Donovan Mitchell

Donovan Mitchell said it's "comforting" being in Cleveland after dealing with racial issues as a member of the Utah Jazz, per Marc J. Spears of Andscape:

It's no secret there's a lot of stuff that I dealt with being in Utah off the floor. If I'm being honest with you, I never really said this, but it was draining. It was just draining on my energy just because you can't sit in your room and cheer for me and then do all these different things. I'm not saying specifically every fan, but I just feel like it was a lot of things.

Mitchell spent his first five NBA seasons with the Jazz, earning three All-Star selections before an offseason trade to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

He noted that having a larger proportion of "people that look like me" in the crowds at Cavs games is a "blessing" after playing in front of predominantly white crowds in Utah. A census in 2021 estimated the white population in Salt Lake City at 72.5 percent, whereas Cleveland was said to have 47.4 percent Black or African American residents.

"I tried my best to make sure I invite young Black and brown kids to games, to be around the community," he said. "But just to not see us there, it was definitely tough. And being in Cleveland now, you see us courtside. It's just refreshing."

Mitchell said he experienced multiple off-court issues in Utah, including criticism from an Instagram post about Juneteenth and being called out by Utah Senate President Stuart Adams.

"As far as Utah, it became a lot to have to deal with on a nightly basis," Mitchell said. "I got pulled over once. I got an attitude from a cop until I gave him my ID. And that forever made me wonder what happens to the young Black kid in Utah that doesn't have that power to just be like, 'This is who I am.' And that was one of the things for me that I took to heart."

The 26-year-old, who originally hails from New York, has enjoyed his time with the Cavaliers and spending time in the community, noting he has attended a high school game (as he previously did in Utah) in addition to other sporting events.

Mitchell is also thriving on the court, averaging a career-best 29.3 points per game while helping Cleveland start the year with a 21-11 record.

On Jan. 10, he returns to Salt Lake City with the Cavaliers to take on the Jazz. Mitchell said he is "excited" to return: "You're there for five years. You lay roots there as far as relationships you build in the organization and with different people in the community. To come back again and play in front of the crowd will be dope."

Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert have moved on to different teams, and the guard explained there is no lingering hatred between the former Utah Jazz teammates.

"Honestly, basketball just didn't work," he said, per Marc J. Spears of Andscape. "We live in such a world where it has to be really negative. Basketball just didn't work. We didn't see eye to eye. We wanted to both win, but we wanted to do it two different ways. It didn't work. But as far as him and I go as people, I don't hate him, and he doesn't hate me."

Mitchell also said he will hug Gobert when they see each other, adding: "There's no hatred. There's no ill will towards any of that."

Still, there was no shortage of reports about tension between the two star players when they were together with the Jazz. Utah traded Mitchell to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves this past offseason.

The pair played five seasons together and made the playoffs each time. However, the Jazz never made it past the second round during that stretch. It seemed like they finally would in 2020-21 when they finished with the best record in the NBA, but they lost to the short-handed Los Angeles Clippers in the second round.

Mitchell's Cavaliers are 21-11, which is the third-best record in the Eastern Conference.

Perhaps he can make a conference final in his first season without Gobert.

While he enjoyed a good run in his five years with the franchise, Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell doesn't believe his No. 45 jersey should be immortalized by the Utah Jazz.

"I don't think I did enough," he said in an interview with Andscape's Marc J. Spears. "I hold myself to a high standard. Now, other people may feel that it should. I'd be happy and forever grateful, honored and blessed for sure for that to happen. But I don't think I've done enough in five years to have my jersey up there with Karl [Malone], John [Stockton], Pistol Pete [Maravich] and Darrell Griffith. I got a long way in my career to go to continue to be better."

Perhaps Mitchell's career will come full circle and he'll return to Utah one day. Assuming he never plays another game for the Jazz, it's tough to find much wrong with his assessment.

