Cavaliers stud: Donovan Mitchell
It was difficult to not go with Mobley here, given what he did as a finisher, rebounder and team defender, and one could’ve had two studs.
But, in the end, Mitchell make bucket after bucket after bucket, and he made some plays in other ways with anticipation and grit as well.
In the end, his shot-making was huge for the Wine and Gold here once again. Mitchell had 34 points on 12-of-21 shooting, and was lights out from beyond the arc. He hit seven of his 11 attempts from three, and was simply sizzling from range, as he’s often been throughout the season. Through 22 games, he’s canned 43.5 percent of his deep attempts.
Mitchell did have five turnovers in Friday’s game, with some of those as a result of him being overzealous with passes in transition, and that’s something he’ll need to clean up. He was human in the fourth quarter, too, as an aside, and didn’t hit any field goals.
With the thought there, though, and with how he puts so much pressure on opposing defenses, and can manipulate them in early offense to create looks for others, those aforementioned turnovers are ones the team should live with. And his rim pressure and finishing has been incredible so far this year.
Generally, anyways, Friday night Mitchell was in his bag in the shooting sense, and despite only having three free throws, he was hyper-efficient and his shot-making has been superb.