Ahead of the first Conference Finals game of his NBA career, Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell is showing no fear. Against an opponent he knows all too well (the New York Knicks), it would be easy to get caught up in the moment. Instead, he’s keeping his eyes fixed on the mission at hand.
Tonight, all that matters for Mitchell is taking Game 1 on enemy territory by any means necessary. While some fans and media members expected acknowledgment of his past ties to the city, Mitchell stressed the importance of focus for his team, which involves approaching the game with the appropriate attitude.
“I’m super excited, I get to sleep in my own bed,” said Mitchell, via Dave McMenamin. “But at the end of the day, this is a business trip. This isn’t something where I’m here to be like, ‘Man, I’m so excited to be home.’ I did that already. And we lost. So, this is a business trip, and we have to go out there and execute and find a way to win.”
The Cavaliers have a chance to make the NBA Finals if they can find ways to contain the Knicks, but that’s much easier said than done. The last time they matched up, things didn’t go well for the Cavaliers, who lost the series in just five games in the first round. This time, however, Mitchell says his team feels the urge to achieve even more despite the odds.
“We’re here, we haven’t come this far just to be excited to be here. I think that’s the biggest feeling around the group,” said Mitchell, via Camryn Justice. “We’re not just like ‘Oh, we did it!’ Now, it’s more so an opportunity for us to go ahead and get to the Finals, and we have to get through these guys to get there.”
Donovan Mitchell and the Cavaliers underachieved for most of the season before making a late run that moved them up to fourth in the East. Ever since the James Harden trade, the team has been playing with renewed vigor, resulting in their first Conference Finals appearance since 2018.
But for a team known to struggle to give consistent effort, it’s important that the Cavs don’t get complacent. Against a gritty, experienced, and highly talented Knicks team, they will be underdogs, and only through a cohesive team effort and strong leadership from Donovan Mitchell can they even hope to pull off an upset.
The good news for Cleveland is that the seven-time All-Star is coming off one of the best seasons of his career, with averages of 27.9 points, 4.5 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game on 48.3% shooting and 36.4% shooting from three. He’s still fresh from an elite performance in Game 7, where Mitchell dropped 26 points, six rebounds, eight assists, one steal, and one block on 45.5% shooing and 33.3% shooting from three.
Of course, he may need to bring his game up another level to defeat this stacked Knicks team, but there is a path to Cavaliers victory if Mitchell takes them there. That’s why he’s making sure to set the tone early in this series and establish that he’s not satisfied with merely making the Conference Finals.