The Jazz enjoyed plenty of regular season success with the partnership of Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, but they never advanced past the Western Conference semifinals. As a result, Mitchell doesn't have the team accolades that could catapult him into the franchise legend tier.

Kawhi Leonard, for example, was only with the Toronto Raptors for one year but could plausibly see his No. 2 jersey hanging in the rafters because he helped lead the Raptors to their first NBA title.

Because of his relatively limited time in Salt Lake City—at least within the context of retiring his jersey—Mitchell doesn't have the counting stats, either. His 8,234 points are eighth all time and he didn't crack the top 10 in assists, games played, total minutes or win shares, per Basketball Reference.

Seven players have had their numbers retired by the Jazz: Adrian Dantley, Pete Maravich, John Stockton, Karl Malone, Jeff Hornacek, Darrell Griffith and Mark Eaton. All seven left bigger legacies in Utah than Mitchell.

Malone and Stockton are the two best players in franchise history.

Hornacek didn't put up big numbers, nor was he ever an All-Star in Utah, but he did play a key role on the teams that reached the 1997 and 1998 NBA Finals.

Dantley was a six-time All-Star with the Jazz and ranks third in points.

Eaton led the NBA in blocks in four seasons and was a two-time Defensive Player of the Year and a five-time All-Defensive honoree.

Griffith and Maravich have the fourth- and seventh-most points among Jazz players, and they would've achieved even more if their careers hadn't been adversely impacted by injuries.

Nobody has assumed the No. 45 jersey since Mitchell's trade to the Cavs, and it might be a while before anyone wears it since it isn't a common number. But it will nonetheless be there for the taking for the foreseeable future.

LeBron James was among the many impressed by Donovan Mitchell in the Cleveland Cavaliers' 116-102 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

"He's Mitchell," James told reporters after the game. "He's a special kid."

The story entering the game was LeBron's return to Cleveland, where he spent 11 of his 20 NBA seasons, but Mitchell stole the show with 43 points on 17-of-27 shooting, adding six rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Mitchell has thrived in his first season with the Cavaliers, ranking seventh in the NBA with an average of 29 points per game while emerging as a legitimate MVP candidate. On one of the biggest stages of the year, he scored a season-high and left his opponent in awe.

James scored 21 points with 17 rebounds in the loss, although he couldn't overcome Anthony Davis missing most of the game because of an illness.

Anthony Davis' MVP-level play made it easy to overlook the other positives in the Los Angeles Lakers' recent run, but Tuesday's 116-102 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers was a reminder not to overthink.

None of the other developments during L.A.'s recently concluded 8-2 surge matter if Davis isn't on the floor and wrecking shop to a historic degree.

AD left Tuesday night's loss with flu-like symptoms in the first quarter and didn't return. Though his teammates scrapped and provided the same support that'd been so quietly helpful during Davis' incendiary stretch, it only served to postpone the inevitable, keeping the competition lively until, appropriately, the Cavs' own transcendent star, Donovan Mitchell, subdued it. He finished with a game-high 43 points, including 17 in a fourth quarter punctuated by shots like this.

The Lakers had no answer, not even from James, who came in with a 17-2 record against his former team and only one loss at Cleveland in his previous nine visits.

It's certainly no grand revelation to say Davis is singularly important to the Lakers' success. That link exists between every team and its best players. It was still illuminating to see Los Angeles get many of the same supporting performances from its much-maligned role players that had quietly buttressed the best stretch of AD's career (our opinion; not his) only to fall short.

In L.A.'s 10 games before Tuesday's loss, Austin Reaves averaged 13.4 points on 60.0 percent shooting from the field and 46.7 percent shooting from deep. Lonnie Walker IV was even more prolific, racking up 17.8 points on a 51.3/46.9/95.5 shooting split. Those two had largely answered questions about the team's shooting and wing play.

