Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus sound off on mental battle as Cavs open playoffs

With days to go until they open the NBA Playoffs against the Orlando Magic, the Cleveland Cavaliers returned to work to put on the finishing touches of their master plan to stop their opponent.

Granted, a lot of that plan probably hinges on whether Donovan Mitchell, who has been dealing with a bothersome knee injury, is available to carry the load on some offensive possessions. But when Mitchell spoke with the media as practice concluded on Wednesday, he seemed energized and focused, albeit a bit impatient waiting for the postseason to start. He also wanted to shut down any remaining concerns regarding his knee.

“I’m one hundred percent,” Mitchell said when asked to quantify how his knee felt. “I’m good. I’m ready to go.”

Cavs, Donovan Mitchell ready to kick butt and chew bubble gum, and he’s all out of gum

Mitchell is now six weeks removed from a platelet-rich plasma injection on his knee and has recently shown flashes of being his old self on the court. With his on-court performance looking more like it was supposed to, coupled with the planned rest by Cleveland’s coaching staff, Mitchell’s confidence in himself and his knee couldn’t be better.

“It comes with the territory,” Mitchell said. “I think that is just expected of me. I think that’s who I am to myself, who everybody’s expecting me to be.”

While basketball itself is a physical game, believing in himself and his body is key to Mitchell guiding the Cavs to victory in the postseason. The mental field of battle sharpens and intensifies during the playoffs and if a player doesn’t believe in himself or his teammates and coaches, they’ve already lost. That’s why for players like Mitchell and Max Strus, their focus has been intense leading up to their Game 1 battle with the Magic.

“Playoff basketball is special,” Strus said. “There’s nothing like it. Every possession matters. Not that it doesn’t during the regular season, it’s just heightened a little bit more. That’s what you live for as an NBA player, is to compete at a level like this and play in big games. I hope my experience and my knowledge can help us make a long playoff run. I’ve been through a lot. I’ve seen a lot and experienced a lot. I hope I can keep mental strength in the room and just try to help this team conquer our goals of advancing and making a long playoff run.

“Game 1 is going to tell a lot and we’ll just be ready to play and give it our best.”

As difficult as things have been for the Cavs, especially with the injuries they’ve dealt with all year, their confidence in themselves has never wavered. Even at their lowest points in the season, Cleveland stuck together, and now that they’re entering territory where every game matters most, having gone through those trials and tribulations has only made the Cavs intangibly stronger.

“I think anytime you go through adversity it’s preparing you for something, whether we know it in the moment or not,” Mitchell shared. “I think going through what we went through, guys being out, guys having to step up in different instances, we’ve been able to see what 1 through 15 can do for our roster. The ways we can play, what ways we don’t want to play, how we want to be able to guard guys in different positions, I think it’s definitely helped for sure.

“I think we all believe in ourselves. We always have a chip on our shoulder, regardless of whether it’s the one seed, the ten seed, or whatever.

“This is where we expected to be and now we’ve got to go out there and handle business.”