Bench bunch help Cavaliers shake gorilla off their back | Jeff Schudel

Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff likes to talk about “moments.”

Who among the Cavs will rise in the biggest moments of a game? We already know one answer to that question: Donovan Mitchell. Mitchell was his typical self in Game 7 against the Orlando Magic on May 5 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. He helped turn a 53-43 halftime deficit into a 75-68 lead by scoring 17 points in the third quarter. He finished with 39.

But the Cavaliers got the gorilla off their backs by winning a playoff series without LeBron James for the first time in more than 30 years because, unlike Game 6 when Mitchell was a one-man show with 50 points in a 103-96 loss, the Cavs eliminated the pesky Magic, 106-94, because players that were practically invisible in the first six games came to life in the most important game of the season — so far.

“We never doubted each other,” Coach J.B. Bickerstaff said Sunday after the #Cavaliers clawed back from an 18-point deficit in the second quarter to eliminate the #Magic, 106-94, in Game 7. pic.twitter.com/yWpryJ1Uhh

— Jeff Schudel (@jsproinsider) May 5, 2024

“We want Boston…We want Boston,” the sold-out FieldHouse crowd of 19,432 began chanting with Mitchell at the free throw line with 1:51 remaining and the Cavs up, 97-87. Mitchell made both free throws to expand the lead. Some of those same customers were booing when the Cavs fell behind by 18 points in the second quarter but fans, like NFL cornerbacks, are blessed with short memories.

“Big shout out to the fans, man,” Mitchell said in his postgame news conference. “At the end of the day there’s pressure. There’s all that,  I’m never going to lose the kid in me, regardless of what happened. We could have been down 3-0. I’m never going to lose that because at the end of the day, this is why I work so hard. I enjoy what I do. But the fans, man, were incredible.”

The Cavaliers knocked out the Magic by winning all four games played at the FieldHouse. They will not have home-court advantage when they play the Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals. That series begins at 7 p.m. May 7 in TD Garden in Boston.

The Cavaliers bench combined for only 10 points in the Game 6 loss. Caris LeVert alone had 10 in a sub role by halftime in the series clincher. He finished with 15 points, five defensive rebounds, four assists, a steal and a blocked shot.

“I feel like our bench has been getting outplayed all series and it was going to come down to us,” Levert said after the game. “So myself, Sam, TT, we tried to do as much as we could.”

Tristan Thompson grabbed four rebounds and had two assists in seven minutes. Sam Merrill went scoreless in two minutes in the first quarter, but he re-entered the game with 7:20 left in the second quarter and less than a minute later drained a wide-open 3-pointer to cut the Orlando lead to 39-25.

The basket was a Sam Merrill special. The Cavs were 0-for-9 from long range until Merrill connected. He hit one more before halftime as the Cavs moved within striking distance, 53-43, at intermission. Merrill sparked the crowd and his teammates.

“We knew somebody was going to have to step up, and it was really Caris,” Darius Garland said. “Caris came in and had a really big spark. Sam came in and made a couple trey balls for us, so I knew when he made one of ’em, I knew the game was going to just turn around.”

The Cavaliers collectively are saying the mission isn’t over, that they are not content with winning just one playoff series. But after being eliminated by the Knicks in the first round last year, and being down by 18 points in the second quarter of Game 7, there was also a collective sigh of relief, even if it was only temporary.

“It’s definitely a special moment for this group in particular who’s been through so much this year, a group that’s been left for dead multiple times by a lot of people,” Bickerstaff said when asked if this was the most gratifying win of his coaching career. “For them to come together in this moment and figure it out, it’s more about the group than it is me, and I think we’re most proud of that.”

It is the first series win for the Cavaliers without James since they beat the New Jersey Nets in five games in 1993. The only current Cavaliers who were born 31 years ago were Thompson and Marcus Morris.