Cavs’ Donovan Mitchell: Just one step closer to our goal

It took a while. Longer than Donovan Mitchell wanted. Longer than the Cavaliers expected.

But it finally happened.

Mitchell delivered 26 points, eight assists and six rebounds as Cleveland rolled past Detroit in Game 7, punching a ticket to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in his career. Afterward, he called it what it felt like.

“A breath of fresh air,” Mitchell told reporters.

You could hear it in his voice. Relief. Maybe even a little disbelief.

“Even last year, when we lost to Indiana, we had our goals set on getting to the Finals,” Mitchell said. “We’re just one step closer. But yeah, it’s been almost a decade of running into the same issue. So for sure, I personally, and as a team, we can breathe a little bit.”

That “same issue” followed him from Utah to Cleveland. Strong regular seasons. Real expectations. Then the wall in the second round.

It nearly showed up again.

The Cavs dropped Game 6 at home. The noise got loud. Questions started creeping in about what changes might come with another early exit. Instead, Cleveland responded with its best performance of the series, taking control early and never letting go.

That part mattered just as much as the result.

“This was the next step for us,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “First day of training camp, I put up the playoff record over the last three years, 11-15. I’ve been saying all year we have a lot to prove.”

They proved something Sunday. Maybe not everything. Not yet.

“We still have more to prove,” Atkinson added. “But we proved something to ourselves, that we could take that another step.”

Next up: The Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals. Game 1 is Tuesday at 8 p.m. The entire series will be carried by ESPN and run every other day. Tipoff is 8 p.m. for all games.