Cavs News! Donovan Mitchell drops 71 points in big comeback

Donovan Mitchell was in something of a mini-slump to end the year of 2022. Three of his six-lowest scoring nights of the season came in the final week of December, to the point that we even wrote a piece entitled “Look for Donovan Mitchell to get back on track in 2023.” Oh, did he ever.

In the Cavaliers’ first game of 2023, they looked sluggish and started very slowly against the Chicago Bulls. At halftime, the short-handed Cavs were down by 18 points to the Bulls and looked headed for a disappointing loss.

Then Donovan Mitchell happened. After scoring only 16 points in the first half he erupted for 55 points in the second half and overtime. Yes, in overtime, because in the final seconds, Mitchell intentionally missed a free-throw, got his own rebound and put the ball in to force overtime and give him the Cavs’ franchise record in points (58, passing LeBron James and Kyrie Irving who were tied at 57).

In our piece highlighting the “top 5” moments of 2022 for the Cavs, we pointed to the Cavs’ win over the Los Angeles Lakers where Donovan Mitchell took the baton from LeBron James. That has now been officially cemented, as Mitchell broke James’ scoring record by a whopping 14 points after a scorching overtime.

The Cavs came away with the 145-134 win, outscoring the Bulls 15-4 in overtime. We don’t know if Mitchell will bring a title to Cleveland, and he certainly won’t match LeBron James’ overall career, but this is his team now and he has the juice to carry this team far. What a performance.

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The only news there is right now is Mitchell’s amazing scoring night.

In scoring 71 points, Mitchell becomes just the seventh player in NBA history to score 70 or more, and his 71 are the most in a game since Kobe Bryant’s famous 81-point explosion in 2006. If you remove Wilt Chamberlain’s six-such games, Mitchell’s 71 is the third-highest total in league history behind only Kobe and David Thompson. Looking to efficiency, his 34 field goal attempts were the fewest of all 12 70-point games. This was a true tour de force.

Want some more stats? When a player scores 70 points they are almost always hogging the ball, but Mitchell was expertly passing out of double teams and setting his teammates up. Multiple key buckets down the stretch by Jarrett Allen were off of Mitchell passes. Among those aforementioned 12 games when a player got to 70 points? The previous high in assists was six (Devin Booker in 2017). Mitchell had 11.

We’ll be talking about this game for a long time.

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Klay Thompson should have been the star of the night, going for 54 points in the Golden State Warriors’ thrilling double-overtime victory over the Atlanta Hawks. Instead, he gets eclipsed by a Cleveland performance. That will make many a Cavaliers fan happy.

LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Joel Embiid all had big nights to lead their teams to victory, and the Brooklyn Nets won their 12-straight game. The top of the East standings are as tight as it gets, with just 3.5 games separating the top five teams.

Coming up: The Cavs will host the struggling Phoenix Suns on Wednesday.