The Cleveland Cavaliers’ season may have collapsed long before Game 7 in Detroit. Injuries piled up, key role players struggled, and the expectations that once surrounded the team slowly began to fade as the regular season dragged on, but through every setback, Donovan Mitchell never let the team break.
“He’s keeping it all together,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said after Cleveland’s Game 7 victory over the Detroit Pistons. “When things weren’t going well, he was a beacon, a light. His leadership kept us going on the field.”
Cleveland enters the new year hoping to compete for a championship, but this season is nothing like the dominant season in 2024-25, when the team racked up 64 wins.
Injuries to Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen, Sam Merrill and Max Struth continued to disrupt the team’s momentum, while major roster changes created more instability throughout the year.
Nonetheless, Mitchell consistently excelled when his team needed him most. Whether it’s scoring big points against weaker opponents or stabilizing the locker room during tough times, the All-Star guard keeps Cleveland’s energy going.
“He’s the guy that everyone counts on when things aren’t going well,” Atkinson said. “I would have said the same thing if we had lost. I would have said the same thing. We could be divided. If you have a leader who is divided, if he goes in another direction (which he probably will), things are not going to go well. But he stays positive, he supports the young guys, he never puts the team down. Hats off to him.”
Mitchell’s leadership was on full display in Game 7. Instead of forcing shots, he trusted his teammates and focused on creating opportunities for others, finishing with eight assists to help lead Cleveland to its biggest win of the season.
“That was huge,” Jarrett Allen said. “For our leading scorer on the team, his mentality is not to score, but to let other people go. I think that really sets the tone of the game for our offense.”
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