“Cavaliers CHOKED!” – ESPN goes crazy to Pacers spoil Mitchell’s 48-Pts perform, beat Cavs in Game 2

“Cavaliers CHOKED!” – ESPN goes crazy to Pacers spoil Mitchell’s 48-Pts perform, beat Cavs in Game 2

Game two between the Pacers and the Cavs. Tyrese Hallebertton. Pacers down by two. Free throw no good, but Pacers get the rebound. Hallebertton says, “No, no, no, no, no. I’m not going for the tie. I’m going for the win.” Nails the three-pointer with just over a second left on the clock. The Pacers going into the fourth quarter trailed by 14. They come back and win this one 120 to 119th. And we are now joined by CBS Sports NBA analysts Bill Ryder and John Gonzalez. And guys, I was coming into this conversation saying no Garland, no Mobly, no Hunter, no problem for the Cavs. But then Tyrese Hallebertton said, “Uh-uh, I’m not finished yet.” Bill, just how were the Pacers able to claw their way back in this one and eventually take this one to take the series up two nothing? Yeah, that is they just on on national television just ripped the poor Cavs soul from their chest and and I mean that is that was one of the most brutal things I’ve ever seen. Look, credit credit Tyresese Hallebertton. Credit that that Pacers team for not giving up. Now, we’ve seen them do comebacks before, including in the last series, and they kept on fighting. And uh and credit credit uh credit a Pacers team that continues to make doubters. I don’t know. I mean, that’s your question. I have no idea how they did that. Shouldn’t have happened. We just all watched it together. All you have to do is get a rebound and the game is over. Hit some free throws, run your offense. That was absolutely incredible. And since we’re responding live, I don’t have a good answer for how the Cleveland Cavaliers blew. was a 20point lead and I’m not sure they gave away their season but they’re on the brink of the season being over because as we know only 8% of teams who have gone down 2 come back and win these series. Appreciate the honesty, Bill. Absolutely devastating for the Cavs, right? I mean up 14 to start the fourth quarter on a night when Donovan Mitchell was carrying the Cavaliers when he puts them on their back and K we talked about this pregame where we okay no Garland, no Moy, no DeAndre Hunter. What needs to happen? You need all of Donovan Mitchell. Donovan Mitchell had a supreme effort tonight. This is something Bill and I had talked about on the podcast as well about Donovan Mitchell really needing to elevate his game in the playoffs. He did that tonight. 34 minutes. He played outstanding out of the monster dunk on Seakum. There was some uh physicality with Nie Smith in the fourth quarter. I thought he was great. And then for the Cavs to blow that lead, it’s just devastating. Hallebertton just ice water in his veins. He he had an okay game through three quarters, but 11 in the fourth quarter, including the gamewinner where he rebounds his own missed free throw, brings it out of the top of the key. I thought like Bill that maybe he’d go to the hoop and just try to tie the game. But no, taking that three-pointer, what guts that takes because if you miss that, now it’s 1-1 and you’ve let the Cavs back into the series. being up 200 on the number one seed stealing both games on their floor before you go back to Indiana where you’re excellent at home. Man, the Cavaliers have to be just reeling right now. You can’t do anything about the injuries, but you lose game one, that’s one thing. You lose game two, now all of a sudden your series and your season is on the brink here. Yeah, you talk about Tyrese Hallebert and he had eight points going into the fourth quarter. You mentioned those 11 there in the fourth, but then you also talked about Donovan Mitchell in pregame. We said it. He had to have a spectacular night and he did just that. 48 points on 15 of 30 shooting, putting this team on his back despite being without a number of pieces. And I know John, you talked about a little bit, but Bill, what did you just make of just this performance that we saw out of Mitchell despite this ending in a loss yet again? Yeah, I mean this is unfair for Donovan Mitchell and the reality is life is unfair and Cleveland and certainly Donovan Mitchell are learning that lesson. John and I talked about this a lot. I thought it was a a worthy question. I don’t think there was an answer. A worthy question. How could Donovan Mitchell play? Could he put a team on his back? What is he? Was he capable of making sure that this number one seed didn’t go by the wayside in the second round? He’s never made it past this point in the playoffs in his career. and he wasn’t aided by the fact that he does not have the defensive player of the year or his backcourt partner or a guy off the bench in DeAndre Hunter who’s a really important piece of this team and it didn’t matter. That’s one of the better playoff performances you’re going to see in a loss. And what’s amazing is it really was a a contest at the end of the game in the fourth quarter between the greatness of Donovan Mitchell and the greatness of Tyres Hallebertton because we’re talking about Hallebertton’s 11 fourth quarter points and we should be John’s right. We’re all right. I mean that dagger at the end is literally the gamewinner. Mitchell had 12 points in the fourth quarter and it was just it was one of those things where he Donovan Mitchell did not get enough help. I guess we got the Max Struce game. I was prepared to come on here and do the haha. We got them we got the the inevitable Max game but the fact is that Donovan Mitchell got to the rim, played a physical basketball game. He hit shots, put the team on his back, scored almost every step of the way. Had those points, scored in the fourth quarter. This is just a case in point where his team where his team’s defense where the other guys and I know they were missing key players. They’re missing three key players, but someone else, I guess, other than Max Shre needed to step up, box out, get a rebound. And it’s just a reminder that in the NBA, and maybe guys, especially today, just how much parody is and how many good teams there are. And we’ve talked about this in the West, it’s true in the East, too. You cannot play with your food. You cannot allow