Donovan Mitchell deserves some credit for the steely resolve he showed Tuesday night.
Not during the Cavaliers’ epic collapse in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals but during the postgame press conference.
“Don’t let one quarter affect you for the rest of the series,” Mitchell said he told his teammates after the historic loss. “It’s a long series. We should have won the game, but we didn’t. That’s one game, let’s respond for Game 2.”
Mitchell’s words were delivered with such a direct tone that they almost sounded believable. But all losses are not the same.
Yes, the Cavaliers have suffered some tough defeats in these playoffs and managed to bounce back.
There was the Game 4 rock fight in Toronto in which the Cavs held the Raptors to 32 percent shooting from the floor and still lost.
Game 6 against the Raptors ended with an RJ Barrett shot hovering above the rim forever before falling through the hoop to give Toronto a two-point win.
The Cavs were embarrassed by the Pistons in a 21-point loss in their own gym with a chance to close out the conference semifinals in Game 6.
None of those losses measure up to what we saw in Game 1 against the Knicks.
The Cavs entered the Eastern Conference finals as +200 underdogs for a reason. Save for their Game 7 win over an exhausted, offensively challenged Pistons team, they haven’t looked nearly as impressive as the Knicks this postseason.
Game 1 of the conference finals was the sum of all their flaws coming to a head at the worst possible moment. They average 16.9 turnovers in the postseason and have 10 games in the playoffs where they’ve allowed more points off turnovers than their opponent (they are 3-7 in those games).
The Cavs have played 149 more minutes than any other team left in the field, thanks to them playing two seven-game series despite having 3-2 leads in both situations. The fatigue reared its ugly head against the Knicks, and there won’t be any rest for the weary with one off day between games for the remainder of this series.
Tuesday night was Cleveland’s best chance to steal a game from a team that was visibly rusty and didn’t resemble the version of itself that was blowing out teams by 26.4 points per game.
The Knicks had their third-worst 3-point shooting performance of the playoffs, missed 11 free throws and committed 19 turnovers, which were both playoff worsts. Fixing just one of those areas changes the game completely for New York.
Maybe the Cavaliers still can reach a gear that will allow them to push the Knicks deep into this series, but that feels like a stretch. All-time NBA playoff collapses tend to linger, and the Cavs have played with their food this entire playoff run.
The Knicks have the momentum heading into Game 2, and I expect them to come out with much more intensity knowing that they stole a game in their building.
I don’t expect the Knicks to sweep this series, but this shouldn’t go longer than five games after Game 1’s result. Sportsbooks have the series games prop listed at 5.5 (+105), and I like the Under at plus money.
The Pick: Knicks-Cavaliers Under 5.5 (+105, FanDuel Sportsbook)
Malik Smith has been immersed in the sports betting industry since 2017. He’s a data nerd with a particular focus on the NBA and combat sports. He spends his weeknights in the winter looking for edges on plus-money NBA player props.
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