Cavs' Donovan Mitchell breaks through, reaching the conference finals for the first time

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Donovan Mitchell is going home after Round 2 of the playoffs again.

This time, it's a good thing.

Mitchell's breakthrough moment has arrived. He's going to the conference finals for the first time in his career. And that series will begin at Madison Square Garden, a bonus for the native New Yorker.

In his ninth season, Mitchell has reached the NBA's final four. He and the Cleveland Cavaliers rolled past the Detroit Pistons 125-94 on Sunday night in Game 7 — on the road, no less — of their Eastern Conference semifinal series. Their reward is a trip to New York for Game 1 of the East finals against the Knicks on Tuesday.

“Me and my fiancee joked that we were going home regardless, so we might as well play some basketball while we’re at the crib,” Mitchell said. “It’s going to be special, for sure.”

Mitchell had 26 points, seven rebounds and eight assists in Sunday's romp. And when his night was over with 4:01 remaining, he had handshakes and hugs for anyone wearing Cleveland colors. He leaned down to wrap his arms around a seated Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson, who said before the game that he wanted Mitchell to be himself in Game 7.

The result?

“It was better than Donovan Mitchell,” Atkinson said. “Is that possible? ... It started with him, his defense, rebounding, and then when he gets in the paint and starts making other people better, you know, the dishes, dish-offs to our big guys, that was the key, I felt like, to the game. He had complete control of the game.”

Mitchell was brought to Cleveland in September 2022 in a trade with Utah, with the Cavaliers betting — correctly, it turned out — that he would be the last piece of their post-LeBron James rebuild and help them return to the playoffs.

They got to the first round in 2023, then lost in the second round in 2024 and 2025. This year, the conference finals await after the third-biggest road win a team has ever had in a Game 7.

“I'll follow him into war,” Cavs forward Jarrett Allen said.

Mitchell has been an All-Star in each of the last seven seasons, was one of eight players to receive at least one vote in this year's MVP balloting and will likely be an All-NBA pick for the third time.

But there was a void — the deep playoff run.

Not anymore.

“Couldn’t be happier for him, to make that next step,” Atkinson said. “He’s going home to New York. He kept this thing together this year when things weren’t going great. He was the beacon, the light ... he carried us on the court.”

Added the Cavs' Sam Merrill, who grew up in Utah and was a Jazz fan when Mitchell was there: “You're not going to find a guy more happy for him than I am. But I know he wants more. We all want more.”

There were so many near-misses for Mitchell along the way. Mitchell's Utah team wasted a 3-1 lead in the 2020 playoff bubble against Denver in the West semifinals, falling in seven games. A year later, the Jazz were up 2-0 in Round 2 against the Los Angeles Clippers, who ended up winning in six. He got hurt in Round 2 against Boston as that series fell apart for Cleveland in 2024, and last year the Cavaliers went 0-3 at home in the second round against Indiana on the way to a five-game ouster.

He was part of a No. 1 seed in 2021, part of a No. 1 seed again last year, and never got out of Round 2.

Until now.

“We can't really look at it and say, ‘All right, we did it, we got to the conference finals,’” Mitchell said. “Hey, man, that's not the end-all. We've still got more to do.”

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