Donovan Mitchell Dominates as Cavaliers Rout Pistons to Advance to the Eastern Conference Finals
Donovan Mitchell scored a game-high 26 points, dished for a game-high eight assists, grabbed six rebounds, and did not commit a turnover while leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 125-94 rout of the Detroit Pistons in Detroit in game seven of the second round. Three other Cavaliers scored at least 20 points each: Jarrett Allen had 23 points and seven rebounds after posting 22 points and 19 rebounds in Cleveland's game seven win versus Toronto in the first round, Sam Merrill added 23 points off of the bench while shooting 5-8 from three point range, and Evan Mobley contributed 21 points, a game-high 12 rebounds, and six assists.
The Cavaliers shot 43-85 from the field (.506) while holding the Pistons to 30-85 field goal shooting (.353), and the Cavaliers dominated the Pistons in points in the paint (58-34) and rebounding (50-41). The Cavaliers will travel to New York for the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals, with game one tipping off on Tuesday night.
The Pistons led 3-2 at the 11:14 mark of the first quarter, and then it was all downhill for the home team after that moment. The Cavaliers outscored the Pistons 31-22 in the first quarter, capped off by Mitchell banking in a buzzer beating 38 foot three pointer. The Cavaliers extended the lead to 20 points in the second quarter, enjoyed a 64-47 halftime advantage, and led by double figures the rest of the way, pushing the margin as high as 35 points in the second half. Allen and Merrill paced the Cavaliers with 15 first half points each before Mitchell put the game out of reach by exploding for 15 third quarter points.
After winning just 14 games in 2023-24, the Pistons climbed to 44 wins last season, and then had an East-leading 60 wins this season, establishing themselves as an elite defensive team that relied heavily on Cade Cunningham to score (23.9 ppg in the regular season, 28.1 ppg during the playoffs) and to create scoring opportunities for his teammates (9.9 apg in the regular season, 7.5 apg during the playoffs). In game seven, the Pistons' vaunted defense collapsed under the pressure of Mitchell's drives, Merrill's three point shooting, and dives to the hoop by Allen and Mobley. Cunningham authored the lowest scoring game of his brief playoff career (13 points on 5-16 field goal shooting), tying Duncan Robinson for second on the team behind Daniss Jenkins' 17 points. Cunningham was leading the playoffs in scoring (29.3 ppg) before disappearing in game seven (last night's performance dropped him to second place behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander), but he also committed a league-worst 79 turnovers in 14 playoff games (5.6 tpg). For the Pistons to make deeper playoff runs, Cunningham must be more efficient offensively but he also needs more help. Jalen Duren earned his first All-Star selection this season, but he was a non-factor during most of this series, and he mustered just seven points along with nine rebounds in game seven after averaging 19.5 ppg and 10.5 rpg during the regular season. Duren averaged 10.2 ppg and 8.5 rpg in the playoffs.
You may have noticed a very prominent name that is missing so far in this game recap--and that name is missing because he was missing in action during game seven: James Harden lived up to his deserved reputation for disappearing when his team faces elimination, scoring just nine points on 2-10 field goal shooting. After the Cavaliers traded Darius Garland for James Harden, I predicted, "I can write the template for the Cavaliers' 2026 elimination game loss now, and after the game I can fill in the blanks around the words 'James Harden disappeared' and 'James Harden scored just xxx second half points.'" The Cavaliers have not been eliminated from the 2026 playoffs, but they advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals despite Harden, not because of him, and in this game seven James Harden disappeared and James Harden scored just three second half points on 1-6 field goal shooting. If Harden had not been carried by Mitchell, Allen, Mobley, and Merrill then this would have been yet another winnable elimination game that Harden's team lost because Harden's performance fell well short of reasonable expectations. Channeling the late Denny Green, Harden is who I thought he was, but the Pistons let him (and the Cavaliers) off the hook. The best thing that can be said about Harden's game seven performance is that he only had one turnover, but the main reason for that is that the Cavaliers wisely took the ball out of his hands and put the ball into Mitchell's more capable hands.
