Independence, Ohio – The unexpected timing was impeccable. The diabolical backdrop.
While the star of the Sleepless Cavs, Donovan Mitchell, reflected the steep exit of the season, the mute television in the corner of the media room inside the land of Cleveland Clinic, mounted above the two muscle shoulders, with the total weight of this loss of series elimination on them, was set up in the first ESPN socket. The panelists debated by a biting subject.
How many blame Donovan Mitchell does it deserve for the last release in the Cleveland qualifiers?
At one point during his 25 -minute session with journalists on Wednesday morning, Mitchell looked at and saw him. And then he gleaned – maybe for the first time in about 24 hours.
“I didn’t look at this in a minute,” said Mitchell about controversial programming. “We deserve it. We deserve it. We did not maintain our end. This is exactly what it is. It is a blessing to be able to play this game, but you have to take what comes with it. ”
There was pain in Mitchell’s voice while he was talking. His eyes were falling – a product did not bed, rather choosing to relive this heartbreaking loss of series and Rewatch the match 5 several times before going to the installation of practice for compulsory exit interviews. It was his eighth time that the playoffs. He never got out of the second round.
“Winning is not easy in this league,” said Mitchell. “Sometimes you have to be lucky. Sometimes you have a bad luck.
“Everyone will feel free to say what he means about us as a group, about me as a player. I’m not going to stop. The day I do is the day I go astray.
At this point, the Cavs did not do so.
A non -competitive series intimidated two years ago by New York. An exhausting regular season which led to exhaustion and prevented them from giving the possible Boston champion his best shot last May.
And now that.
There is a nasty reputation that will follow Mitchell – and this Cavs team – for another year. There is no choice but to accept this. Mitchell wants this in this way. This is what he said to everyone in the locker room on Tuesday evening.
His last message.
“Embarrassment, I hope we all feel it,” said Mitchell. “It was a season of 64 wins. that we will use it.
Mitchell has already lived it. Too many times, to his liking. But it was a deeper discouragement than usual.
“I think it hurts because it’s just, it’s so fast. It was just stopped. We thought it was the year. This is what is zero. This is what people they are. This is what makes teams that they are. You think about everyone saying that we do not train.
Mitchell is right. This year was supposed to be different. A team hardened by losses and better equipped for the success of the playoffs. A more reliable tactician. Health is no longer an obstacle. A deeper, more talented and balanced list. The CV – and the ingredients – in the long term.
Now, everyone must adapt to this ending in the same place-the semi-finals of the Eastern Conference, terribly short of the declared objective, against an opponent of the oppressed.
“Don said:” Let him eat away at it, “said reserve striker Dean Wade about Mitchell’s message. “So wake up every morning and use it as fuel.”
A singularly targeted season, it was a question of going to the next stage, of winning a championship. Everyone accepted the final judgment in the spring. Just or not, this season, once a dream of a fever, comes down to five confounding games. And the Cavs were simply not good enough.
“Feel like a spoiled opportunity for me and it’s hard to live with it at this stage,” said Max Strus tested in the playoffs which became aimlessly during the series final. “You fail in sport and that’s a bit likely. I think everyone in this building would say that we have not achieved our goals, achieving what we were waiting for for ourselves and that it bits and that it burns.
“I just believe in this team. I believe in this locker room and this group of guys and the difficult part of the NBA is that you never know when you are going to recover it. Be just real. You will never have the same team again.
An abandonment of their identity. Sometimes a lack of concentration. Mental strength collapse. An inability to finish. Erroneous habits. Calm cracked. Premature injuries. Immaturity of the playoffs. Fragility. An opponent who was ruthlessly attacked all the weaknesses and had the staff to exploit them. Skilful nitting force.
Everything has defined the unbalanced series. More lessons.
“We have to do it longer,” said Jarrett Allen. “I have the impression that it was the name of the game for each game that we played during the series. I have the impression that we could have been more mentally locked up for longer, to be more physical for longer. I could have been better. I did not watch the film. I have not exceeded everything I could have done or not do.
So what is necessary to take this next step?
“We have to become more difficult – mentally and physically,” said Strus. “We know that it will be a version. You can talk about it to whatever you want, but until you present yourself and you are on this subject, do not really talk. I have to do it when it is important and we have not done it and it is difficult. We can sit here and talk about everything we want, but until we do it and we must not give ourselves.” We all understand.
The question is now whether this franchise learns from his consecutive failures in the playoffs – and if he is able to make the necessary fixes, in particular given the limits of fairly rigid salary ceiling.
“Everyone has to look at themselves in the mirror,” said Strus. “Try to understand what they can do better, bring to this team and help this team gain at a high level.”
The leader of the stars Darius Garland swore to do exactly that after a terrible series touched by a big toe wrapped on his foot which forced him to play with a spacer between his toes and a metal plate in his shoe.
“Look at me in the mirror and see what’s inside and go with it,” said Garland. “I was certainly not myself. It was quite uncomfortable, but as I said, trying to do anything to win the game. I’m just happy to be released because I didn’t want to arrange them. Even if we were not all a hundred percent, I am happy that I went there. Be there.
As is generally the case, Mitchell has brought most of the weight for this setback – despite an average of 34.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists while bursting for a pair of 40 points games.
“There is no reason for him to do this,” said Strus about Mitchell. “This guy literally put us on our back too many nights and we all understood that. We had to be better in teams. All year round, it was a question of depth, everything was a question of strength in figures and just like that, and there is no reason why you can say when things go well that all this is because the guys had to put themselves in poor condition.
Throughout this season of 64 victories, Mitchell repeatedly stressed the team’s response – faced with prosperity and adversity. This is what was most. It has become the creed of the team.
Given multiple opportunities in the conference semi-finals, the Cavs have never responded. Not the way the supposed contenders of the titles do it – or should, anyway.
It is still next year. Isn’t that the way of Cleveland?
“The guys will be hungry,” said NBA champion Tristan Thompson. “I know the guys are pissed off. They are angry. They are upset. I think the guys will be super motivated this summer. It will make us very dangerous.
“You have to starve before you eat. I’m hungry (explanive).”
