Revisiting the Cavaliers’ top individual performances from this season so far

Donovan Mitchell’s 71 points

Now Donovan Mitchell’s top performance is an obvious one. It is his 71-point masterpiece against the Bulls in the Cavaliers first game of 2023.

Not much needs to be said that hasn’t already been detailed. Mitchell that night only had 16 points in the first half, and the Cavs were down 18 points.

Mitchell upped his game in the third quarter, pouring in 24 points, including 12-of-12 from the foul line. Mitchell followed that up with 18 more points in the fourth quarter, none more dramatic than his intentional missed free throw putback to tie the game. The league’s Two Minute Report did state that there was a lane violation on Mitchell’s shot, but that still doesn’t diminish the game for him, and realistically, there’s missed calls all the time throughout games.

In the overtime period, Mitchell outscored the Bulls by himself 13-4 and put the cherry on top of his magnificent performance with his final two points coming at the foul line with the crowd chanting “MVP, MVP!”

When the Cavs made the trade for Mitchell, they surely had visions of him with many spectacular performances, but even they couldn’t have envisioned this level of performance.