Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell is on an absolute tear right now, as he’s scored 40 or more points in four consecutive games.
After Mitchell’s latest outing, which was a 43-point effort against the Orlando Magic, Cavs point guard Darius Garland spoke about the stretch his teammate is currently on.
“This s—‘s crazy. Excuse my language,” Garland said. “But, man, it’s tough to see. It’s really dope to see. A lot of buckets. I mean, I don’t know what to say. It’s a lot of buckets, though. It’s really cool to see just a guy get in the zone like that and then (for) him (to) be so playful after the game, so it’s cool to see.”
Mitchell is the first player in the NBA to score 40 or more points in four straight games since James Harden did it with the Houston Rockets during the 2018-19 season. During that campaign, Harden led the league in scoring with 36.1 points per contest.
The Cavs star is far off from that average as he’s recording 28.3 points per game this season (good for seventh in the NBA), but he did score 71 points earlier this season against the Chicago Bulls.
Harden’s career-high mark is 61 points, so at least Mitchell has him beat there.
While the four-time All-Star is certainly happy to have these types of games, he’s undoubtedly more focused on helping the Cavs make a deep run in the 2023 NBA Playoffs.
It’s now official that the Cavs and New York Knicks will face off in the first round of the playoffs, with Cleveland holding home-court advantage as the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Mitchell recently expressed a desire to play the Knicks in the playoffs, and he’s going to get just that. Some Cavs fans might be a little concerned about the series due to their team going 1-3 against New York in the regular season.
However, there are plenty of people who are confident in Cleveland’s ability to make it out of the first round. The team is looking to win its first playoff series since 2018.
Cleveland has two more regular season games left, both of which will serve as tune-ups due to its confirmed playoff seeding.
