In his conference finals debut Tuesday night, Donovan Mitchell and the Cavaliers looked like they were poised to steal game one on the road and take a 1-0 lead in the ECF.
However, Jalen Brunson caught fire and Cleveland’s star players disappeared late in what was a catastrophic collapse for the Cavaliers.
Mitchell knocked down a three-point shot at the 8:19 mark in the fourth quarter to give Cleveland a 92-71 lead. It looked like it would be the exclamation point for a dominant team performance, but Brunson and the Knicks had other plans.
Brunson scored 17 of his 38 points in the fourth quarter and overtime to help New York rally for the win and pull off the improbable comeback.
That bucket by Mitchell with 8:19 left in the fourth was his last make of the game, as he would not make another field goal. In the final 13 minutes of the 4th quarter and overtime, Mitchell went 0-for-4 from the field with a turnover, and the Cavaliers lost 115-104 after blowing a 22-point lead.
That brought back some painful Jazz memories...
This wasn’t the first time a Mitchell-led team had this type of let down in a playoff game. Tony Jones of The Athletic pointed out that he had, “only seen one other playoff collapse that rivals this.”
I’ve only seen one other playoff collapse that rivals this
— Tony Jones (@Tjonesonthenba) May 20, 2026
I covered that game
That other playoff collapse was the Utah Jazz’s Game 6 loss to the Clippers in the 2021 Western Conference Semifinals.
With their backs against the wall, the Jazz came out strong in the first half on the road in Los Angeles, taking a 72-50 lead into halftime with a potential Game 7 at home looming.
Utah would see their lead get as high as 25 before the Clippers began knocking down shots and slowly chipping away at the deficit.
Terrence Mann helped spark a 17-0 run for Los Angeles before the Clippers finally took the lead in the fourth quarter.
With Kawhi Leonard out, Mann stepped up and he did so in a huge way, pouring in 39 points on an efficient 15-for-21 from the field with seven triples.
Mitchell didn’t disappear in the fourth quarter of that game as he did for Cleveland, but the inability of the Jazz to put the Clippers away still falls on the team leader, Mitchell.
Mann's individual run in that game was impressive, but he did that over the course of a half while Brunson turned up his game midway through the fourth quarter to help New York stun the Cavaliers.
It’s a back-breaking loss that could change the course of a series, similar to how the Knicks blew game 1 of the conference finals last year against the Pacers.
Time will tell if this late-game collapse spoils Cleveland's season but this isn't unfamiliar territory for them as they faced a 2-0 series deficit against Detroit last round.
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