In Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Indiana Pacers, with just 57.1 seconds remaining, Donovan Mitchell sank back-to-back free throws, giving the Cavaliers a 119-112 lead. With these shots, he reached 48 points in what appeared to be his most significant performance as a Cavalier.
Before this game, only two teams in the play-by-play era had ever lost a playoff game after leading by seven or more points in the final minute. After those free throws, Mitchell might have felt confident. He seemed to have done it. With Evan Mobley, Darius Garland, and De`Andre Hunter out, he had nearly single-handedly tied the series 1-1, becoming the first Cavalier other than LeBron James to register 40 points and four steals in a playoff game. The comparison felt appropriate; just as James had often carried shorthanded Cavaliers teams, his successor as the franchise`s star seemed poised to do the same.
Then, everything went wrong.
Mitchell is having the best season for a Cavalier not named James, but like most NBA players, he lacks LeBron`s exceptional stamina and endurance. In that final minute, Mitchell was visibly exhausted. The Cavaliers, as a team, seemed to follow their leader`s fatigue. The result was one of the wildest 8-0 runs to end a playoff game you`ll ever witness, culminating in Tyrese Haliburton hitting a game-winning three-pointer, the Pacers stunning the crowd, and taking a 2-0 series lead against Cleveland.
So, what happened here? How did the Cavaliers allow this game to slip away? In the final 57.1 seconds, six crucial errors ultimately led to Cleveland`s downfall. Let`s examine the first, and arguably the most impactful.
Mistake No. 1: Nesmith`s powerful putback dunk
With 48 seconds remaining, Jarrett Allen fouled Pascal Siakam, who missed both free throws. However, on the second miss, Aaron Nesmith aggressively charged into the paint and threw down a powerful putback dunk. Note his starting position on the play. He was matched up against a tired Mitchell, who offered little resistance as Nesmith drove to the rim. Caught trying to defend from behind, Mitchell bore the impact of the dunk and ended up on the floor in pain.
Officials reviewed the dunk for offensive interference, which should have given the Cavaliers a much-needed moment to regroup. Instead, they immediately committed the second error on the ensuing inbound pass.
Mistake No. 2: Mitchell`s offensive foul
Mitchell, struggling to escape the physical defense of Nesmith, managed to corral the inbound pass but found himself trapped on the sideline with Tyrese Haliburton seemingly closing in for a double-team. Rather than attempting to change direction and get out of the corner before Haliburton arrived, Mitchell tried to move the ball to his right side, apparently attempting to dribble along the sideline to get across half-court. As he did so, he elbowed Nesmith in the face, resulting in an offensive foul.
This foul was significant for the Pacers for two reasons. First, it simply gave them possession back. Second, and ultimately more critical, it prompted Kenny Atkinson to substitute Mitchell out of the game for defensive purposes. This initiated a chain of events that ultimately secured Indiana`s victory, but more on that shortly. For now, the Pacers had the ball.
Mistake No. 3: The un-corralled rebound
Haliburton drove into the lane, but his shot was blocked by Allen. However, despite three Cavaliers players being in the vicinity, none could gain control of the ball before it rolled out of bounds. This allowed the Pacers to retain possession.
No coach in the NBA is arguably better at designing late-game inbounds plays than Rick Carlisle. Andrew Nembhard served as Indiana`s inbounder, while the other four Pacers players initially lined up just inside the three-point line. Nesmith made the first cut towards the right corner, and then, hopefully drawing defensive attention, Haliburton broke away to receive the inbound pass. After making the pass, Nembhard curled back around the remaining screeners, positioning himself at the top of the arc with Max Strus behind him.
This put Allen in a difficult defensive bind. He was initially guarding Siakam, but if he didn`t rotate to help, Nembhard would have a clear path to the basket with only Sam Merrill, a weaker defender, available for help. However, if he did help, Nesmith would be left open in the corner, where he shot 47.2% on three-pointers this season. Allen made the correct decision to rotate into help position, but the Pacers anticipated this. Nembhard dribbled back towards the middle of the floor and passed to a wide-open Siakam. This caused panic for Cleveland. Allen initially moved to contest Siakam, seeing that Dean Wade was also doing so, leaving Myles Turner alone in the corner. Allen then quickly switched over to Turner, which left the rim unprotected for Siakam, who capitalized on Wade`s overcommitment on the closeout.
