Donovan Mitchell created 83 points in 30 minutes!

I turned on the Cavs-Bulls game near the end of the first half, and Donovan Mitchell only had 8 points. He finished with 71! It took one miraculous play to get there, we'll get to that in a moment, and an incredible run of the most prolific statistical explosion since Will Chamberlain went for 100 in 1962. With the Cavs missing a ton of starters and trailing by 18, Mitchell put together a little flurry to end the half, scoring 8 points in the final 93 seconds to keep Cleveland within striking distance. But after halftime, Mitchell looks like he was rocket-boosted. He says that Cavs legend Brad Doherty gave him a pep talk at some point, and if so, Brad should definitely go into motivational speaking. My name is Matt Foley, and I am a motivational speaker. With the Cavs offense stuck in neutral, Donovan went slashing down the lane with a nice finish around Nikola Vucevic. On the next trip, the Bulls switched the pick and roll, so Mitchell instantly attacks DeMar DeRozan, and a great pump fake creates space for a little push shot. On the other end of the floor, he showed some liveliness by moving his feet and forcing a turnover, and then on the other end he came right back on offense with this nasty hesitation and floating scoop nonsense off the glass. If hesitation works once, why not try it again? So he leaves Ayo Dasumu in the dust and earns some free throws. And Mitchell just looked faster than everyone out there in a Bulls uniform, driving around the venerable Alex Caruso like he was a traffic cone. And while most huge games involve some kind of in-the-zone shooting outburst, Mitchell felt more like Usain Bolt racing around postal workers, using his speed edge to get wherever he wanted. One thing Mitchell always does well is use his driving game to set up his jumper, almost buckling Zach Levine with that violent step back. And then Mitchell started playmaking too, looping this gorgeous outlet to a streaking Jetty Osman for more free throws to cut it to 10. The pick and roll dynamics were also interesting in this game, as the Bulls want to avoid a switch with Vucevic, so he hedges out, which creates a 4 on 3 behind the play, and the Cavs find a great look. Next time down the screen comes from Caruso's man, he's ready to switch on to Mitchell, so Donovan rips a crossover in the other direction, springs free, and goes to the teardrop over Levine, who taps him on the elbow for a generous and-one. On the very next possession, another guard sprints up to set the screen, but Goran Drogic jumps out too wide, Mitchell crosses back through that little gap, Vuc is in his way so he kicks it to a shooter, and then he follows the ball off the rim, and ends up with two more free throws on another soft foul. A minute later, they put Drogic in the exact same action, he's hustling to get out in front of the ball, so Mitchell crosses back into open space, then sidesteps Vucevic for two more free throws. And Donovan is so good at setting up defenders like this for misdirection, gesturing for a screen before exploding to the hoop, and Cleveland was in the bonus at that point. On the final two possessions of the quarter, Mitchell hit Love for a bomb to cut it to three, and then the Bulls successfully contained that sliding screen action, so Donovan moved it to Osman, and it is down to two. Early in the fourth, we saw more of that playmaking, with DeRozan staying in front of the screen, Caruso lingering to help on a drive, which means he has to close out to the shooter who can up fake to shed him and knife in for a layup. Mitchell then does something similar to Caruso, attacking him off the catch as he recovers, and he's too quick and that's another bunny. The Cavs mix it up by sending Donovan off ball, the Bulls play it straight up so he just curls into a jumper, and he's up to 46. The next trip down, they put Vuce back in the screening action, and that is an absolutely filthy cross to reject the screen, then a fake euro at the rim to throw off DeRozan. Woo, deep breaths. This time, they use Love as the screener, and he likes to pop so Mitchell can find him for another three, and after a timeout, they call Vuce back up to defend the ball screen. He looks like he's sliding with Mitchell, but Donovan just keeps going to turn the corner, then gets his own miss, and we are at 50, and he actually missed Jared Allen on the lob there, which would have been a much easier shot. So on the next trip, the studious Spider draws two defenders and hits Allen for an easy dunk on that roll, and at a certain point, he just felt like an unstoppable Barry Sanders rushing for 300 yards. DeSumo stays with the first crossover perfectly, so Mitchell crosses back again in the other direction, upfakes Vucevich, and scores in traffic. Trailing by four with 90 seconds left, Mitchell sets up Levine for a drive, only to peel it back and drop in another three to cut it to one, setting up the final wild sequence of the game. After a love free throw tied it at 103, Vuce drained a clutch jumper to go back up three, so the Cavs come out of the timeout and, of course, put him back in the pick and roll against Mitchell. Only Donovan again misses the rolling Allen down the lane and leaves it short, but despite falling into the cameras, comes flying back into the play, only to finally get it back and this time float the lob to Allen to cut it to one. He actually made this same pass on the next trip again with nine seconds left, only the Bulls kept making their free throws on the other end, which left Cleveland down three without any timeouts. So Chicago fouls Mitchell in the backcourt, preventing any three-point shot, and this is exactly what happened last week when Luka Doncic had to intentionally miss at the end of the game against New York, somehow got his own rebound, and after some Luka magic blessed the world with his giddy dance moves. So after pouring in 48 points in just over a half of basketball, Donovan Mitchell did this. Off the back rim, loose ball, I know how, Mitchell lunged in between about five players to catch it and shoot in one motion, flying through the air and scoring while falling down like Bobby Orr in the 1970 Stanley Cup. After the game, Mitchell alluded to Toronto, presumably talking about this intentional miss situation in the season opener, where the Cavs brought in two bigs and Karis LeVert actually made the free throw. But on the side with only one defender, Evan Mobley actually created space for the shooter to go grab a loose ball, which is exactly what happened here, with Mitchell darting toward the open space behind Allen, and that amazing play gave Mitchell 50 points in just over a half of basketball, and he just kept going in overtime, taking the meter to 61 with this pull up three. With a five point lead, this is probably my favorite score of the game, as he totally out sprints everyone down the court despite playing the entire second half, and his effort was noticeable throughout this stretch, even making a few defensive plays, and on a play like this, where he's stripped on offense, he instantly beelines it back on defense despite a few Cavs already picking up the ball in the backcourt. As we've discussed before, Mitchell is an elite shooter, so fittingly he caught fire at the end of the game, ratcheting up to 66, and then 69 on some very nice long range shooting. And after a few free throws, Mitchell finished this game with 71 points and 11 assists, racking up 63 and 8 of those in the final 30 minutes of the contest. To put that into perspective, no one had ever scored 65 in a game and tallied 7 assists, let alone 11. Over those final two and a half quarters of the game, Cleveland scored an incredible 106 points, 63 of them by Mitchell, and 20 of them off of his assists. Which means that in about 30 minutes of basketball, on a Monday night in Cleveland, Donovan Mitchell scored or assisted on 83 points. To support this channel, check out patreon.com slash thinkingbasketball, I can't even think straight after that one, let me know what you think of it down below, and all the crazy scoring and offensive performances we're seeing this year, and of course, I hope you enjoyed this one, and that you are having a great day.