{"id":718356,"date":"2026-04-26T06:45:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T06:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/718356\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T06:45:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T06:45:28","slug":"cavs-news-donovan-mitchell-james-harden-expect-forceful-game-4-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/718356\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavs news: Donovan Mitchell, James Harden expect ‘forceful’ Game 4 answer"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Game 3 went to the Toronto Raptors on Thursday, the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> will have a pivotal opportunity to swing the momentum back in their favor in Game 4 of their NBA playoff series. Both Donovan Mitchell<\/a> and James Harden<\/a> understand that, and the Cavs are all on the same page<\/a> going into Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The operative focus is playing with more \u201cforce\u201d to ensure the Wine and Gold return to Northeast Ohio with a two-game advantage and a chance to close the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s either you go up 3-1, or it’s a 2-2 series, and you go back home,\u201d Mitchell said after Saturday’s practice in Toronto. \u201cThe biggest thing is just understanding that, yeah, they had a really good game, and we didn’t, and how do we respond to that? It’s been the same message since training camp, so just another example of that. The season, regular season, those moments prepare you for situations like this, and you’re gonna go out there and execute.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will respond. We will. We ain\u2019t got no other choice,\u201d Harden said postgame on Friday. \u201cWe didn’t expect to win 16 games in a row. So, guys [are] a little frustrated, which I get it; they’re supposed to be. We’re supposed to be. But find a way to weather the storm, figure it out, and be better for Game 4.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eliminating the Raptors’ top locking of their opponent’s All-Star backcourt will be the first order of business. It’s a common strategy where defenders deny the ball to would-be ball-handlers and movement shooters by positioning on the front side of the offensive player, forcing them away from screens.<\/p>\n

Cleveland head coach Kenny Atkinson<\/a> doesn’t want Mitchell, Harden, or anybody to accept Toronto’s coverage without a fight, and the guys all agree.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got on top, top locked, basically not let us try to get to the ball, which I’ve seen it before,\u201d Harden said. \u201cSo I\u2019ll make an adjustment and be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUs kind of not allowing that to affect us with pressure,\u201d Mitchell added of how to counter it. \u201cGetting up and down the floor, starting off in the half court, and then, defensively, kind of giving them more force as well. We did a solid job of it, defensively especially. We need it for four quarters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cleveland gave it away 22 times to cost itself 23 points. Harden took the brunt of the blame for the turnovers, noting he and his teammates have to be more decisive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s everything. That’s the game,\u201d Harden said. \u201cWe get a shot up on the glass, we give ourself a chance to score the basketball, or give ourself a chance for an offensive rebound. Turnover, we don’t give any of that\u2026 I think just our spacing sometimes wasn’t right, which kind of led to our hesitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, the later the shot clock gets, they just load up and do a good job of that, so watch film and be better for Game 4.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, there’s more to a loud response than tactics alone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cForce and energy live in that same world, right,\u201d Atkinson explained. \u201cForce is probably more physical force. And then the energy’s the sprint battles, the 50-50 balls. I don’t want to go on a psychological rant. There’s like cognitive energy; that’s part of having energy. You have to be kind of locked in. So, we talk about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the whole team’s on the same page. That’s good; you’ve got to get everyone. You can’t be the coach saying, \u201cAh, we,\u2019 like, that BS. It’s the whole group that knows what we’ve got to correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expect the Cavs to be ready for the Raptors’ next uppercut<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAttention to detail, executing our game plans,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cIt doesn’t start tomorrow, it started yesterday. I mean, I think we’ve done the things, but we’ve gotta go out there and execute our game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a very important game tomorrow,\u201d Jarrett Allen added. \u201cThis is what we\u2019ve been doing all year, trying to respond to adversity, trying to respond to what’s been thrown at us previously. Just coming in and playing our game in basketball, not getting down on ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems Cleveland and Toronto will both come out firing in Sunday’s matinee at 1 p.m. E.T.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they’re ready to react,\u201d Atkinson said of his team’s mood. \u201cThat’s kind of in a readiness stage where they want to react. And at the end of the day, sometimes it’s just your pure emotion of losing by 20, right? There’s that. Young guys, that’s the first thing. It\u2019s like, \u2018Man, that’s not going to happen again.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I feel that, right? Like, just first reaction. And we’ve got to figure out: how do we turn that energy back to where it was Game 1 and 2?\u201d<\/p>\n

After Game 3 went to the Toronto Raptors on Thursday, the Cleveland Cavaliers will have a pivotal opportunity to swing the momentum back in their favor in Game 4 of their NBA playoff series. Both Donovan Mitchell and James Harden understand that, and the Cavs are all on the same page going into Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Game 3 went to the Toronto Raptors on Thursday, the Cleveland Cavaliers will have a pivotal opportunity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,305,193,3846,864,1285,560,3627,6,1286,2144],"class_list":{"0":"post-718356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-cavaliers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cavaliers","10":"tag-cleveland","11":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","12":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","13":"tag-donovan-mitchell","14":"tag-editorials","15":"tag-james-harden","16":"tag-kenny-atkinson","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-nba-editorials","19":"tag-reporting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116469663255884540","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718356","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=718356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}