teams to have life when you have a chance to win one of these games. because we have seen time after time after time in this postseason. If you do that, you’re you can get your heart broken. They did. They got their heart broken. I mean, Donovan Mitchell has to be beside himself right now. Look, you’re missing two of your five starters, right? Plus DeAndre Hunter off the bench. Everybody knew, everybody in that building, everybody watching at home, all of us right now knew that it was going to be Donovan Mitchell was going to have to have a big game. And and for him to do that, to do it knowing that the Pacers were going to throw everything at him and key on him, I think makes the effort all the more special and all that much more deflating that he goes for 48 points and nine rebounds and forced. He was everywhere. He didn’t shoot that well from distance. But that’s okay because unlike Bill and I were talking about Jason Tatum in last night’s game, how Jason Tatum kept settling for three after three after three, including late in the fourth quarter when he put up a step back 25 footer. Donovan Mitchell was one for seven, I believe, from three. But instead of just settling for that, he got to the line 21 times tonight. He said, “Okay, my my shots not falling. I’m going to beat people off the dribble.” And he did. And then if you can’t stop me off the dribble, I’m going to make a ton of free throws. And he did. Yeah, they got the Max Drew game. He stepped up a little bit. I thought Jared Allen was really good. Sam Merrill had a step forward. He had 14 points off the bench. All that was to the good for the Cavs. But to waste that Donovan Mitchell effort on a night where he did everything and more that you could have asked for, I just don’t know how they recover from this. I mean, on top of also having those injuries, right? You don’t know when those guys are going to be back in this series. That is a really difficult thing to recover from. There’s a mental aspect to this here, not just the the basketball and the strategy that they’ve got to recover for for game three going to Indiana where again Indiana’s fantastic in their building. But to have that effort and waste it, that’s really difficult. John, you talk about wasting his effort, and this is just coming off of a game two days ago where Donovan Mitchell broke Michael Jordan’s record with his 30-point performance. He follows up putting the team on his back, putting up a 48 point performance. And now you mentioned it, John, Pacers are excellent at home. Now you have this Cleveland team down 02 now going on the road. John, just this is was a one seed in the East. What is at stake for Cleveland where we stand heading into game three now? I mean, everything their entire season, right? Because they had a fantastic year. I was one of the people that said, “Hey, I’m a believer in the Cavs. Forget about this is a they’re on a glide path to facing the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.” The But Bill, my podcast partner, our NBA insider, was on the Pacers from pretty early on. I mean, after January 1, the Pacers were fantastic. There were only three teams in the NBA who had a better record than them. One was the Cavaliers, the other was Oklahoma City, and then of course the Celtics. The Pacers are a really good basketball team. But if you’re the Cavaliers, you’re the best team in the Eastern Conference all season long. All season long. You had the number one offense in the NBA. You were a top 10 defense in the NBA. Look, the the injuries are a huge bummer here. There’s nothing you can do about losing two of your five starters and then one of your critical bench pieces. But if this goes the way that it looks like it’s going right now and they crash out in the second round and they don’t have the meeting that we thought was inevitable with the Boston Celtics, the defending champions for a chance to win the Eastern Conference and go to the finals, this is a disaster for the Cleveland Cavaliers. They went from having a really excellent season to all of a sudden going, “Man, now what?” Because nothing’s assured for next year. Last year, nobody thought that they were going to be the number one team in the Eastern Conference. And who knows what’s going to happen next year with another year of of Boston and, you know, pieces moving around and trades and, you know, ascending teams like potentially the Pistons or, you know, I’m not even going to mention the team in Philadelphia uh potentially getting healthy. All I’m saying is nothing is assured. Nothing is assured in the Eastern Conference. I’m just thinking out loud here, Bill. I wanted better things for the Cleveland I just wanted better things for the Cleveland Cavaliers. And now all of a sudden it looks like, you know, this is super cringey for them. This is a bummer. Yeah, absolutely. And John, I was waiting for you to talk about that team in Philly, but you decided to leave that one alone. That was a smart move right there. But Bill, now Indiana minus 184 favorites to win this series. And look, it’s not over. This is game two. The way they performed even being without three of their key players. I mean, I think it does say a lot for this Cleveland team because we’re a rebound away from this being a completely different story that we’re talking about right now. But Bill, how do you see this this series now? Now that we know the odds and we know what we know from game one and game two, how do you see this playing out? Going very well for the Pacers. Look, it’s not over, but it will really test the metal of this of this CL. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Please go now. Heat. Heat. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. [Music] Get down. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Daddy, thank you. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hello there. Bye-bye. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Hello. Heat. Hey, speech speech. [Music] Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. [Music] Your name. Heat. Heat. Heat up here. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music]

“Cavaliers really CHOKED!” – ESPN goes crazy to Pacers spoil Donovan Mitchell’s 48-Pts perform, beat Cavs 120-119 in Game 2