Signing Donovan Mitchell to an extension was crucial to the Cavaliers’ stability, center Jarrett Allen told Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype. Mitchell inked a three-year, maximum-salary extension in July. Cleveland owns the league’s best record, having improved to 17-1 with a win over Toronto on Sunday.
“Donovan is a star. He’s a top-10 player in the league, some would say, and I would say,” Allen said. “Cleveland needs someone like that. Cleveland needs someone to hold onto like that and root for. It got the city excited again knowing that we had one of the best players in the NBA to stick with us. For the Cavs, you can see how it’s helping us now. He’s able to take over games and lead the team to victory.”
We have more from the Central Division:
- If Greece qualifies for Eurobasket 2025, Giannis Antetokounmpo intends to play with his national team, HoopsHype relays via an interview with Antonis Kalkavouras from Gazzetta. “Not (just) to be with them. To see them and play with them again (in the summer),” the Bucks superstar said.
- The Bucks have won four straight and six of their last seven. It’s an indication that Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard are feeding off each other, Eric Nehm of The Athletic details. “I think (we’re) just kind of honestly are getting to the point where we’re tuning everybody else out,” Lillard said. “It’s just a lot of communication between the two of us, you know? It has nothing to do with people saying, ‘Oh, y’all need to do this or let’s try that.’ It’s like he sees what he sees. I see what I see. And we gotta use each other in that way, and I think it’s just leading to more times where when I’m having it, we’re putting people in position to where I’m throwing the ball to him.”
- Don’t expect to see Ben Sheppard back in the Pacers rotation any time soon. Coach Rick Carlisle says it’ll be “weeks, not days” before he returns, indicating that the MRI results were worse than anticipated, Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star tweets. Sheppard, who has appeared in 13 games including five starts this season, is recovering from an oblique injury.
I think we forgot to post the rest of the article! Or some coding error prevents the rest from displaying on the app. I only see 3 sentences.
Some wonky HTML in the background. Should be cleaned up now.
Can we complain about the officiating for the Cavs yet? Cavs outscored and outshot the Raptors in the paint, had to go through multiple defenders on every drive, and Isaac Okoro got elbowed in the face by a guy seven inches taller than him.
Raptors had 34 FTs. Cavs had 14. No call of any kind on the Poeltl elbow. It’s getting ridiculous.
They’re 27th in FTA/G. Their opponents are 7th.
17-1 and still finding room to complain about the refs is insufferable
Maybe. But I’d prefer it not be utterly blatant that they’re trying to make my favorite team lose more games.
They shot more free throws than Boston in the one game they lost. I think they’re in pretty good shape.