Cavaliers Star Donovan Mitchell Places Blame After Knicks Sweep

The Cleveland Cavaliers held a 22-point lead over the New York Knicks with just under 8 minutes left to go in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals before suffering an embarrassing overtime loss.

Three games later the series was over after the Knicks swept Cleveland in four games with a dominant 130-93 victory to win the series. After the sweep, Mitchell faulted the Cavaliers for their lack of execution and while he admitted the Knicks played well, the blame ultimately lies with Cleveland for how it played.

“We did this to ourselves,” Mitchell said. “That’s not an excuse. [The Knicks] are a hungry team. They beat us, swept us. So, I don’t want to diminish that, but we didn’t give ourselves a chance because we didn’t handle business … you can’t play with your food. We had an opportunity to close both series and give ourselves some rest, and we didn’t.”

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Mitchell led the Cavaliers in scoring in three of the four games, dropping 29 points in Game 1, 26 points in Game 2 and 31 points in the closeout Game 4. Only Evan Mobley managed to outscore Mitchell in Game 3, by just a single point when he finished with 24 to Mitchell’s 23.

New York now awaits the winner of the Western Conference Finals between San Antonio and Oklahoma City, which is tied at two games apiece.

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This story was originally published May 26, 2026 at 11:44 AM.