INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Donovan Mitchell grabbed a basketball, sat on a chair inside the practice facility and stared at the throng of reporters leaning in closely to hear every word.
After beginning Monday’s post-practice press conference discussing the team’s mindset heading into a pivotal Game 5 matchup with the Orlando Magic at home on Tuesday, he paused to fix the tiny microphone pinned to his wine-colored Cavs practice jersey.
“My mom says I have this same problem,” Mitchell said with a smile, alluding to him talking too quietly.
Mom knows best.
Following a booming start to these playoffs, taking a 2-0 series lead, not trailing at any point in those games and looking like a guy intent on changing his polarizing postseason reputation, Mitchell and the Cavs have been hushed by the upstart Magic.
This once-lopsided matchup is now a best-of-three series, with Orlando coming off back-to-back home victories by a combined 61 points.
If the Cavs are going to bounce back, avenge last April’s flameout and win their first playoff series without LeBron James in more than three decades, they need Mitchell to roar again.
“Both teams protected home court, so it’s not a series until somebody wins on somebody else’s floor,” Mitchell said Monday afternoon. “The past two games have been not what we wanted. But we have a chance to take care of business at home and that’s pretty much the only mindset.”
In the series opening win — after about a week off, which gave his bothersome left knee more time to heal — Mitchell erupted for a game-high 30 points on 11 of 21 shooting and 3 of 8 from 3-point range in 36 dominant minutes. It was a message-sending, tone-setting performance, the kind that made it seem like the old Mitchell was back.
He then followed it up with a 23-point-eight-rebound-four-assist effort that helped the Cavs take a commanding 2-0 series lead.
But Mitchell, like the Cavs, floundered in Orlando. He averaged just 15.5 points on 11 of 30 (36.6%) shooting and 2 of 10 (20%) from beyond the arc while committing eight turnovers against 13 assists — ugly numbers that have exhumed big-stage ghosts.
“It starts with me,” Mitchell reiterated Monday. “I just can’t take four shots in that half. Fourteen shots and 16 shots in consecutive games — right, wrong or indifferent — speaks to a level of aggression. I wasn’t that. I hold myself accountable for that. I’ll be better.”
Given an opportunity to use his knee as an excuse, especially after clearly reaggravating it early in Game 3 when stepping on Magic forward Paolo Banchero’s foot, Mitchell refused.
“I’m good,” he said. “I’m good.”
Time to leave the latest playoff demons in Orlando. Time to turn the page. There’s no other choice.
“If you carry something over, it can kill you for a month or a week or whatever,” Mitchell said. “In a playoff series, it could take you all out.”
Over the past few days, in the aftermath of two consecutive embarrassments, the Cavs have had the longtime playoff debate: Adjustments or execution?
I’ve made my comments about the adjustments,” Bickerstaff said. “The game comes down to execution and who plays better basketball. There’s 10 million ways to skin a cat, but if you execute your way better, you’re probably going to give yourself a chance to win. So that’s what our focus is. Our focus is on executing versus what’s in front of us. Learn from what happened before, improve on it, but just be the better executing team.”
The Cavs spent plenty of time breaking down film, identifying opponent weak points, understanding the Magic strategy at both ends and devising plans to attack. Monday’s session was about sharpening those intricate details.
The odds of a starting lineup change — similar to the one Orlando made following the first two games, moving the burlier Wendell Carter Jr. into that quintet for slender defensive ace Jonathan Isaac — are incredibly low. Who would even be swapped out? Who is playing well enough off the bench to get a bigger role?
Nonetheless, Bickerstaff mentioned Saturday that he could consider other tweaks — schematic or rotational. The strategic objective going into Game 5 is simple: rediscover a lost offensive identity.
As Mitchell said, it starts with him. The Cavs need more. He is their heartbeat. Their leading scorer. The guy capable of single-handedly resuscitating a flat-lining offense that is second worst in points, shooting percentage and overall rating in the postseason — a typically 3-point-heavy and dynamic unit that is taking the third-fewest attempts from long-range.
But the issues run deeper than just one guy. Or one specific area.
Point guard Darius Garland is averaging a pedestrian 12.0 points to go with 6.0 assists against 3.0 turnovers. Prized offseason pickup Max Strus is shooting just 38.5% from the field and 17.6% from 3-point range. Georges Niang, another member of Cleveland’s summer free agency haul, has yet to tally more than seven points in any of the four games. Rugged, defense-first swingman Isaac Okoro has been a non-factor. Second unit anchor Caris LeVert hasn’t looked like the Sixth Man of the Year candidate the Cavs claimed he was throughout the regular season, averaging 8.3 points in 25.0 minutes.
Any of those guys playing to their usual standard changes the offensive equation drastically.
“They’re obviously a really good defensive team, so us being able to sustain offensively and what we’re looking to get, I think that has been the biggest challenge. I think that’s clear,” Bickerstaff said. “It was going to be a tough series. I mean there’s no doubt about it. Two really good defensive teams makes for a slugfest and nothing was going to come easy because they don’t concede anything and our guys don’t concede anything. It’s been slower paced like we thought it would be, more of a grind out like we thought it would be. But it’s competitive and when you’re sitting here at Game 5 and it’s 2-2, got an opportunity to take care of homecourt again, that’s our goal.”
When asked about the feeling going into Tuesday’s night’s 8 p.m. tipoff, Mitchell said the team is “very confident.” There’s no belief that something has fundamentally changed in this series. There’s no concern of a proverbial momentum shift. There’s no fear that the non-stop trash talking and extracurriculars have distracted from the primary goal. Orlando doesn’t get bonus points for a pair of blowouts. The Cavs are leaning into their experience. They still think they have the edge — and an unquantifiable asset:
Homecourt advantage.
Cleveland went 26-15 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse during the regular season while Orlando was just 18-23, with its offense dipping about five points per 100 possessions, away from Kia Center,
The Magic, not the Cavs, are required to win at least once on the road.
“You give them credit. You give us credit. We did what we were supposed to do. So now it’s can we do it again on Tuesday?” Mitchell said. “We will. That’s where we’re at. Otherwise, we’re going home, and we don’t want that to happen. We’ve got to go out there and execute the way we have and continue to adjust.
“Handle business on Tuesday, and everything else will go from there.”
