{"id":1927352,"date":"2026-05-10T01:05:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T22:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1927352"},"modified":"2026-05-10T01:05:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T22:05:28","slug":"cavs-pistons-isnt-about-james-harden-heres-why-weve-been-looking-at-it-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1927352","title":{"rendered":"Cavs-Pistons isn\u2019t about James Harden \u2014 here\u2019s why we\u2019ve been looking at it wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CLEVELAND \u2014 Donovan Mitchell wore a nifty tracksuit and tinted glasses in the building, so dark you couldn\u2019t see his eyes.<\/p>\n

Only cool characters wear sunglasses at night (or inside), right?<\/p>\n

Say this about Mitchell and, to a larger degree, his teammates and coaches in Cleveland: There has been no panic during this topsy-turvy 2026 playoffs so far. Blow Game 6 in Toronto and lose on a bouncing ball? No big deal, \u201cprotect home court\u201d with the season on the line in Game 7, as Mitchell said.<\/p>\n

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Lose the first two games of the second round in Detroit, knowing no team in NBA history has come back from a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series? Fine, throw on that tracksuit and shades, pull up to the gym, drop 35 points and grab 10 rebounds, almost with a shrug, as Mitchell did to help the Cavs win Game 3 Saturday, 116-109.<\/p>\n

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But this second-round series with Detroit, while it is asking questions of James Harden and, perhaps, coach Kenny Atkinson, isn\u2019t so much about them as it is about the guy in the tracksuit.<\/p>\n

And maybe beyond that, it\u2019s about a decision the Cavaliers made two years ago.<\/p>\n

See, when JB Bickerstaff was relieved of his duties in Cleveland, after his depleted Cavs team was wiped out of the second round by Boston in five games, there really never was a good answer given for his dismissal. It was hard to explain because, in part, the Cavs had improved every year under his direction. There was tangible progress.<\/p>\n

But it was also tough for president Koby Altman to explain because he couldn\u2019t quite come out and say, \u201cWell, it was either JB or Donovan, and we picked the franchise player.\u201d But that is, essentially, what happened.<\/p>\n

To be clear, and this was already pointed out after Game 1 by my colleague and friend Jason Lloyd, Bickerstaff lost the locker room<\/a>. It was not, by any means, just Mitchell. Out of Cleveland\u2019s current rotation, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, Max Strus, Sam Merrill, and Dean Wade were all in that room, too.<\/p>\n

But Mitchell\u2019s voice inside those walls is unmistakable, and he was among the first to grow frustrated by how Bickerstaff ran the team, treating veterans like younger players who didn\u2019t know any better, by employing a relatively unimaginative offensive scheme, and also by the stress placed on Mitchell to carry the burden on offense.<\/p>\n

Mitchell was due a contract extension two years ago, and he signed it. Last month, he told The Athletic he did it<\/a>, in part, because of the food the Cavs serve (no, really, he did, but he meant it as an example of how far the organization goes to take care of its players). Mitchell may not have barged into Altman\u2019s office and demanded Bickerstaff be let go, but if Mitchell had wanted Bickerstaff to remain as coach \u2014 he probably would have.<\/p>\n

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Again, Mitchell is not alone here in this. Bickerstaff had lost the room (though Caris LeVert, who sat out Cleveland\u2019s Game 5 against Boston with a knee bruise two years ago, seems to be doing just fine with Bickerstaff now on the Pistons), and teams move on from coaches all the time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to criticize Altman for dismissing Bickerstaff, because of the enormous stress small-market teams are under to keep top talent. And it certainly wasn\u2019t Atkinson\u2019s idea to fire Bickerstaff.<\/p>\n

But if the Cavs largely have the same nucleus, and one supposedly significant upgrade in Harden over Darius Garland, and they turn around and lose to Bickerstaff in a second-round series two years later \u2014 wouldn\u2019t that be \u2026 bad?<\/p>\n

