Donovan Mitchell: Cavs need to ‘look inward’ after blowing 29-point lead

The Cavaliers had a 29-point lead, a chance to spoil LeBron James’ Philadelphia home debut and what appeared to be a rather comfortable opening-night victory.

Instead, they walked away with a 114-106 loss to the 76ers on Thursday. And Donovan Mitchell wasn’t interested in making excuses.

“They’re a good team but at the end of the day, this loss is on us more so than them,” Mitchell told reporters, via Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. “But ultimately, we didn’t pull out the victory, and that’s tough. That’s not a feeling we want to continue to have. But like I said, looking inward as opposed to outward.”

The Cavs led 35-18 after one quarter and 69-45 at halftime, only to watch Philadelphia storm back behind Tyrese Maxey, who finished with 32 points.

Mitchell matched Maxey with 32 points of his own, but managed just two in the fourth quarter. By then, the Sixers had turned up the defensive pressure and Cleveland struggled to find answers.

“They were pressuring in the second half. Now it’s on us to figure out a solution,” Mitchell said. “So now we see it and we make an adjustment. It’s not cool that we lost. It’s still disappointing. There’s a lesson to be learned. There’s stuff that we can get better at.”

Coach Kenny Atkinson took a similar approach, though he seemed determined to find something encouraging in an otherwise miserable finish.

“It’s one of 82,” Atkinson said. “These are great experiences. This is how you build character, how you build resiliency, how you figure things out. I look at it as a positive. We’ve got a veteran team. We’ll bounce back.”

Atkinson also acknowledged that the Sixers essentially dictated the second half.

“When you have to face adversity like tonight, that second half, it was like a playoff game, playoff atmosphere,” he said. “We did some great things in the first half. We played Cavs basketball. But then they really imposed their will. We resisted. But in the end, we didn’t meet the challenge.”

The Cavs experienced a similar collapse in last season’s Eastern Conference finals, blowing a 22-point fourth-quarter lead against the Knicks in Game 1.

So while Atkinson is correct that this was only one of 82, the Cavaliers have already been reminded of something they spent the entire offseason trying to fix.

And as Mitchell made clear, figuring it out is ultimately on them.