Donovan Mitchell’s leadership through difficult season made Game 7 in Detroit possible: ‘I’ll follow him into war’

DETROIT — Over the past seven months, Donovan Mitchell made sure to remind every reporter he could that this season wasn’t the same as the previous.

“We got to let last year go,” Mitchell said back in November. “This is a whole different season. Everybody around us got better. It’s a different season. I think we have to drop this whole, ‘Well, last year was this.’ It’s not the same.”

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That proved true for the Cleveland Cavaliers, in more ways than one.

Everything that seemingly could go right during the 2024-25 regular season did. They had three double-digit win streaks, won 41 games by 10 or more points, and didn’t face any adversity as they cruised to 64 wins.

Their good fortune reversed in the postseason. Injuries and an inability to close games led to them being a second-round exit in five games.

This regular season was the opposite.

The Cavs couldn’t establish any real momentum. Consistent injuries, underperforming role players, and two drastic trades led to 12 fewer wins. And far more ways for this team to fracture — except it didn’t.

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“He kept this thing together,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said about Mitchell after the Game 7 win over the Detroit Pistons. “When things weren’t going great, he was the beacon, the light. His leadership carried us on the court.”

The Cavs never established any kind of rhythm or looked like a title-contending team throughout the season, but Mitchell’s steady hand on and off the court kept things on the rails. His consistent effort, seen mostly through his scoring, allowed the Cavs to tread water through turbulent times in the first half of the season. That bought the group time to figure out who they were.

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It’s not uncommon for a team that enters the year with championship aspirations to blow up before getting after the ground. Most recently, it was last season’s Philadelphia 76ers that fell flat…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/donovan-mitchell-leadership-difficult-season-220000542.html

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Publish date : 2026-05-18 22:00:00

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