INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — It was a historic season for the Cleveland Cavaliers. 64 wins, the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs—all cut short as the Indiana Pacers knocked them out of the playoffs Tuesday night inside Rocket Arena, besting the Cavs in the second-round series, 4-1.
Now, as the Cavs pack up their things at Cleveland Clinic Courts, they enter the offseason sooner than anyone hoped or expected.
"I think it hurts because it's just so fast. It's like, wow, it just stopped. I have no plans. I have no offseason [plans]. I don't know what the hell I'm doing tomorrow. I don't know what the hell I'm doing next week," Mitchell said. "It just was abrupt. That’s what is so tough, because you believe, we believe in each other, we believed that this was the year. Everybody did."
The Cavs wanted the season to end with a championship. As hard as it might be to admit, as Cavs superstar Donovan Mitchell said: In this series, the Pacers wanted it more.
"Myles Turner's been playing for the Pacers since Bron was there. And I'm not making that as an excuse in any way, shape or form, but Myles Turner's hungry. You saw him putting Indiana, he's hungry for that," Mitchell said. "And not to say we're not hungry, but there's years of losing to LeBron James, that does a lot to you and respect to them and respect to him. When we get to where we want to get to, it's going to be because of moments like this where we're sitting here, like 'Damn, again?' That's part of the process."
That reality is something the Cavs are letting set in as the season comes to an end.
"I've been hungry every year. Everyone, the team is hungry. We want to win a championship. Like Don said, Indiana was more hungry than us. They were able to be aggressive longer than we were able to be aggressive. They sustained that high level of physicality and energy throughout the whole series and games longer than we did. So we just got to find that hunger next year and be able to sustain that for longer," said forward Isaac Okoro.
This series marked the second year in a row the Cavs have been eliminated in the second round of the playoffs in five games, losing 4-1 to the Boston Celtics last year.
Their impressive regular season made growth in the playoffs feel inevitable. The Cavs prided themselves on their strong defense. They were one of, if not the, best offenses in the league. But amid a mix of injuries and lackluster performances, the Cavs failed to make that postseason jump that was so anticipated.
"Basketball, every step you take is tougher than the last. To be a nerd here, it's like Frodo trying to get rid of the ring. It's like every step you take, you have to try even harder to get even further. That's how it happened for us and we just didn't do it," said Cavs center Jarrett Allen.
The Cavs were hungry—but not hungry enough. So, as they enter the offseason, their superstar leader wants them to take one thing with them.
"The embarrassment. I hope we all feel it. And I think we do. A 64-win season, we were slated to be up here. We lost 4-1. We were the favorite. We were in the 1-seed. It's not like we were an 8-seed trying to beat a 1-seed. We should feel that. And that's what I said to the guys in the locker room, 'Feel this. Embrace it. This is part of it. You can't run from this one,'" Mitchell said. "It's going to be a loud summer. It is going to be a lot of voices about what the Cavs are, what the Cavs should [be]. There's going to be a loud summer. I've been through a few of those. So use it as fuel because it's the only thing you can do. Show up to work every day. Show up to the gym and keep going, keep going. And I have no doubt everybody will, because everybody's a collective group. We're a connected group. We're a group that really wants it. And I have no doubt that we'll use this."
