CLEVELAND (AP) — Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers broke one of Michael Jordan's NBA playoff records on Sunday night.
The All-Star guard would rather be one victory closer to a championship.
Mitchell finished with 33 points in the Cavs’ 121-112 loss to the Indiana Pacers, his eighth straight game with at least 30 points in a series opener.
Jordan had two seven-game streaks of 30 points in Game 1s (from 1991 to 1993 and 1997 to 1998) while leading the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles.
“Jordan won Game 1. I didn’t,” Mitchell said. “It’s always great to be in great company. But man, we lost. I shot 30 times. I always try to be aggressive to start a series.”
Jordan was 6-1 during both of his streaks in Game 1. Mitchell is 4-4, including 2-3 in series openers with Cleveland since coming over in a trade from Utah in September 2022.
Mitchell helped Cleveland rally in the third quarter after it fell behind by 12 points. He scored nine during a 20-4 run that put the Cavs up 88-84.
Cleveland led midway through the fourth quarter, but couldn't close it out.
Mitchell set the mark with a layup that gave him 31 points with 4:50 left in the game and got the Cavs within 107-104. But Andrew Nembhard buried a 3-pointer on Indiana's ensuing trip.
Mitchell was 13 of 30 from the field, but made only one of his 11 3-point attempts. The Cavs made just 23.7% from beyond the arc (9 of 38) in one of their worst-shooting games of the season.
“We missed open looks. But I'm not going to sit here and say, ‘Oh, if we make shots, we win games.’ We’ve got to find a way to still win this game, even though we don’t make shots. And ultimately, we didn’t do that tonight. Just be ready for Game 2," Mitchell said.
Mitchell's streak began with the Utah Jazz during the 2020 playoffs — held at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, during the COVID-19 pandemic — when he scored 57 points against the Denver Nuggets. That remains a Jazz playoff record and the third-highest-scoring performance in NBA postseason history.
Mitchell is averaging 33.2 points in series openers, second-highest in NBA history for a player who has taken part in at least 10 postseason series. His playoff average of 27.9 points is seventh-best among players with at least 50 games.
“We’re fortunate because he missed a lot of ones he’s usually going to make,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “It’s just one game.”
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
Joe Reedy, The Associated Press
