{"id":139404,"date":"2025-07-01T14:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T14:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/139404\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T14:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T14:56:10","slug":"donovan-mitchell-reveals-which-moment-vs-indiana-pacers-changed-the-course-of-the-series-i-should-have-gotten-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/139404\/","title":{"rendered":"Donovan Mitchell reveals which moment vs. Indiana Pacers changed the course of the series: “I should have gotten open”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donovan Mitchell reveals which moment vs. Indiana Pacers changed the course of the series: “I should have gotten open”<\/a> originally appeared on Basketball Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n

History has shown how one play can alter the entire trajectory of a series. Whether it’s a severe injury, a made or missed shot or a botched pass, the smallest details can have a significant impact on the outcome of a playoff matchup.<\/p>\n

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For Donovan Mitchell<\/a> and the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>, that moment came in Game 2 of their second-round series against the Indiana Pacers.<\/p>\n

After the Pacers shocked the Cavaliers on their home floor in Game 1, Mitchell’s team looked poised to deliver payback and equalize the series, as they led by as many as 20 points and were in front by seven, 119-112, with less than a minute remaining.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the Cavs, they would not score another point the rest of the way while the Pacers rattled off eight straight, capped by a triple by Tyrese Haliburton with 1.1 seconds left that secured them a 120-119 victory.<\/p>\n

While many instances led to the heartbreaking loss, Mitchell pointed out a few plays that stand out in his mind that tilted the game \u2014 and ultimately the series \u2014 in their opponent’s favor.<\/p>\n

Failed inbound attempts<\/p>\n

With All-Star point guard Darius Garland nursing a toe injury that kept him out of that game, the ball-handling and playmaking duties were left to Mitchell and Ty Jerome. While the former did a spectacular job for most of the game, scoring 48 points, he emphasized that the team’s failure to complete clean inbound passes stood out like a sore thumb.<\/p>\n

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“The one that sticks out to me \u2014 the inbounds pass \u2014 from Game 2. Both of them. The one where I elbowed (Aaron) Nesmith in the face and the one where I couldn’t get open, so Max had to throw it to Ty,” Mitchell recalled<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first botched inbound occurred with 45 seconds remaining and the Cavs up by five, 119-114. Mitchell took the inbound pass from Max Strus near the sideline and immediately attempted to shake off Nesmith’s relentless defensive pressure. In the process, he unintentionally caught the Pacers guard in the face with an elbow, leading to an offensive foul.<\/p>\n

The second, and arguably, the most costly turnover of the night, happened with 27.5 seconds left and Indiana nursing a 119-116 lead. As Strus struggled to find a teammate to inbound the ball to, he threw a pass that was intercepted by Andrew Nembhard, leading to Haliburton’s late-game heroics.<\/p>\n

“I should have gotten open. Like I should have gotten the ball. You know what I mean? And credit Indiana, they did a good job,” the Cavaliers star said.<\/p>\n

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Related: Michael Jordan shows off his $115 million luxurious superyacht in Croatia<\/a><\/p>\n

Costly mistakes<\/p>\n

Although the Cavs played without Garland, Evan Mobley and De’Andre Hunter, Mitchell stressed they played well enough to get that win and even the series up at 1-1. However, their untimely errors doomed their chances, shifting momentum firmly in the Pacers’ favor.<\/p>\n

“I think those are the two. Who knows? What do we win the series? Maybe. Do we lose? Like that’s \u2014 but I know Game 2, for us to play that well and we fought \u2014 I mean, obviously, yeah, we had three guys out. That’s not an excuse. We were up 15, 20, whatever it was,” Mitchell relayed. “I think that’s what sticks out to me and that’s like damn \u2014 changes it. Changes the series at that point. But you know, can’t dwell on it now. I just got to use it.”<\/p>\n

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The Cavs trimmed the series deficit with a dominant Game 3 win, but the Pacers were unfazed and won the next two to boot out the East’s top-seeded squad.<\/p>\n

Related: “I am not going to do it the same way he did it” – Mitchell on the pressure of bringing a championship to Cleveland following LeBron’s legacy<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network<\/a> on Jul 1, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donovan Mitchell reveals which moment vs. Indiana Pacers changed the course of the series: “I should have gotten…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[1784,7,193,791,864,576,113,126,3866,872,6,261,114,1201,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-139404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-andrew-nembhard","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","11":"tag-darius-garland","12":"tag-donovan-mitchell","13":"tag-evan-mobley","14":"tag-indiana","15":"tag-indiana-pacers","16":"tag-indianapacers","17":"tag-max-strus","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-nesmith","20":"tag-pacers","21":"tag-ty-jerome","22":"tag-tyrese-haliburton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114778563224978207","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}