The Cleveland Cavaliers might have left Brooklyn with a nice win over the Nets, but after the game, that’s hardly what anyone was talking about.
Rather, the play of the game came with roughly ten minutes left in the fourth quarter, when Caris LeVert picked off an errant pass, pushed the ball up the court to Donovan Mitchell, who proceeded to, well, see for yourself:
EVERY ANGLE of Donovan Mitchell’s monster dunk tonight 🎬
It was an eyebrow raising slam over Yuta Watanabe. Somewhere, Julius Erving is smiling. Tracy McGrady is beaming.
But Jarrett Allen? He’s seen better.
“That was one of his better ones,” Jarrett Allen said. “It’s funny, we were talking about dunking, Donovan dunking, before the game and he had an excellent one. I give it a 9.7 out of 10,” Allen told Chris Fedor of cleveland.com after the game.
When asked why he couldn’t give the dunk a higher grade, Allen kept it simple.
“I don’t know,” Allen said. “But I’m not a guy that can say it’s perfect.”
#Cavs big man Jarrett Allen joked and said that he would give Donovan Mitchell’s dunk a 9.7/10 since “nothing can be perfect”.
After the dunk, social media erupted with praise for Mitchell’s dunk.
But was it Mitchell’s best dunk of all time? The Cavaliers’ lone All-Star this season weighed in.
Donovan Mitchell Sounds Off on Spectacular Slam Versus Nets
After the game, Mitchell stayed humble about the dunk viewed ’round the world.
“It was not bad,” Mitchell said. “Everybody’s reaction in the timeout, it was like, ‘That’s your best one.’ It’s up there. I don’t know if it’s my best, but it’s definitely up there.”
It’s also worth noting another epic factor of Mitchell’s dunk. While the former Louisville Cardinal is only 6’1, Watanabe stands a full seven inches taller, at 6’8. Though frankly, Watanabe might as well have been a pre-teen’s box jump the way Mitchell soared over him.
The Cavaliers defeated the Nets 109-115 in Brooklyn, a game that could forecast Cleveland’s preferred first-round playoff matchup.
Cavaliers Hoping to Play Nets in First Round
According to Chris Fedor of cleveland.com, the Cavs are hoping to see the Nets in the first round of the playoffs.
“No one inside the organization would say this publicly — and they shouldn’t. But multiple people I’ve spoken to recently are privately hoping for a Brooklyn matchup,” Fedor reported last week.
It makes sense for Cleveland. The Nets have lost some of their sting without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, a piece that Fedor noted.
“Brooklyn was 32-20 at the time it dealt Kyrie Irving — a move that preceded Kevin Durant’s departure. While the Nets haven’t completely imploded since those two megadeals, their organizational ceiling has lowered considerably, and they no longer pose the same challenge in a seven-game series. The last time they looked — and consistently played — like a playoff-caliber team was when Irving and Durant were both there. The Nets are 7-11 over the last month-plus without those two superstars. They also have the most inexperienced coach of the potential first-round foes,” Fedor completed.
The Nets also lack a big man who can hang with the likes of Jarrett Allen or Evan Mobley on the interior, making a matchup with Brooklyn all the more tantalizing for Cleveland.
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Jarrett Allen Takes Jab at Donovan Mitchell Over Dunk After Cavs Beat Nets