Even Russell Westbrook had been helpful. Entering Tuesday night, his worst plus-minus figure across his last nine games was a minus-2, and the Lakers had been break-even or better in Russ' minutes six times during that stretch. For context, Westbrook posted a positive plus-minus figure just twice in his first dozen contests.

James was also stellar in support of Davis during the Lakers' 8-2 run, averaging 28.2 points in the six games he played.

None of that got any attention with AD going full create-a-player, racking up five straight games of at least 25 points and 15 boards to kick things off, beating the Milwaukee Bucks on the road with a cool 44 points and 10 rebounds, pile-driving the Washington Wizards with 55 points on 22-of-30 shooting, stopping a runaway train filled with orphans on his off day and performing various other acts of valor.

That last thing probably didn't happen, but one could argue that dragging the Lakers out of the rubble of their seemingly imploded season comes pretty close in terms of improbable heroism.

That's why what happened against Cleveland matters so much. The Lakers got lots of similarly impressive work from guys way down the call sheet and still couldn't compete.

Thomas Bryant hustled like he was fighting for a job and probably earned one, even if it may only be the modest position of unquestioned backup center ahead of Wenyen Gabriel. He totaled a season-high 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting and was the only player bringing any semblance of interior presence against a Cavs team that amassed 70 paint points.

Westbrook and Dennis Schroder both scored 16 points on matching 6-of-13 shooting nights, with the latter scoring a quick seven points after halftime to trim Cleveland's lead from eight to one in just under two minutes.

James also did what he could when pressed into duty down low against Cleveland's overwhelming length. Though he was visibly frustrated with teammates on occasion, he still managed 21 points and a season-high 17 rebounds in 36 minutes, bringing a level of competitive intensity you don't typically expect from a 37-year-old who knows energy conservation is just a part of his reality now.

James dove to the floor more than once to collect a loose ball and save a possession, and his waning mobility didn't keep him from battling inside.

Davis was sick, not injured. That's the good news, especially for a player who had only missed two games prior to Tuesday night, putting the lie (so far) to criticism of his durability. The result in his absence should still have a significant impact on his team's thinking.

Prior to the loss against Cleveland, it might have been reasonable for the Lakers' front office to conclude the team's recent success was about more than a superstar going on a three-week heater against mostly bad competition. The reserves and non-AD starters were making a real difference.

With this glaring example of how little the "other guys" matter when "the guy" isn't involved, the L.A. brass may have to think even harder about pursuing one of the many trade paths that have been topics of discussion all season.

Reasonable minds can disagree about whether what Davis and the rest of the Lakers have done over the last dozen or so games is enough to rationalize those hypothetical future-mortgaging deals. Maybe such drastic measures are justifiable to maximize the chances of success for the AD-LeBron pairing in the short term. Maybe they're not.

The only certainty is that, despite the Lakers getting vastly improved play from sources other than Davis, he is still the sole determinant of his team's success. That makes the Lakers profoundly fragile.

Maybe that's not the worst thing in the world. Fragility applies to things you're concerned about breaking.

For a Lakers team many would have happily smashed into a thousand pieces not so long ago, the renewed belief that any of this is worth preserving must count for something.

Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Accurate through Dec. 6. Salary info via Spotrac.

Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@gt_hughes), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.

LeBron James may be the franchise icon for the Cleveland Cavaliers, but he played second fiddle to the current star Tuesday.

Donovan Mitchell went into absolute takeover mode in the fourth quarter at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and led the Cavs to a commanding 116-102 victory over James and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Cleveland was up just two at the start of the fourth quarter, but Mitchell poured in 17 points in the final period alone with a combination of three-pointers, drives into the lane and transition opportunities, which left no doubt about the outcome by the end.

Social media had nothing but praise for the three-time All-Star as he drew MVP chants from the crowd and dropped 43 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals:

From the Lakers' perspective, the loss snapped a three-game winning streak and dropped their record to 10-13 overall. They have played better of late in large part because Anthony Davis entered Tuesday's game with 10 straight double-doubles and averages of 34.2 points, 15.4 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game during that stretch.

