Don't Poke The Bear: Mitchell's Skirmish With Bennedict Mathurin Ignites Second-Half Rally
The Cleveland Cavaliers acquired Donovan Mitchell to be the closer.
Friday night against the Indiana Pacers, he may have been the instigator.
Not just for his fourth-quarter dust-up with Pacers' forward Bennedict Mathurin, but moreso for what happened after it.
Cleveland was sleepwalking through the first three-plus quarters against Indiana, down by as many as 13 points and trailing for most of the game. The Pacers led for over 33 minutes Friday night and looked like they were well on their way to towards out-running the Wine and Gold to the finish.
Then Donovan Mitchell happened.
Mitchell got tied up with Mathurin while going for a loose ball, with neither wanting to let go. There were no technical fouls issued, but there had been a good amount of chirping up to that point. Mitchell not letting go sent a message: that the Cavs weren't about to let go either.
The Cavs were down 12 points when Mitchell and Mathurin's dust-up happened. The Wine and Gold immediately went on a 15-7 run to cut the Pacers lead to two points midway through the fourth quarter.
"We were we were a little lethargic, a little flat to start. I thought that gave us a little bit of a boost," said head coach J.B. Bickerstaff.
Boy, did it.
Cleveland closed out Indiana in extraordinary fashion to take a 118-112 win to run their home record to 13-2.
Mitchell's message galvanized the Cavs
You could almost feel it immediately when Mitchell and Mathurin separated. The Cavs were looking for some kind of spark and they got it.
Cleveland allowed just 18 points in the 4th quarter. Mitchell scored 18 of his game-high 41 points in the final 12 minutes. As he canned a pair of free-throws with under a minute left to help the Cavs salt away the Pacers, chants of "M-V-P" reverberated from the seats at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
"You don't poke the bear," Bickerstaff said. "They poked him and he went on and did what he did but got everybody going."
Mitchell sensed he had to do something to get his team going. Did he anticipate getting into a tug-of-war match? No, but he as the game wore on he knew he was going to have to take matters into his own hands.
"My problem was as I kept getting scored on and then I just was like, 'I'm just going to score back,' and that's not great basketball," Mitchell said. "So I really had to like, you know, lock in and, you know, and be able to get stops."
Mitchell buried his eighth 3-pointer of the game with 3:41 remaining to put the Cavs ahead for good as Cleveland closed out the quarter on a 28-9 run.
Does Donovan Mitchell deserve to be in the MVP conversation?
If you ask head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, he absolutely does.
He's 8th in the NBA in scoring with 29.3 points-per game and averages the sixth-most minutes per night with 36.7 of playing time each game. Mitchell just put the finishing touches on his 15th 30-plus point performance against the Pacers.
Only Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Steph Curry, Giannia and Kevin Durant have more 30-point games this season.
But there's something else that Bickerstaff says factors in to why Mitchell is so deserving of the MVP talk: winning.
"The MVP should include winning as a part of it," Bickerstaff said. "He's helped us continue to grow and get to the spot we're in now. So he definitely should be mentioned in that conversation."
Tommy wild has more on Bickerstaff's thoughts on Mitchell and the MVP race here.
The Pacers play with a pace, who knew?
Indiana plays a distinct style of basketball that's in stark contrast to the way the Cavaliers play.
The Pacers came in with the NBA's fifth-highest pace at 102.3 possessions per game. Cleveland rank dead-last in that category.
Indiana pushed the tempo for most of the game and was largely having success with making the Cavs adapt to their style. They finished the night outscoring Cleveland in fast-break points 20-9 and had a 62-44 edge in points in the paint.
Keeping up with teams that like to push the tempo could become a problem for the Cavs.
So how does Bickerstaff want his team to play?
"Extremely slow," Bickerstaff said. "It's about our team and where our strengths lie. If we allow our big guys to participate in the defense, it's going to be difficult to score. Same thing on the offensive end of the floor. You allow big guys to get in and be a part of the action and dominate the painted area, it gives us opportunities."
Trash talkin'
Friday night's game felt like one that could set the tone for a future playoff series. The two teams have a drastic contrast in style of play, but there's little question as to which roster boasts the superior talent.
Indiana likely knew as much, so when they had the Cavs down double-digits in the final frame they took some liberties in the trash-talking department.
Mitchell saved his for after the Cavs' had come back.
"It's all basketball, natural trash talk," Mitchell said. "I waited until we did what we were supposed to do. And, you know, when we see them, they're probably going to talk junk again."
It would certainly make for an entertaining seven-game series. With the early sparks between the two teams, there's plenty of time for more of that rivalry to build in the coming months.
"I enjoy playing in that in that manner and that competition. But it ain't nothing personal. It ain't nothing besides basketball," Mitchell continued. "But, you know, sometimes you got to just I don't mean to be corny, let 'em know."
December is a busy month and the Cavs are starting to feel it
The Cavaliers are in the midst of a brutal stretch.
Despite returning home to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse to tip-off a six-game homestand, they're slogging through a six-game in nine-day span that would cause any team to look a little bleary-eyed.
After finishing off Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks Wednesday night, the team didn't arrive back in Northeast Ohio until 4 a.m. Thursday morning. As many players and coaches will tell you, it's not the day after that you start to catch yourself dragging, it's the next day.
In the next week, they'll play host to the Bucks, Raptors and Nets. Two of those teams account for four of the Cavs eleven losses.
Fortunately, Dallas arrives in less than 24-hours and they tipped off against Portland as the Cavs were midway through the 3rd quarter