It is surprising that neither the Amazon Prime crew nor ESPN's SportsCenter anchors even mentioned in passing that Harden--selected as a member of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team and acquired by the Cavaliers because he was expected to help the team advance past the second round en route to winning the NBA title--played so poorly in the Cavaliers' most important game of the season thus far. Would Kobe Bryant or Russell Westbrook have escaped condemnation for a 2-10 game seven shooting performance if their teams had won despite them and not because of them? The answer to that rhetorical question is obvious, and speaks volumes about the narratives that dominate media-driven conversations not just about sports but about many topics.
After Harden fled Oklahoma City in 2012 because he did not want to be the Thunder's third option behind Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, I declared, "Harden is a very good player but all of his weaknesses will be exposed in Houston if the Rockets expect him to be a franchise player. Harden is not an All-NBA First or Second Team caliber player. He is not someone who can draw double teams over the course of an 82 game season and then carry a team deep into the playoffs as the number one option. He is not Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant or LeBron James." Although Harden subsequently accumulated a bunch of regular season honors--including multiple All-NBA selections and even one regular season MVP--my assessment of his inability to lead a team to a championship as the number one option proved to be right on target, and his performances during the 2026 playoffs emphasize that point: the Cavaliers survived game seven versus the Toronto Raptors in the first round even though Harden managed just 18 points on 3-9 field goal shooting, and then they routed the Pistons in this game seven despite Harden not making a meaningful contribution. You might think, "Who cares as long as the team is winning?"--but the potential problem for the Cavaliers if they don't win two more playoff series this year is that they gave up young All-Star Darius Garland to overpay old All-Star Harden, so if this all-in move does not result in winning a title then the Cavaliers lack the financial flexibility needed to improve the roster. The Cavaliers had the league's highest payroll in 2025-26, topping the Knicks by nearly $6 million.
Harden's resume in elimination games since leaving Oklahoma City includes a 5-13 team record, 21.4 ppg on .385 field goal shooting, and 4.67 tpg. Two of those five wins are with this year's Cavaliers, and Harden's numbers in those two wins are 13.5 ppg on 5-19 field goal shooting (.263) with three turnovers. Harden has become less of a turnover machine in elimination games since 2022, but that can be attributed to him not handling the ball as much in those games.
Don't fall for the hype that Harden used to be a great playoff performer but now his numbers are going down because he is getting older. Harden averaged 29.2 ppg and a league-leading/career-high 11.2 apg in the 2016-17 regular season, but he had just 10 points on 2-11 field goal shooting with six turnovers as his Houston Rockets lost to the San Antonio Spurs 114-75 in game six of the second round. Recently, Sirius XM NBA Radio host Amin Elhassan--who loves to take potshots at all-time greats Bob Cousy and Russell Westbrook--defended Harden's playoff career by asserting that Harden is never given credit for having notched 11 40-point games in the postseason. That comment misses the larger point: no one is suggesting that Harden is incapable of playing well in the playoffs or that he has never played well in some playoff games; the problem--irrefutably shown by the numbers cited above--is that when Harden's team needs him most he often disappears and his team loses the vast majority of those games. The fact that two of Harden's five career elimination game wins happened this season with Harden in a secondary (or lower) role behind Mitchell just reinforces the main point that I have been hammering home about Harden for 14 years: Harden is a talented player whose game and mentality are not well-suited for being the number one option on a championship contending team.
Despite Harden disappearing in game seven, the Cavaliers have reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2018, which was LeBron James' last season with the team. This is a significant accomplishment for Mitchell--who has made the playoffs in each of his nine NBA seasons but had never advanced past the second round until now--and for the big man tandem of Mobley (2025 All-Star and Defensive Player of the Year) and Allen (2022 All-Star) as the franchise tries to move out from James' shadow.
Labels: Cade Cunningham, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Jalen Durden, James Harden, Jarrett Allen
posted by David Friedman @ 8:45 AM
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