However, he went to the locker room in the first quarter and was ruled out for the remainder of the contest with flu-like symptoms.

That left the Purple and Gold fighting an uphill battle the rest of the way. James did what he could with a double-double of 21 points and 17 rebounds, while Thomas Bryant played well in Davis' place with 19 points and nine boards.

Still, they had no answer for Mitchell in crunch time as the Cavaliers improved to 16-9 overall and an impressive 11-1 at home.

The Lakers will look to turn things around Wednesday as they continue their road trip against the Toronto Raptors, but it remains to be seen whether Davis will take the court. Mitchell and the Cavaliers remain at home to face the Sacramento Kings on Friday.

Donovan Mitchell might have wanted to play for the Knicks, but he's perfectly happy with where he's at.

Mitchell played in front of a Madison Square Garden crowd on Sunday for the first time since the Knicks' failed pursuit of their hometown star, saying it's nice to play in front of family but he's glad to be a Cavalier.

“I think more so playing in front of my family and friends,” Mitchell told reporters. “What’s done is done, and I’m happy as hell to be where I’m at. At the end of the day, this decision was made and I don’t think I’ve been happier since I’ve been in the league. But I think for me it’s always going to be motivation to come back and play well in my hometown, but you could say that about anybody. But with what happened this summer, it’s over with, it happened and I’m happy to be with the Cavaliers.”

The three-time All-Star finished with 23 points, five assists and four rebounds in Cleveland's 92-81 loss. Mitchell finished with an ugly 8-of-22 shooting line as the Cavs shot just 34.9 percent from the floor.

The Knicks spent the offseason as the overwhelming favorite to land Mitchell in a trade with the Utah Jazz. They ultimately balked as Utah's asking price and Cleveland swooped in to make a shocking blockbuster.

“Who doesn’t want to be home, next to their mom,” Mitchell told reporters in September when asked if he wanted to play for the Knicks. “I haven’t lived at home since I was in the eighth grade and I went to boarding school, so it would have been nice.”

From a basketball perspective, Mitchell's move to the midwest has paid off. The Cavs are 15-9 and sit in third place in the Eastern Conference, while the Knicks are languishing as the No. 10 seed at 11-13.

Jalen Brunson scored 25 points to lead the New York Knicks to a 118-111 road win over the Utah Jazz at Vivint Arena on Tuesday night.

Brunson was the main addition during a Knicks offseason that also included heavily rumored trade talks with the Jazz for Donovan Mitchell, who ended up with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He also tallied eight assists, three rebounds and three steals in Tuesday's victory.

"We stuck together for four quarters," Brunson told reporters. "When they made a run, we just looked at each other and said, 'It's time to tighten it up,' and just kept fighting."

The 26-year-old Villanova product has been the team's most consistent performer during an up-and-down 7-7 start to the 2022-23 NBA season. He's averaged 19.9 points, 6.9 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.3 steals while playing in all 14 games.

Here's a look at some social-media reaction to his latest strong showing against Utah, a team he also fared well against during his time with the Dallas Mavericks:

Brunson was one of six Knicks players to reach double figures in scoring as part of a well-rounded offensive attack. The others were Cam Reddish (19 points), RJ Barrett (18), Julius Randle (15), Immanuel Quickley (13) and Jericho Sims (11).

"I think we just had more of a sense of urgency," Randle said. "Guys came in prepared today and were ready to go. Got a great win."

Kelly Olynyk paced the Jazz with 27 points and 11 rebounds, marking his first double-double performance of the campaign. Lauri Markkanen chipped in 13 points, six boards and four dimes as Utah dropped to 10-6.

This season's second meeting between the teams won't take place until Feb. 11 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The Knicks are right back in action Wednesday night as they continue a five-game road trip with a visit to Ball Arena to take on the Denver Nuggets.