-
Jamal Collier
Multiple Authors
DONOVAN MITCHELL KNOWS what’s at stake.
At the start of this Cavs 2026 playoff run, one of the most pivotal in the post-LeBron James-era teams in Cleveland, Mitchell spoke about the weight of being a superstar. It’s lonely at the top, he told ESPN, and few players truly understand the burden it is to carry. He has been doing it a long time.
That’s why, he said, he was so grateful to have his new backcourt partner, James Harden, and it’s why the Cavaliers acquired the 11-time All-Star — to help Mitchell shoulder the enormous weight of being a team’s No. 1 option.
“I appreciate when you have a guy like that,” Mitchell told ESPN. “He’s been here. He’s been where I’m at and trying to go to. I feel like being able to just talk to each other whenever, good, bad and indifferent.”
The Cavaliers made, perhaps, the boldest move of any team this season when they exchanged 26-year-old former All-Star point guard Darius Garland for the 36-year-old Harden. It teamed Mitchell, 29, up with a kindred spirit and tortured basketball soul.
Harden and Mitchell have made the postseason in every year of their NBA careers, 17 seasons for Harden and nine for Mitchell.
Yet, neither one has won a championship. Mitchell has never even made a conference finals. It is this shared void that the Cavs hope fuels their team toward a deep playoff run.
From their first game together after the trade in February, Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson says he has seen a natural chemistry between the two, one that clicked instantly.
“This league is a lot about when you get a player in their career,” Atkinson said last week. “I think we got James at the right time.”
The finale of Harden’s evolution, from young bench scorer with the Thunder, to the volume scorer and perennial MVP candidate with the Houston Rockets, to a more traditional point guard role now, fits perfectly with what the Cavaliers need. He’s comfortable in his role as a table setter and wants to impart his veteran leadership and wisdom to a Cavs team that hasn’t been out of the second round since 2018.
That effort is multifaceted. He’s also trying to rewrite his own narrative surrounding his playoff shortcomings and doing so while trying to cement their synergy on the fly. “I know we are behind,” Harden said. “What speeds that process up is communication and talking, helping each other out.
“We have, I don’t even know how many games together. So our communication during games, practice days, whatever, on the plane, is very, very important. That can get us over the hump.”
That the Cavs needed seven games to get past the No. 5-seeded Toronto Raptors in the first round only exacerbated those narratives, adding pressure to a duo and a franchise surrounded by palpable tension.
After a dominant start to the Toronto series, neither Harden nor Mitchell played up to their lofty standards. Mitchell started the playoffs with back-to-back 30-point games but has been held under 25 points in six straight games since, averaging 20.5 points, shooting 30% from 3 and getting to the free throw line just 1.7 times per game.
Harden, meanwhile, has turned the ball over more times than he has made field goals in three of his past six games. He has recorded such games 29 times throughout his playoff career — the fifth most in NBA history.
If this season is to end in more than a third straight second-round loss — Cleveland already trails the top-seeded Detroit Pistons 1-0 entering Game 2 on Thursday night — the Cavs will almost certainly need more from their star duo. How the Cavs finish this playoff run will have a significant impact on the reputations of the pair, and perhaps as importantly, define the future for the most expensive roster in basketball.
“I’ve been here before, the pressure’s really not — I don’t really feel it,” Mitchell told ESPN. “This isn’t pressure. Getting your next meal is pressure. Where am I going to live? You know, that’s pressure. This is an opportunity. This is fun.
“At least I know we put our best foot forward regardless of the result. … In years past, some s— just didn’t go my way. Now I’m like: We made the moves. We’ve done the talk. Now, just continue to walk the walk.”
1:31
Donovan Mitchell on not getting foul calls: ‘I don’t flop’
Donovan Mitchell admits some frustration about not drawing more fouls and wonders if it’s because he doesn’t flop.
THEIR QUEST CONTINUES in a most familiar spot — down 1-0 in a playoff series.
Two days after their Game 7 triumph against the Raptors, Harden added yet another disjointed performance to his playoff résumé.
