Donovan Mitchell has already given the instructions before the decisive game that presents itself for him and the Cavaliers. “It’s not over, we’re in Game 5. Teams have already come back from a 3-1 deficit, it’s already happened here. But for us, we are at Game 5.”
Coming back from a 3-1 doesn’t happen every day, however, since in NBA history, teams that have led 3-1 (273 occurrences) have won the series 260 times. So there is only 13 feats (4.8% of the series…), among which we find in particular the Cavaliers in the 2016 Finals or the Nuggets, twice in a row, in the “bubble” in 2020. And opposite, there was Mitchell…
Or also the Rockets in 2015 against the Clippers. And on the Houston bench was then, as an assistant, a certain JB Bickerstaff. So he knows what he’s talking about and, like Mitchell, he warns not to go too fast.
The famous “taking the matches one after the other”
“I was lucky to be with Kevin McHale, who saw it all, and he explained to the players that we had to focus on one game at a time”, tells the coach of the Cavaliers to The Athletic. “We must not think of the three matches. It’s only one match so far and we have proven that we can win one. We have to take them one after the other, with the idea that the only job to do is to win the next one. This is the message we gave to the players: you have to think of only one match, that of Wednesday evening. »
Having his back to the wall somehow makes Bickerstaff’s preparatory work easier for this encounter and for the rest of the series: win or die.
“We are in the best possible position, and we don’t have a month or six weeks to correct things. You have to learn the lesson and apply it in two days, which is not always easy. Our players have always found solutions this season. They never gave up and I don’t expect that to be the case. We are going to give everything for this fifth round, which will be one hell of a match. »
A vengeful Donovan Mitchell
Transparent in the 4th round, the former Jazz back wants to have a short memory and almost start a new series where the three previous defeats no longer exist. No more past, but no future yet, and therefore everything is to be built in the present with this Game 5.
“That’s the definition of the playoffs. Whether we win or lose, we can’t dwell on it,” highlights All-Star fullback for the Plain Dealer. “Just because we won Game 2 doesn’t mean Game 3 will be the same. We lost Game 4, and Game 5 will be different. We have to move on, and it will be a dogfight. We are in a hole: how to get out? With our character and I believe that everyone will do their job. We have to worry only about this game and be ready. »
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Donovan Mitchell | 68 | 35.8 | 48.4 | 38.6 | 86.7 | 0.9 | 3.3 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 2.6 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 2.5 | 28.3 |
| Darius Garland | 69 | 35.5 | 46.2 | 41.0 | 86.3 | 0.4 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 7.8 | 2.9 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 2.1 | 21.6 |
| Evan Mobley | 79 | 34.4 | 55.4 | 21.6 | 67.4 | 2.4 | 6.6 | 9.0 | 2.8 | 1.8 | 0.8 | 1.5 | 2.8 | 16.2 |
| Jarrett Allen | 68 | 32.6 | 64.4 | 10.0 | 73.3 | 3.3 | 6.5 | 9.8 | 1.7 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 2.3 | 14.3 |
| Caris Levert | 74 | 30.2 | 43.1 | 39.2 | 72.2 | 0.7 | 3.1 | 3.8 | 3.9 | 1.6 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 12.1 |
| Cedi Osman | 77 | 20.1 | 45.1 | 37.2 | 69.4 | 0.3 | 2.0 | 2.3 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.6 | 8.7 |
| Kevin Love | 41 | 20.0 | 38.9 | 35.4 | 88.9 | 1.0 | 5.8 | 6.8 | 1.9 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 8.5 |
| Danny Green | 8 | 11.9 | 50.0 | 44.8 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 6.5 |
| isaac okoro | 76 | 21.7 | 49.4 | 36.3 | 75.7 | 0.7 | 1.8 | 2.5 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 6.4 |
| lamar stevens | 62 | 18.1 | 44.8 | 31.6 | 70.2 | 0.8 | 2.6 | 3.3 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 5.3 |
| Ricky Rubio | 33 | 17.2 | 34.3 | 25.6 | 80.0 | 0.3 | 1.8 | 2.1 | 3.5 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 5.2 |
| Sam Merrill | 5 | 11.7 | 40.9 | 27.8 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 5.0 |
| Dean Wade | 44 | 20.3 | 41.2 | 35.4 | 65.2 | 0.5 | 3.0 | 3.4 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 4.7 |
| Raulzinho Neto | 48 | 10.5 | 51.8 | 28.6 | 91.2 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 3.3 |
| Robin Lopez | 37 | 8.1 | 64.0 | 50.0 | 77.8 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 3.0 |
| Mamadi Diakite | 22 | 8.0 | 48.0 | 33.3 | 100.0 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 1.4 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 2.6 |
| Isaiah Mobley | 12 | 7.0 | 42.9 | 37.5 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 2.6 |
| Dylan Windler | 3 | 3.5 | 66.7 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.7 |
