{"id":626455,"date":"2026-05-06T07:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T07:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/626455\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T07:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T07:57:09","slug":"donovan-mitchell-expresses-frustration-over-free-throw-disparity-in-game-1-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/626455\/","title":{"rendered":"Donovan Mitchell Expresses Frustration Over Free-Throw Disparity in Game 1 Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Detroit Pistons<\/a> took Game 1 against the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> on Tuesday, 111-101<\/a>. The backcourt tandem of Donovan Mitchell<\/a> and James Harden<\/a> combined for 45 points. However, that wasn’t enough to take down the Pistons. Detroit used a defensive strategy against the Cavaliers’ key backcourt players.<\/p>\n

The Pistons had an early 1-0 lead to take advantage of the series. Fortunately for the Cavaliers, the fight is not over, and they could come back to the series in Game 2 on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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One of the things that stood out for Cleveland, however, was the lack of foul calls. Mitchell believes that he should’ve gotten some foul calls against the Pistons.<\/p>\n

Donovan Mitchell is Considering to Start Flopping Against the Cavaliers\"Cleveland<\/p>\n

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) \u00a9 Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Mitchell only had two free-throw attempts in Game 1. After the contest, he voiced out his frustration and told the reporters that he thought he should’ve gotten more foul calls. He didn’t want to criticize the officials directly since he learned about the $50,000 fine that Jaylen Brown<\/a> received from the NBA<\/a> for commenting on the referees.<\/p>\n

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“I want to separate this from the game. The free-throw disparity is not why we lost tonight\u2014I want to make sure I say that,” Mitchell said. “I\u2019m trying to get downhill, and a friend of mine got fined for talking about flopping, so I\u2019m not going to double down, but I feel like that\u2019s what I have to do.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m trying to get to the bucket, and sometimes my people are in my way, I\u2019m trying to fight through contact, and I\u2019m not getting these calls.”<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m just not getting the calls. I don\u2019t know why. I don\u2019t flop\u2014maybe that\u2019s why,” he added. “This isn\u2019t just a tonight thing; it\u2019s been the entire series, and it\u2019s frustrating. Because I\u2019m such a dynamic driver, I can\u2019t control that. If they\u2019re not going to call it, I have to find a way to finish through it.”<\/p>\n

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Mitchell reiterated that the lack of free throws was not the reason why the Cavaliers lost against the Pistons. However, the seven-time All-Star believes he deserves to get the right foul calls.<\/p>\n

In the first-round series against the Toronto Raptors<\/a>, Mitchell did not get enough attempts at the charity stripe. He averaged 2.3 free-throw attempts<\/a> through seven games. The most shots and attempts he had against the Raptors were six and seven, respectively. That was in Game 1, when the Cavaliers had a 126-113 win.<\/p>\n

Related: Cavaliers’ Jarrett Allen Makes NBA History in Game 7 Win Over Raptors<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on May 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Detroit Pistons took Game 1 against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday, 111-101. The backcourt tandem of Donovan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[8174,4576,13054,6418,29175,355,99,52467,2970],"class_list":["post-626455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-james-harden","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-the-cavaliers","tag-toronto-raptors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}