Donovan Mitchell and the Cavaliers had a chance to tie the Eastern Conference Finals series against the Knicks tonight, but Josh Hart’s 12-point third-quarter explosion blew the game wide open, and eventually pulled it beyond Cleveland’s reach.
They ended up losing 93-109 at Madison Square Garden, as Hart stuffed the box score to lead all scorers with 26 points, seven assists, four rebounds, and two steals while shooting 10-21 from the field (47.6 FG%) and 5-11 from beyond the arc (45.5 3P%).
While his single game career-high is a 44-point game he had in the regular season, tonight was his best game ever played in the postseason. Following the game, Donovan Mitchell gave Josh Hart his flowers for an exceptional performance that took the Cavaliers by surprise.
“I mean, we’ll go back and watch it, and sometimes you’ve got to tip your cap. You know, not comparing the players, but you see a similar situation in the other series, you know, and with Caruso, they’re guarding him kind of the same way,” said Mitchell as he compared Josh Hart’s playoff career-high performance to Alex Caruso’s 31-point night in Game 1 vs. the Spurs.
“So, I’m not saying he’s him or whatever or vice versa, but you know, you just got to adjust, and we’ll look at the film and figure out ways to adjust, but sometimes you’ve got to tip your cap. He made a one-handed spin move on me. And not to say he’s not capable, but like sometimes, you know, that’s what happens.”
“And I think the biggest thing is we’ll make our adjustments. But you give credit where credit’s due. They made the right plays and knocked down the shots they were supposed to make,” Mitchell initially said on Hart benefiting from the defensive attention that Jalen Brunson drew.
A reporter then confirmed with Mitchell whether the Cavaliers explicitly left Hart open to put the defensive pressure on Brunson after he torched them in Game 1.
“I mean, yes and no. I mean, you give credit where credit’s due. He hit shots tonight, you know what I mean? And there’s a balance…. We’ll find that and watch the film. But ultimately, it looks worse and feels worse when we’re not making shots, open shots, like you know what I’m saying?”
“So that’s why, for us and for me, I’m not sitting here like, oh man, like you know, scrambling and trying to figure things out. At the end of the day, we make some shots, we’ll be in good shape.”
“We were down six, seven, eight, whatever it was. So, give credit where it’s due. We’ll make our adjustments, and we’ll be at home and protect home court,” Mitchell concluded.
Donovan Mitchell ended Game 2 with 26 points, four rebounds, and one assist while going 8-18 from the field (44.4 FG%) and 2-7 from beyond the arc (28.5 3P%). While Mitchell sounded off on his own performance, it also highlighted a struggling night on offense for the remaining Cavaliers players.
The two players who underperformed for the Cavaliers tonight were their sharpshooters, Max Strus (five points, four rebounds, three assists, 1-7 FG, 14.3 FG%) and Sam Merrill (four points, 1-8 FG, 12.5 FG%). But shotmaking was not the only problem for the Cavaliers.
In the first two rounds of the series, the Cavaliers lost the first two road games each time. But in the series against the Raptors, the lost a 2-0 lead and against the Pistons, they came back from down 0-2. So there is a sense of familiarity with this adversity for Cleveland.
In nearly 460 instances where a team has gone down 0-2 in the conference finals, only two teams, the 2018 Cavaliers and the 2019 Raptors have managed to come back from this deficit. Do you think the 2026 Cavaliers can be the third team to do that? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
