Commentary: Donovan Mitchell gets no help as Cavs fail to close out series

This game showed why the Cavs must do everything in their power to convince Donovan Mitchell to commit long term by signing a max contract. Unfortunately, it's also why Mitchell may "no thanks" his way out of Cleveland. Friday night the Cavs had a chance to eliminate the Orlando Magic and advance in the NBA playoffs. Mitchell scored 50 points. All of the other Cavs combined scored 46. Mitchell dropped 50 on the Magic in Cleveland's 103-96 loss in which no other Cavs showed up. Yes, Darius Garland scored 21 points. But over the last 19 minutes of the game, with Mitchell barely able to drag his injured leg around the court while making baskets and looking in vain for some help, Garland failed to score a single point. In the last 19 minutes of the game it was Mitchell vs. the world. He had virtually no help at all. In 34 minutes Evan Mobley scored three points. In 27 minutes Marcus Morris Sr. scored two points. In 24 minutes Isaac Okoro scored four points. In seven minutes Caris LeVert scored one point. In 42 minutes Mitchell scored 50, on a bad leg. For the Cavs to win he probably needed to score 70. From roughly the middle of the third quarter until the final buzzer, the Cavs' offense consisted of Mitchell, and only Mitchell. With a win Friday, the Cavs would have eliminated the Magic and given themselves a day to recover from that series in preparation of facing the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Instead, the Cavs come home with unfinished business, and more questions about how the non-Mitchell, non-Garland portion of their roster can score enough points to beat the high-flying Magic in Sunday's Game 7. Friday night the Cavs had a chance to move on in the playoffs. But instead they went with their "Let Donovan handle it" offense — and their best player almost did. Another eight points would have done it. But Mitchell would have had to get all eight of them himself, and he was understandably winded from dragging his teammates to, but not quite over, the finish line. Friday's loss starts red lights flashing everywhere in The Land. Starting with the fact that Mitchell has one day to recover from Friday's game so he can score another 50, 60, or who knows how many it will take to finish the job? The Magic's roster is filled with young and feisty competitors who sense that they have the higher seed on the ropes, and will undoubtedly play like it in Sunday's Game 7. For most of Friday's game the Cavs not named Donovan Mitchell looked like they were just treading water, hoping for enough breaks, and/or for Mitchell to spin enough magic to eliminate the Magic. But that didn't happen, and now the Cavs are playing for their playoff lives, hoping to not repeat last year's playoff crash and burn at the hands of the Knicks, who play with the same kind of intensity as Orlando does. For the docile Cavs, it's Game 7, at home, and their best player has a sore knee. Orlando can throw the kitchen sink at Cleveland. The kids from Florida have nothing to lose. Theirs is a franchise clearly in ascension. The Cavs are leaking oil, at the worst possible time. Presumably, or at least hopefully, Jarrett Allen will be available Sunday. If so, he would be a better warrior than the two aging bigs the Cavs rolled out Friday, Morris and Triston Thompson. Through the first six games of this series, the Cavs have at times played like a team waiting for their younger and less-experienced opponents to play like younger and less-experienced opponents. That won't happen (again) Sunday, when the Cavs' inability to eliminate Orlando threatens to come back and haunt them. Game 7s are frequently fraught with sour outcomes for superior teams waiting for their opponents to beat themselves. Sunday against the energized Magic, the Cavs are going to have their hands full with a young team full of itself, secure in the knowledge that it has already beaten Cleveland three times in this series. The Cavs, of course, can say the same thing — at least the part about having beaten their opponents three times in this series. But Friday night's loss by the Cavs — when Mitchell and Garland were the only ones who showed up ready to compete — figures to re-energize the Magic, and in Game 7 it only takes one play, one good break to go your way, in order to eliminate your opponent. The Cavs have painted themselves into a corner. If Mitchell thought he had a lot on his plate Friday, wait until Sunday, the outcome of which may determine not just the winner of the series, but Mitchell's future in Cleveland. Contact Jim Ingraham at jingraham4@gmail.com. Follow him @Jim_Ingraham on X.