Mitchell carries Cleveland to Game Seven win!

      Donovan Mitchell may not be shooting well from the outside and you can tell that his ailing left knee is sheer misery to play through but no one can doubt Mitchell's desire or will to win as for the second game in a row, Mitchell placed the Cleveland Cavaliers on his back and like his drives to the hoop with defenders all over him, carried them across the line to a 106-94 win over the Orlando Magic in game seven of their Eastern Conference Quarter-Final.

The win gave the Cavaliers a four-to-three series victory, the franchise's first in thirty years that lacked LeBron James on the roster.

Mitchell finished with thirty-nine points to lead Cleveland to the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals, where they will meet the top-seeded Boston Celtics with game one on Tuesday in Boston.

Swashbucklings

1) Donovan Mitchell's 89 combined points in games six and seven is the second-highest in NBA history behind only Allen Iverson's ninety points in games six and seven in 2001.

2) Cleveland trailed by ten at halftime and by as many as eighteen points in the first half.

According to the NBA, Cleveland's comeback is the largest in a game seven since the league started keeping play-by-play charts in the 1997-98 season.

3) Donovan Mitchell's shooting wasn't tremendous (11 of 27) but what Mitchell did do was bull to the basket and force Orlando to foul him.

Mitchell went to the free throw line seventeen times and drained fifteen of the freebies.

It's the sign of a maturing player and leader when he realizes his shooting is off and moves to the next tactic to keep his team in the game.

4) Cleveland finally received some help from the reserves as Caris LeVert woke up to score fifteen points and long-ranger bomber Sam Merrill hit two three-pointers among his eight points in eleven minutes.

Cleveland will need even more bench help against Boston.

5) Evan Mobley finished with eleven points and sixteen rebounds in forty-one minutes of play on a gimpy ankle.

With the absence of Jarrett Allen, Mobley is forced into a more traditional big man's game and it doesn't fit his game nearly as much as it does Allen but he managed to give Cleveland what they needed on the interior.

6) Paolo Banchero almost matched Donovan Mitchell as Banchero finished with thirty-eight points.

Banchero hit only ten of twenty-eight shots but like Mitchell, Banchero pushed the ball to the basket and drew fouls as Banchero shot eighteen free throws.

7) Franz Wagner was full of vinegar in game five in Cleveland, taunting the fans and acting like a wrestling heel.

When the Magic needed it most, Wagner came up empty as he finished with eight points on one for fifteen shooting.

8) I really don't like that the NBA doesn't re-seed at the end of the first round as the NHL does.

I hate giving Gary Bettman's bunch credit but re-seeding does benefit the top seed.

For example, sixth-seeded Indiana upset third-seeded Milwaukee in the first round, and yet the Pacers will play the second-seeded New York Knicks (winners over Philadelphia) rather than the top-seeded Celtics (winners over Miami).

So the second seed receives an easier opponent (by record) than the first seed under the current bracket system and while I've never been a Boston fan, it's not fair to them after finishing with the conference's top record.