{"id":656185,"date":"2026-05-08T14:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/656185\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T14:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:53:08","slug":"donovan-mitchell-promptly-defends-maligned-cavs-teammate-after-game-2-loss-to-pistons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/656185\/","title":{"rendered":"Donovan Mitchell promptly defends maligned Cavs teammate after Game 2 loss to Pistons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donovan Mitchell promptly defends maligned Cavs teammate after Game 2 loss to Pistons<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After a reporter asked Jarrett Allen<\/a> about Evan Mobley<\/a>\u2019s one rebound in the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>\u2019 loss to the Detroit Pistons<\/a> in Game 2 of their NBA playoff series, Donovan Mitchell<\/a> felt the need to grab the microphone to set things straight about his teammate\u2019s impact. Sure, the Cavs failed in securing boards at the worst possible time in the fourth quarter, but that isn\u2019t on one person, especially Mobley.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s a reason why the smalls have six, five, and four,\u201d Mitchell said promptly following Allen\u2019s answer. \u201cSo I feel like we look at a stat sheet and say, \u2018Oh, he had one.\u2019 There\u2019s a reason, to JA\u2019s point, why other guys had that many rebounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn things like this, Evan contributed to them not getting a lot of offensive rebounds,\u201d Allen explained before Mitchell\u2019s statement. \u201cHe took himself out of a lot of plays to try to make sure that somebody else got the defensive rebound. The stat sheet, I mean, one rebound isn\u2019t a lot, but the impact that he had on the glass was a lot more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two things can be true at once<\/a>. Mobley should absolutely pull down more than one rebound in 36 minutes. By the same token, he is spending so much time in help defense because of the guards and wings\u2019 inability to contain or stop drives. It forces Mobley to switch and pulls him away from the paint, thus leaving him out of position to grab those boards. There are countless examples of this happening, not just in this game, but for years, when opposing drivers get by.<\/p>\n

According to NBA Courtside, Mobley primarily defended Jalen Duren<\/a> (4:26) and Tobias Harris<\/a> (3:21). Additionally, he guarded Ausar Thompson<\/a> for 2:21, Isaiah Stewart<\/a> for 1:47, and Cade Cunningham<\/a> for 58 seconds. Matchup data is tricky because defense is difficult to track, so it seems like a small amount of time. However, when the metrics indicate that he had to deal with Daniss Jenkins<\/a>, Duncan Robinson<\/a>, Ron Holland, and Caris LeVert<\/a> as well, that\u2019s a tall task.<\/p>\n

So, when Mobley\u2019s doing all of that, the Cavs\u2019 perimeter players have to return the favor by at least finding a way to come up with the ball, particularly when they\u2019re putting the strain on him. It\u2019s not fair to Cleveland\u2019s bigs to expect them to contest away from the basket and somehow also be there to grab the misses they\u2019re making happen in the first place.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating, especially those long [ones],\u201d Dean Wade<\/a> said postgame in the locker room. They shoot a three, and it\u2019s a longer rebound that goes over everyone\u2019s head. But we\u2019ve got to find ways to come up with those \u2014 especially in the playoffs, especially down the stretch \u2014 you can\u2019t let teams get multiple opportunities to shoot the ball and everything. So we\u2019ve just got to be more physical, boxing out.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur guards [have] got to go through their windows and try to clean some things up, but there\u2019s been some pretty unfortunate bounces going against us. So, hopefully the basketball gods turn that. But I think we really do have to be a little more physical, send two at the bigs, and just even if you can\u2019t get to a rebound, just kind of get them out of the play and let everyone else come clean it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkinson voiced that he loves both Mobley and Allen and won\u2019t be moving away from the combination.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing to keep doubling down on playing those guys, especially together,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cI just implore both of them to rebound better. And it\u2019s not just on them. I don\u2019t want to put those eight [fourth-quarter] offensive rebounds [from] Detroit on them, but them and the collective, we have to make a commitment to rebound better. And it\u2019s just that simple.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou get really good stops in that fourth quarter and the second-chance opportunities, it just takes the wind out of your sails. You play for 18 seconds on the shot clock, miss, offensive [rebound]. And I know that\u2019s their strength, but we\u2019ve got to do a better job [of] negating it. And that starts with those guys, our big guys, and then our guards [have] got to do a better job rebounding.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cavs are statistically a better team on the glass when Mobley is on the floor, regardless of the box score and what is being criticized from afar.<\/p>\n

Besides, there are bigger fish to fry when it comes to the myriad of Cleveland\u2019s issues<\/a> that are revealing themselves in this postseason run.<\/p>\n

Related: 3 Cavs to blame for tough Game 2 loss to Pistons<\/a><\/p>\n

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Related: This astounding James Harden stat will have Cavs fans shaking their head<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donovan Mitchell promptly defends maligned Cavs teammate after Game 2 loss to Pistons appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[96089,49,24617,48,14739,2357,127877,16548,8028,2358,14732,37217,85211,131668,18735,16546,459,82,110440,51171],"class_list":["post-656185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ausar-thompson","tag-ca","tag-cade-cunningham","tag-canada","tag-caris-levert","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-daniss-jenkins","tag-dean-wade","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-duncan-robinson","tag-evan-mobley","tag-fourth-quarter","tag-isaiah-stewart","tag-jalen-duren","tag-jarrett-allen","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-the-cavs","tag-tobias-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}