Donovan Mitchell Put The Cavs On His Back....While On One Leg....To Erase An 18 Point Deficit And Win Game 7 As Cleveland Fans Chanted "We Want Boston"
ALL HAIL DONOVAN MITCHELL!!! A 50 burger in Game 6, followed up by a mere 39 spot in Game 7.....all on one leg. Allen Iverson holds the all-time record of 90 points in Game 6 and Game 7s back-to-back, and while it wasn't broken, not a shabby effort from Spida...
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We'll get back to him in a second. But first I have to ask the same question everyone that watched that game is asking themselves: How the fuck did that just happen.....? It feels like just 20 minutes ago that the Magic came out on fire, the Cavs started off 0-9 from 3, and the question was not if JB Bickerstaff and Koby Altman were going to be fired before they left the building tonight, but rather which other team's NBA uniform Donovan Mitchell would be playing his next game in. Because when we went down 18 in the first half, at home, in a Game 7 in which every single person knows the franchise is blowing EVERYTHING up if we lost this game, it was very obvious this was the end of this version of the Cavs.
....and then Isaac Okoro completely shut down Banchero in the 3rd, the Cavs defense came to life, and Donovan Mitchell put the team on his back ala LeBron James in 2007. People on Twitter are saying he's now the 2nd best player to ever put on a Cavs jersey, and although that seems ridiculous to think, is it not true?
Those first 18 minutes of this game were the worst 18 minutes of basketball that the Cleveland Cavaliers have played all season, and the fact that we're moving on to the next round after a start like that is simply unbelievable. So while I'm riding the high right now, I'm going to keep an even head here and not overreact. Unlike the Cleveland fans in the arena....
Oh noooo. What are we doing? I'm all for celebrating erasing an 18 point deficit in a Game 7 to move on to the 2nd round….but do they realize it took erasing an 18 point deficit in a Game 7 to move on to the 2nd round, at home, against a team we strategically tanked to play? Not sure we "want" Boston is the proper terminology.
Listen, I talk shit when I think it's right. And I'll be honest with you, it is not the right time right now. While these last two quarters were fun, this Cavs team still stinks. We are 0-9 under JB Bickerstaff on the road in the playoffs. And we're probably about to go play the #1 seed without Jarrett Allen…..
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No way he plays on Tuesday in Game 1, right? Seems to be more than a bruised rib, considering he just sat out a Game 7 at home after playing in 81 straight games. Let me be the first to say: without Jarrett Allen, we're completely fucked. And even if he does play, we're still toast. Just not completely fucked.
This series has the makings for an absolute disaster for Cleveland. We literally tanked to avoid the 76ers just so we could win ONE series, and we barely won that one. I think this one is more likely to go 4 games than 6. And while I reserve the right to completely change my tune if we win two games early, I won't be chirping until we do so. Even if we steal Game 1 on Tuesday in Boston, we all just saw what happened to the Heat when they did that. Don't get me wrong, I hope Cleveland pulls off the upset, but this is not the time for us to run our mouth. At all.
** Not relevant to the NBA blog, but it must be noted that in the midst of that run to recover from an 18 point lead and then go up double digits, Jose Ramirez hit a go-ahead homer just next door to take the lead over the Angels.
CLEVELAND!!! Tribe win 4-1, move to 22-12, and remain in 1st place in the AL Central. What a day for the Northeast Ohio boys.