Donovan Mitchell won’t let Cavs go quietly after 'one of the best seasons of my life'

Editor’s note: Donovan Mitchell took the Cleveland Cavaliers to a victory in game 3 of the semifinals of the Eastern Conference. Mitchell recently spoke with Melissa Rohlin by Fox Sports about her excellent season. The original story continues as follows.

Donovan Mitchell did not expect to be this Happy.

When Utah’s jazz decided to change it in the summer of 2022, he hoped he landed in his hometown in New York. Then, when they sent him to Cleveland, he had no idea what he would feel like now.

“It has been one of the best seasons of my life,” Mitchell told Fox Sports in an exclusive interview. “I’m glad to be here. Obviously, it’s no secret: did I want to go home? I mean, of course. But come here, see the group we had, understand what we could continue building, it didn’t happen long before it was like, man, this is special.”

Mitchell, who was appointed All-Star for the sixth consecutive season in February, helped the Cavaliers to stun the NBA when opening its season with a 15-0 record and ending as the best sown at the East Conference, with the second best record in 64-18.

Mitchell has taken both Jazz and the Cavaliers to the playoffs each of its eight seasons in the NBA, but the second round has never advanced.

Wait for that to change this year.

But in a surprising development, Mitchell now finds its cavaliers in a 2-0 series hole against the Indiana Pacers in their second round playoff series, with game 3 in Indiana on Friday.

Mitchell spilled his heart in game 2, ending with an performance of 48 points, nine attendees, five rebound and four robberies in the loss of 120-119 of the cavaliers. The defensive player of the year in the little hand, Evan Mobley (ankle), De’andre Hunter (thumb) and Darius Garland (TOE), led by up to 20 points, including seven points in the last 50 seconds, before the Halibon-Wind-Wind-Wind-Wind-Wind-Wind Wind Wind Wind Wind Wind Wind Wist Wist Wist Wist Wist Wist Wist Wist Wist Wist Wist Wist Wist Wist Wist Wist Wist Wist Wist W Spanish for the helmet mirror with a bed of helmet with a helmet with helmet with helmet helmet with helmet helmet with back of back mirror mirror for back hull mirrors so that Spanish.

It was overwhelming for Mitchell, who had put a cape Hespite dealing with a calf and sick cracks. But when asked how Cavaliers can recover from this mental blow, Heyn does not doubt.

“You have no other option,” Mitchell said. “We could sit here and stop in this, and be at home in about four or five days. Or we could move on and take some things we did really well and go from there. I have no doubt that everyone in that lock and Gothic. Take care of business.

Mitchell hopes that cavaliers can change things.

They have played for each other throughout the season, with Mitchell leading with the example by assuming a minor role in the offensive end to allow Garland and Mobley to become the best versions of themselves. The Cavaliers get used to ending the best qualified offensive (121) in the league this season.

For Mitchell, sacrifice for his team was obvious.

In Utah, he not only experienced a series of seemingly endless disappointments on the court, but he dalt with racism outside or that. In Cleveland, he finally feels like he belongs.

“The city of Cleveland has really won me,” Mitchell told Fox Sports. “I really enjoy being there. He feels at home. That is the most important thing. Basketball will be basketball. But you spend most of your time there and I feel it is home. He feels safe. I feel that the rhythm of shit.

This season, Mitchell averaged his least shots from the rookie campaign (18.6) and had a race in minutes (31.4), a selfless act for a player capable of scoring 71 points in a game, as he did for the Cavaliers.

However, despite ending with less striking statistics than usual this season (24 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5 assists per game), his name was exalted. It is considered a strong contender to be named for the first All-NBA team for the first time in your career, as well as to end among the five main ones in the MVP vote.

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers shot, breaking expectations and gaining respect as true championship contenders.

The city has not had so much hope since the two periods of LeBron James with the Cavaliers, which included arriving in the final four consecutive seasons (2015-2018) and taking them to their first championship in the summer of 2016.

The Cavaliers get used to losing the postseason four seasons in a row of 2019-2022 before Mitchell arrived. In 2023, Mitchell took them to the first round of the playoffs. Last season, he took them to the second round, where they lost to the Boston Celtics champions.

Mitchell is very aware that he has given new life to a city obsessed with the sport that wants to experience greatness again.

In fact, he wants to redefine the legacy of the Cavaliers to be a franchise that depends completely on James to determine their pinnacles and Nadirs, to be a team that can reach the top with a new set of stars.

“We are not necessarily talking about being the first time since LeBron left,” Mitchell told Fox Sports de los Cavaliers as contestants. “I think it is more what we can do as a group and be special. I think it is something that is definitely because doing for our right. LeBron has done incredible things for the franchise. Now is the time to treat the city to the city.”

For Mitchell, that will be a uphill.

The Cavaliers are disagree with the injuries, with two All-Stars Falling Game 2. Haliburton has transformed from being labeled as the most overvalued player in the NBA into a survey For his teammates, to become the most clutch player in this postseason. Mitchell has given everything that this series has, with an average of 40.5 points while he is a stubborn defender, but it has not been enough.

“I don’t know what else could do,” said the Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson.

But Mitchell is only tightening his teeth more strongly.

He knows what Cavaliers are capable or achieving. They had their victories in 15 years this season. Unupaopo its remarkable 15-0 start with a tracking of 16 games that extended until mid-March.

This team has something special.

That is why Mitchell, who did not want to land in Cleveland three years ago, Egerre to an extension of the contract of three years and $ 150.3 million with the team last July.

In fact, Mitchell made that decision six months before, while playing a regular season game in Paris as part of the NBA global games initiative against the Brooklyn Nets, Wat, Ironicos, they were from the teams whom he had initially expected to join.

At that time, Mitchell realized that he had joined his teammates. He had fallen in love with Cleveland. And in the midst of the rumors that he would leave, he decided that he was going to stay.

“When we were in Paris, he felt different,” Mitchell told Fox Sports. “You had the feeling that this is where you want to be. I also felt so early. But we made the trip of Paris, I knew I would come back, sure.”

Now, Mitchell is getting to the Cavaliers season.

In Cleveland, he not only found a great team, but found a home.

And although his way to win his first championship became more serpentine, he is ready for the challenge.

“That’s what you play for,” Mitchell told Fox Sports. “You continually find a wall and how do you think? It didn’t happen in Utah. And the goal is to do it here.”

Melissa Rohlin is a NBA Fox Sports writer. She previously covered the Sports Illustrated League, the Los Angeles Times, the news group from the Bay area and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @Melissarohlin.

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