The Pistons have a superstar in Cade Cunningham, and their players are massive \u2014 there is so much bulk they can trot out on the floor that Bickerstaff wisely coaches the team to win with defense. Should they prevail, the Pistons would deserve all the credit. But at the same time, it would also mean the players who no longer wanted to play for Bickerstaff, believing he was holding them back, had the best chance to prove they were actually capable of delivering more without him, and didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why this series isn\u2019t really about Harden, even if it has felt like a referendum on him.<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"If<\/p>\n
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\n If you\u2019ve seen \u2018Good\u2019 James Harden, please return him to the Cleveland Cavaliers\n <\/div>\n
\n Harden is usually easy to identify, but he vanished in Game 1. The Cavs, who traded for him in February, need him to show up Thursday night.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Harden had been the goat, in a bad way, in this series, with turnovers and missed shots and lack of shot attempts in the second half of Game 2, so he had a redemption game of sorts on Saturday. He scored nine of his 19 points in the fourth quarter, and scored seven consecutive points for Cleveland in a span of about 60 seconds with less than two minutes left in the game, including a 3-pointer with 25.9 seconds to go for a 113-109 advantage. His three turnovers were a breath of fresh air compared to the coughing fit he\u2019s endured starting with Game 3 of the previous round.<\/p>\n

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Mitchell said he watched Harden bring it home instead of demanding the ball because \u201che\u2019s James Harden, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game calls for something different, and you\u2019ve got to find a way to manipulate it and be selfless,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cAnd I think, as a collective, that\u2019s the biggest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am who I am. he is who he is, but that\u2019s what makes us so dynamic,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n

Harden has a mixed bag of brilliance and failing colossally short over his 17 career playoff runs (33 series). As for Atkinson, expectations were high when the season began \u2014 and they still are \u2014 for the Cavs to go where Bickerstaff did not take them: the Eastern Conference finals and beyond.<\/p>\n

Mitchell has reached the playoffs in each of his nine NBA seasons. The first eight all ended without his team getting past the second round. It was true for the two campaigns when Bickerstaff was his coach in Cleveland, and, last year, it was true with Atkinson.<\/p>\n

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This is a much easier discussion to have now, with the Cavs having won Game 3 and gotten back into this series. Mitchell seems to have found something on offense, he\u2019s had two consecutive games of 30 or more points after averaging just 20.5 points over his previous six playoff games. Mobley and Allen attacked the Pistons\u2019 strength \u2014 interior defense \u2014 with vicious drives and dunks at the rim, even if behemoth Jalen Duren was standing there.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear this series means something more to Bickerstaff, whose clipped answers about his former players in this series say everything that Bickerstaff isn\u2019t saying out loud. He knows why he isn\u2019t coaching in Cleveland anymore, and, while he has moved on and is beyond happy in Detroit (he was just awarded a contract extension), who among us wouldn\u2019t take the chance to prove our own doubters wrong? His will be staring him in the face for the next two to four games.<\/p>\n

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What does it all mean for Mitchell? He is too smart to take that bait. He was asked before Game 1 that very question, about Bickerstaff\u2019s presence with the Pistons elevating this series in Mitchell\u2019s mind, and he said, \u201cwe have a lot of respect for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just got a contract extension, well-deserved, but (his presence) doesn\u2019t add anything to the importance of the series,\u201d Mitchell continued. \u201cWe had our time here in Cleveland. We did amazing things here. We\u2019re trying to continue to do amazing things in Cleveland, so it doesn\u2019t add anything, but we have the utmost respect for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

We aren\u2019t asking the hardest questions right now because Mitchell and Harden and Allen and Mobley were all very strong in a hard-fought win in Game 3.<\/p>\n

They were all very cool at the end while under perhaps even more pressure than we realize.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND \u2014 Donovan Mitchell wore a nifty tracksuit and tinted glasses in the building, so dark you couldn\u2019t see his eyes. Only cool characters wear sunglasses at night (or inside), right? Say this about Mitchell and, to a larger degree, his teammates and coaches in Cleveland: There has been no panic during this topsy-turvy 2026 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1927352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1927352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1927352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1927352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1927352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}