Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell believes the team’s loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday night will be a turning point in the 2023-24 season.
“This is a turning point. Let’s go. We’ll be fine. We’ll fix it.”
Donovan Mitchell’s candor is why #Cavs stay even-keeled. Showing emotion is good, but understanding how to handle these terrible nights & make sure you take something away so it doesn’t happen again is paramount. pic.twitter.com/VTKpZ26hbH
— Spencer Davies (@SpinDavies) December 1, 2023
“I know it will be,” Mitchell said when asked if the loss is a turning point to the team’s season. “I’m not concerned about that.”
Mitchell talked about the character of the guys in the locker room, saying the loss to a rebuilding Portland team will “sting” and will be something that the team will look back at later on this season.
“Ultimately, it’s going to sit with us right now,” Mitchell added. “You have to watch it. You have to analyze different things as a group, individually, how we can be better. But, we’ll be fine. We’ll be fine.”
Thursday’s loss was a tough one since the Blazers entered the game with just a 5-12 record this season. Cleveland struggled shooting the ball on Thursday night – especially from beyond the arc. The Cavs were just 7-for-32 from 3-point range (21.9 percent) in the loss.
Mitchell was one of the players who struggled. He shot just 1-for-9 from 3-point range and 7-for-20 from the field. He still finished the game with 23 points, seven rebounds, six assists and four steals.
After the loss, Mitchell discussed what the team’s goals are for this season, with a championship on his mind.
“We want to be a championship-caliber team, and we’re not playing like it,” Mitchell said. “… This is, I would say, probably the worst loss of the season, I wanna say. And let’s go. That’s it. And it starts with myself, D.G. (Darius Garland), down the line, Ev (Evan Mobley), J.A. (Jarrett Allen), everybody. Down the line, we’ll be fine. We’ll fix it.”
It’s great to see Mitchell taking accountability for some of the team’s struggles, but the Cavs as a whole need to start playing better.
At this point in the season, the team ranks just 21st in the NBA in net rating and 17th in effective field-goal percentage.
On Thursday night, Mitchell and Garland made just 13 of their 38 attempts from the field.
The last thing the Cavs want to do is take a step back in the 2023-24 campaign after earning the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference last season.
Cleveland and Mitchell will look to turn things around on Saturday when they take on the struggling Detroit Pistons. Detroit has won just two games all season and enters Saturday’s matchup on a 16-game losing streak.
