The Cleveland Cavaliers have enjoyed some early-season success once again, sitting at 5-3.
With some of the injuries the Cavaliers have dealt with, it’s been a promising start, and a lot of that falls on what Donovan Mitchell has been able to do on the offensive side of the basketball.
Mitchell has been among the better players in the league to start the season, averaging 31.9 points. His outburst against the 76ers was his best game of the year, scoring 46 points on 21 shots, including six made threes and 15 made field goals.
According to ESPN Insights, Mitchell actually accomplished some history on Wednesday, becoming the second player in Cavaliers history with 20 40-point games. LeBron James, arguably the greatest player of all time, and now a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, achieved this outstanding feat 51 times.
“Donovan Mitchell becomes the second player in Cavs history with 20 40-point games (LeBron James, 51),” ESPN Insights posted on X.
Mitchell attributed his success to a person speaking trash to him on NBA2K26, a basketball video game.
Mitchell said that a kid told him he was "washed," so he had to show him that wasn’t the case.
“This kid pissed me off today, I was playing 2K. I had been playing 2K for like two hours and I told him, too, I said ‘just wait.’ He called me ‘washed up,’ he called me a bunch of things. But I love it.
“He said he hadn’t seen a highlight from me in a minute. I just told him, ‘alright, we’ll see.’ He told me to ‘go to sleep.’ He was going in. So this game was for that kid or grown man or whoever that was. So I appreciate you. I told him I’d give him a shoutout, too. So that’s what tonight was," he said, per CBS.
Perhaps Mitchell could have somebody tell him he’s washed all the time on 2K, especially if it’s going to result in a performance like that.
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