{"id":184921,"date":"2025-12-15T14:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T14:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/184921\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T14:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T14:29:08","slug":"donovan-mitchell-on-stumbling-cavs-i-would-boo-us-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/184921\/","title":{"rendered":"Donovan Mitchell on stumbling Cavs: ‘I would boo us, too’"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND — Donovan Mitchell<\/a> pounded his hand on the padded scorer’s table, and the All-Star guard lowered his head to cover his face in disbelief.<\/p>\n

That, or embarrassment.<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers<\/a>, considered a strong contender to win the Eastern Conference title this season, look anything but one these days.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, they came out flat against Charlotte<\/a>, recovered and forced overtime before missing all 10 shots in the extra session to lose 119-111<\/a> to the Hornets, who were without star LaMelo Ball<\/a> and have been one of the NBA’s worst road teams this season.<\/p>\n

In the final moments, some of the Cleveland fans who stayed around in Rocket Arena until the end, booed the home team, which has too often played uninspired ball this season.<\/p>\n

“We deserve it,” Mitchell said. “I was a fan once. I would boo us, too.”<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n

2 Related<\/p>\n

Last season, the Cavs started 15-0 under first-year coach Kenny Atkinson, raising expectations higher than they had been since LeBron James<\/a> led them to a 2016 championship and four consecutive trips to the Finals.<\/p>\n

A disappointing postseason — Cleveland was eliminated in five games by Indiana in the conference semifinals — has been followed by an inconsistent, injury-riddled start to the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

The losses along with a few head-scratching performances in the past two weeks have raised questions about the Cavs’ roster and makeup. It’s a close team, but one going through adversity that is threatening to chip away at the foundation.<\/p>\n

Mitchell, who scored 48 points in a 130-126 win over Washington on Friday, blamed himself for Sunday’s loss, the Cavs’ sixth in nine games. He finished with 17 points on just 6-of-24 shooting, including 1-of-11 on 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

After Cleveland rallied to tie it in the fourth, Mitchell had a clean look on a potential winning 12-foot jumper at the regulation horn but missed.<\/p>\n

“I had one of those nights on a night and situation when I’m not allowed to,” said Mitchell, who came in averaging 31.3 points, 5.4 assists and 4.8 rebounds. “If I play better, we win that game. Put this one on me. I know my teammates won’t say that.”<\/p>\n

It hasn’t helped that Cleveland hasn’t been whole all season.<\/p>\n

Like other teams, they’ve battled an injury bug. Though they welcomed back center Jarrett Allen<\/a> after he sat out nine games because of a finger injury, the Cavs were without forward Evan Mobley<\/a>, the league’s reigning defensive player of the year who could sit out a month because of a calf strain.<\/p>\n

Guard Darius Garland<\/a> has had to battle through lingering discomfort from offseason toe surgery, and guards Sam Merrill<\/a> and Max Strus<\/a> have been out as well.<\/p>\n

“No excuse,” said Garland, who scored 26 points against the Hornets and played the last few minutes in obvious distress because of his toe.<\/p>\n

Everything is painful right now for the Cavs.<\/p>\n

“No one is feeling sorry for us,” Mitchell said. “I wouldn’t feel sorry for us. I know it’s cloudy. I know it’s dark. As long as we continue to stay together in this locker room, we’ll be all right.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND — Donovan Mitchell pounded his hand on the padded scorer’s table, and the All-Star guard lowered his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-184921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}