Donovan Mitchell led all scorers with twenty-eight points with Darius Garland supporting with twenty-one.
Swashbucklings
1) It all came down to rebounding and I don't remember who said this first but a paraphrase is this- "rebounding is about effort".
Who wants the ball more and in this series, it was clearly the Knicks who wanted the ball more.
2) Offensive rebound stat- Mitchell Robinson 11 Cleveland Cavaliers 4. Ugh.
3) Cleveland spent the series allowing Mitchell Robinson to resemble the new Ben Wallace and Robinson again bullied Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen in a manner that brought thoughts of Adam Sandler's playground domination in "Billy Madison".
Robinson finished with thirteen points, eighteen rebounds, eleven of those on the offensive end.
4) As for Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, the two standouts of the Cleveland frontcourt combined for ten points and thirteen rebounds- each number less than Mitchell Robinson alone from two of the players that the franchise is building around.
5) Donovan Mitchell led all scorers but an underrated problem that I haven't seen mentioned is how Jalen Brunson outplayed Mitchell for the second consecutive playoff season.
Brunson controlled Mitchell last season in the Dallas-Utah series and it's the main reason that Brunson earned such a large contract from the Knicks in free agency.
Now Brunson has convincingly shown that it is not a fluke and while Mitchell may be the superior player, Brunson has something about himself or his game that takes something away from that of Donovan Mitchell.
6) Cleveland's bench was a weak spot all season and it was in this series as well but looking back on the decision, the Cavaliers made two mistakes in evaluating.
The first is placing their eggs in the Ricky Rubio basket so that the veteran would return in the middle of the season and return to the form that saw him play so well in Cleveland last season before the injury.
I'll admit that I thought Rubio would bounce back by playoff time at least but it never happened.
Rubio notched DNP's in two of the five games against New York and in the three games that he did play, Rubio's court time was five, five, and six minutes in those games.
7) The other was assuming that Dean Wade could at least equal what Kevin Love would or could do as a big man off the bench that could add rebounding and three-point shooting.
Wade didn't play in game five and played in only two series games for terms of seven and four minutes.
I am very leery of counting on Wade for next season and somewhat leery of a Ricky Rubio return, although giving Rubio a training camp to return to playing shape will give the Cavaliers more of an idea of what he can do.
8) Another problem that I see for next year is a similar issue that the team had at the trading deadline this season- they simply have few tradable assets of value.
Outside of the four franchise building blocks of Mitchell, Garland, Mobley, and Allen, Cleveland literally has nothing else that can bring them the help that they need to improve.
With the massive draft haul the team sent to Utah for Donovan Mithcell, the team cannot trade a first-rounder for several years due to the "Stepien Rule" and I just don't see Cleveland being able to do a lot in improving the roster a great deal.
They may be in a spot of riding the horses that they have and hoping for the best.
9) While the Cavaliers did return to the postseason and that's a success, it's hard not to feel disappointed by both their play and their early exit.
I'll go further again, Cleveland doesn't know how long they will have Donovan Mitchell other than this season and two more.
Mitchell has another season with a player option at the end of the contract, it's almost a guarantee that Mitchell will refuse to pick up that option.
I think I'm safe in saying this- Cleveland will need to show Donovan Mitchell some improvement with a longer postseason run next season or the following season will become all about the future contract status of Mitchell.
The pressure begins now.
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