On Monday evening, the Cleveland Cavaliers took a 140-138 loss in overtime to the Miami Heat on the road. The Cavs lost this one on a defensive breakdown with four tenths of a second left that allowed Heat forward Andrew Wiggins to break free for an easy dunk on an inbounds pass from Nikola Jovic.
Prior to that, the Cavs had tied things up thanks to an epic three from Donovan Mitchell in the corner. The Cavs are currently tied for third place in the Eastern Conference, and recently, Mitchell got 100% real on how important it is for the team to secure the one seed in the East this year, as they did a year ago, per DJ Siddiqi of Video Gamer.
“Would we love to do both? 1,000%,” said Mitchell, speaking about both securing the first seed and entering the playoffs peaking at the right time. “I’m not going to sit here and say we wouldn’t want to be the number one seed. At the same token, we saw last year that you can do all the things, but if you’re not ready when that time goes and if you’re not necessarily healthy, it doesn’t really matter what you’ve done during the regular season. ”
Mitchell also spoke on his mindset for what happens if the Cavs don’t secure it.
“Would I love to be the No. 1 seed? Sure. But if we’re not, am I going to be panicking? No. As long as we’re playing our best basketball at the right time, that’s all that really matters,” said Mitchell.
An interesting start for the Cavs
Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson reacts during the second half against the Sacramento Kings at Rocket Arena with Cavs regular season in the background
Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
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The Cavs have done a solid job of weathering injuries so far this year and might have to continue to do so after Darius Garland exited Monday’s game with a toe injury, the same ailment that kept him out for the opening chunk of the season.
As Mitchell alluded to, the Cavs peaked too early last year and fell apart in the second round vs the Indiana Pacers, and would certainly like to avoid that fate this time around.
The Cavs will next take the floor on Wednesday night for a rematch against the Heat in Miami.