It’s hard to imagine that the Cleveland Cavaliers’ stint in the 2025 NBA Playoffs could have ended in a more disheartening fashion. After the Cavaliers won 64 games in the 2024-25 regular season and looked the part of legitimate title contenders, they once again couldn’t advance past the second round of the playoffs.

Cavaliers star guard Donovan Mitchell didn’t leave much to the imagination about how he will react if they fall short of their goals again. He said he would start “throwing stuff and screaming” and admitted that he’s daydreamed about the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

“I look at Evan Mobley, he wants it. D.G. (Darius Garland) wants it. J.A. (Jarrett Allen) wants it,” Mitchell said, per Andscape. “It’s just a matter of when that moment comes are we going to push through that? Are we going find a way to get through that? We’ve had enough time where we feel this is the time. And quite frankly, if it happens again, it’s unfortunate. I’d be p—ed off. I’d be throwing stuff and screaming. But we’re not going to stop. That’s who you want to go to war with – continually fighting, pushing and plugging. …

“Words are words. But I find myself daydreaming about [a title], I’m not going to lie.”

The 2025 NBA Playoffs marked the second year in a row that the Cavaliers got eliminated in the second round of the playoffs. This time, they got eliminated at the hands of star guard Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers, and the series wasn’t all that close. Cleveland lost in a gentleman’s sweep and didn’t win any of its three home games.

It just so happens that the Cavaliers were booted out of the playoffs by the eventual Eastern Conference champions in each of the last two seasons. Back in the 2024 NBA Playoffs, the Cavaliers lost to the Boston Celtics — who went on to win that year’s title — in five games.

But with the Celtics down star forward Jayson Tatum for the foreseeable future and the Pacers set to be without Haliburton for the entirety of this season, the Cavaliers don’t have a lot of excuses not to get over the hump in the Eastern Conference in 2026.

The path to an NBA Finals appearance looks as open as it has in quite a little while, and hopefully, Mitchell and company can take advantage of that and then deliver Cleveland its second title in franchise history.

Cleveland’s quest for a ring will officially commence on Wednesday night when the team takes on the New York Knicks. The showdown could prove to be a preview of the Eastern Conference Finals, so Cavaliers fans should be excited to see how their team fares in its season opener.