The Cleveland Cavaliers need their best player to be their best player.
As obvious as that may sound, that’s going to be the difference in their series against the Indiana Pacers.
With Darius Garland out with a toe injury, it will be up to Donovan Mitchell to do most of the heavy lifting.
Mitchell took that task to heart in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, as he took 30 shots in his 33:40 of playing time.
He finished with 33 points, which looks good on paper until you realize that he shot 43.3 percent from the floor and 9.1 percent from 3-point territory.
Asked about his shot volume after the loss, Mitchell said needed to dig deep into the tape to determine whether they were good shots or not.
“Right now, my answer is probably like, ‘That’s a lot of shots,’” Mitchell said, via Cleveland.com. “I’ll look back at the film and evaluate it. Just trying to find ways to be aggressive. I’ll be better.”
At the end of the day, you can’t put this loss on Mitchell, at least not entirely.
Granted, scoring 33 points on 30 shots isn’t efficient basketball, and he did miss 10 of his 11 3-point attempts.
Yet, he took that many shots because that’s what the game demanded, and the game plan clearly wasn’t what it needed to be.
The Cavaliers thrived all season because of their free-flowing offense, and they can’t turn away from that at this point.
Everybody needs to get touches, and they have to make sure to share the workload more evenly.
Of course, all teams need their leading scorer to perform in the postseason, but the Cavs won’t stand a chance of moving past the Pacers if this turns into an iso competition.
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