Mistake No. 4: The costly turnover
This is where Atkinson`s decision to remove Mitchell for defense had repercussions. Now that Cleveland had regained possession, he had to use a timeout to get Mitchell back onto the floor. This was Cleveland`s final timeout, a fact that would become important later. The timeout at least advanced the ball, but Atkinson`s inbound play was not nearly as effective as Carlisle`s.
The basic design was for Cleveland`s two guards, Mitchell and Ty Jerome, to set screens for the two bigger Cavaliers on the court, Allen and Merrill. Had the Pacers switched those screens, as is common in late-game inbound situations, both Jerome and Mitchell might have found space against slower defenders. But the Pacers did not switch, forcing Mitchell and Jerome to try and beat their original defenders. Mitchell, still visibly tired, couldn`t break free from Nesmith. Jerome also couldn`t shake Nembhard. With the five-second inbound count rapidly expiring, Max Strus was forced to simply loft the ball up and hope for the best. Nembhard intercepted it.
Mistake No. 5: Haliburton secures his own missed free throw
With 12.1 seconds remaining, Jerome fouled Haliburton, sending him to the free-throw line. He made the first shot but missed the second. Observe what happened on the miss. Rather than being positioned behind the arc, Mitchell was on the left block, behind Allen and Turner. With his last burst of energy, Mitchell tried to slide between the two big men to high-point the rebound. In the process, Allen got sandwiched between Mitchell and Turner, making him a fraction slow to jump himself. This allowed Turner to bat the ball out.
Jerome witnessed this sequence unfold. He was initially tasked with boxing out the shooter, Haliburton, but he froze, expecting to secure the rebound after Turner`s tip. This provided Haliburton a split-second opportunity to slip into the open space between Jerome and the scrambling combination of Nesmith and Strus. It`s unclear if Turner saw this, but he batted the ball slightly to the right instead of clearing it further away, as is typically preferred on free throws. This placed Haliburton in position to grab the ball. He dribbled it back out and saw that Jerome was guarding him. This was key. The Pacers might have called a timeout if any other player had the ball against a different defender. But their best player had a favorable mismatch, so Carlisle allowed the play to continue. Haliburton drew Jerome one step too far inside the arc, stepped back, and drilled the game-winner over the mismatch.
Mistake No. 6: Being out of timeouts
This is the point where the decision to remove Mitchell for defense ultimately sealed the Cavaliers` fate. Haliburton`s game-winner went in with one second remaining on the clock. Had Cleveland possessed a timeout, that would have been ample time to inbound the ball and attempt a shot. However, they had no way to advance the ball. This meant Cleveland needed to go the full length of the court in a single second. Naturally, they couldn`t, and Indiana walked away with the victory.
If the Cavaliers do indeed lose this series, as the odds now suggest is likely, they will look back on this game with regret throughout the summer. Cleveland spent the entire season managing Mitchell`s workload. He played a career-low 31.4 minutes per game this season partly because the Cavaliers had sufficient depth that they rarely needed more from him. But on this particular night, with three key teammates sidelined, he was required to carry the entire offensive load whenever he was on the floor. This exertion took its toll. The Cavaliers won Mitchell`s minutes by 13 points in Game 2. However, Atkinson left him on the floor for 36 minutes.
This level of playing time is highly unusual for a team`s primary scorer in a crucial playoff game. For context, Jalen Brunson of the Knicks hasn`t played less than 36 minutes in any playoff game this season, even the one where he got injured. For the most part, players of Mitchell`s caliber are playing 40 or more minutes at this stage of the postseason. Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, for instance, believes that giving his best players significant minutes in the regular season conditions them to handle bigger workloads in the playoffs.
Atkinson adopted the opposite strategy throughout the season, which likely contributed to a “workload shock” for Mitchell when Garland and Mobley were unavailable. He attempted 30 field goals and 21 free throws in Game 2, both season-highs. This meant that by the 57.1-second mark of the fourth quarter, he was completely depleted. A player accustomed to playing 31 or 32 minutes had just completed 35 much more demanding ones as his team`s only remaining All-Star.
He simply couldn`t carry them across the finish line. And he was playing against an opponent that had already proven capable of miracles (the Pacers won Game 5 of their first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks in similar fashion last week). This was, in that regard, a perfect storm: on one side, an undermanned team pushing its best player to his absolute limit; on the other, a team with a recent history of pulling off improbable victories. Combine the two, and you get one of the most stunning playoff collapses in recent memory.
Jasper Hawthorne