He shot 2-of-8 through the first three quarters and turned the ball over five times. He has called his turnovers this postseason self-inflicted and vowed to clean them up, yet his 43 turnovers in eight games during this playoff run are the second most in the league. (Detroit’s Cade Cunningham has 48 turnovers through eight games.)
Harden responded in the fourth quarter. His vintage performance, going 4-of-7 from the field with 13 points, was the first time he has scored double digits in the fourth quarter since the first round of 2024 with the LA Clippers.
The Cavs tied the score with 5:28 remaining, but the Pistons responded with seven straight points. They were the team that made the plays down the stretch to seal it, while Cleveland still hasn’t found a way to unlock Harden and Mitchell, who was 2-of-6 in the fourth with six points, at the same time this postseason.
“It’s just a matter of being sharp,” Mitchell said after the game Tuesday. “There was some carry-over from last series, but we’ll clean that up and move forward.”
Harden echoed his backcourt partner.
“For me, I got to be better,” Harden said. “I will be better, not turning the basketball over.”
Since leaving Houston, Harden has transitioned in recent years to a more traditional point guard role — a conscious effort, he said, to expand the longevity of his career.
“I’m not the focal point of offense anymore, which it’s a difficult transition,” Harden said, “but I’ve adjusted very well. The guys that adjust very well, especially as we age, the better off you’ll be.
“I don’t get a lot of credit for it. It’s just fitting in and figuring out how to be the best James Harden, but then still trying to have whatever the coach or whatever the system is trying to do.”
As he has adapted, Harden is often first focused on creating offense for Cleveland’s frontcourt, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.
“It takes a humility about you,” Mitchell told ESPN. “You go from scoring 60, 50, 50-point triple-doubles to now, not necessarily doing that, but understanding that, I’m going for Don, but I’m also here to help JA. I’m here to help Evan.
“Everything he said, nothing was about himself.”
So far in these playoffs, Harden and Mitchell haven’t produced the gaudy numbers they have become known for, but neither has said they expect to.
Mitchell even joked that he has seen that movie before, the one where he scores a lot of points. He knows how it ends.
0:55
Turnovers the difference in Cavs-Pistons Game 1
Zach Kram discusses how crucial the Cavaliers’ turnovers were in the Pistons’ 111-101 win in Game 1.
MITCHELL BACKPEDALED UP the court, turned around, pumped his first and yelled to himself, as a sold-out crowd in Cleveland roared back at him.
It was the first quarter of Game 2 of the Cavaliers’ first-round playoff series against the Toronto Raptors and Mitchell had just knocked down a step-back 3-pointer, giving the Cavs a 15-7 advantage and forcing the Raptors to take a timeout to counter Cleveland’s opening blitz.
As Mitchell took a moment to revel in the playoff atmosphere, his newest co-star trailed behind him, one veteran looking to impart a beat of wisdom to another.
While Mitchell jab-stepped and dribbled in front of Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett, Harden told Mitchell, Harden had slid toward the baseline, directly to Mitchell’s left.
He had been wide open in the corner, but Mitchell let his own 24-foot jumper fly.
“I was fired up,” Mitchell said. “And he took that time to be like, ‘Hey, yeah, we scored. We accomplished the goal. We still got a bucket out of it, but there was a way to get an easier bucket.’
“That particular moment was a nice snapshot of our chemistry.”
And it was a window into the mindset of the Cavs’ star duo, knowing just how important this postseason is beyond simply advancing to the conference finals.
During the lead-up to Game 7 this past Sunday, one where all the pressure sat on the shoulders of the Cavs, Atkinson was struck by how calm his two superstars were approaching the moment.
“I can’t really tell if it’s the regular season or playoffs,” Atkinson said. “They’re business as usual. Same routine. Positive. Trying to help where they can.”
Mitchell explained why. “It’s the work you put in,” he said. “Kenny was stressing that throughout the whole playoffs. It’s like, ‘This is why we work harder. This is why we’ve worked, did the extra sprints. These are all the things that we’ve done.’
“I said it after last season: Go one step further. This is why you do those things — so you don’t waver.”
