (66.2%), but the fact that he’s able to continually get there with little to no other ball-handling help remains impressive.
Imagine how good Mitchell’s performance would’ve been if he had his outside shot going. He went 1-7 from deep in Game 2 and is now 2-18 from distance in the series. Mitchell was nearly perfect from everywhere else on the floor.
Mitchell had forty-eight points despite having a calf strain. He has been seen grabbing at his leg during these two games, and it was reported on the TNT broadcast that he does indeed have a calf strain.
Afterward, Mitchell dodged questions asking him to confirm the injury. He also wouldn’t answer if he needed an IV to rehydrate postgame. But he did admit that he was hurting, especially in the final minute after taking a hard fall late.
“I couldn’t move man,” Mitchell said when asked about what went wrong in those late inbound plays. “But, that’s what it is. We’ll be ready for Friday.”
Whether or not some of his other injured teammates can return by then could determine whether or not Cleveland can extend the series back home for Game 5.
“I’m banged up, we all are,” Mitchell said. “It is what it is.”
The Cavs needed something from Ty Jerome. He couldn’t have picked a more inopportune time to turn in his worst performance of the season. Jerome went 1-14 from the field and that somehow doesn’t capture how bad he was.
Jerome was responsible for the inbound turnover late, he surrendered the offensive rebound to Haliburton, and he also gave him the space to hit the game-winning three despite knowing the only thing he couldn’t do in that situation was give up a triple.
Jarrett Allen and Max Strus showed up on both ends. The Cavaliers will need their two relatively healthy regular starters to keep playing that way if they want to get back into the series.
Indiana keeps shooting the three-ball well. They once again shot above their season-long average (35.8%) from distance. Their 39.3% three-point shooting in Game 2 was well within the expected outcomes, but it’s still worth pointing out.
Cleveland, conversely, can’t hit anything. They failed to crack the 30% threshold for the second game in a row. That’s something they only did ten times in the regular season.
It doesn’t matter who’s playing, you have to shoot the ball better from three.
The bad shooting has overshadowed how well the Cavs are playing elsewhere. They once again had an advantage in turnovers, points in the paint, second-chance points, and got to the rim more frequently.
Normally, that would be enough to get you a win. But for that to happen, you have to actually hit a few outside shots.
Did the Cavs find something in the loss? It’s tough to say that now given the fact that they just suffered arguably their most soul-crushing loss of the last three decades, but Allen thinks they might have.
“I feel like we outplayed them for the majority of the game,” Allen said. “And then towards the end, we had our mental lapses, but we found the system that works. We found the style of play for us that is able to win against a team like this. So now, it’s just will we be able to replicate it?”
“We got to get two in Indy,” Mitchell said. Whether or not it’s possible to move on from a defeat like this remains to be seen. They have the skill to win four out of five games when they’re at their best and healthy. Whether or not they can be healthy, or whatever qualifies as healthy in the playoffs, remains to be seen.
But if they are, they still have a shot, even if it doesn’t feel that way in the aftermath of this collapse.
“I have no doubt everyone in that locker room will be ready on Friday,” Mitchell said.