Donovan Mitchell Shines In Cavs 128-121 Win Over Pistons

On the night that Darius Garland made his long awaited return to the floor, Donovan Mitchell stole the show for Cleveland dropping 45 points in a win over Detroit

Wednesday was supposed to be about Darius Garland's long-awaited return to the floor when the Cavaliers welcomed the last place Detroit Pistons to Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. Instead, Garland's partner in crime Donovan Mitchell stole the spotlight in what was a hard fought 128-121 win for Cleveland.

Mitchell pumped in 45 points for the wine and gold, including 20 in the fourth quarter alone as he refused to let the Cavs lose to Detroit. He knocked down half of the team's three point field goals with six. Added eight assists to cap off a month where he's averaged over 7.5 of them as he held down the point guard role in Garland's absence. It was pure brilliance from Cleveland's star player.

"You got a guy who's a close," head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said of Mitchell's efforts. "You've got a guy who when you feel like when the game is on the line you have him and they don't. And that's gonna give you an opportunity to win. We've seen it before but every time you watch it you marvel at it because of his ability to do it in big moments and when it was needed."

The performance marked the 17th time Mitchell has reached the 40-point plateau since joining the Cavs. That's second only to, you guessed it, LeBron James, who did it 51 times throughout his 11 seasons with the franchise.

A night like Wednesday is why the Cavaliers brass was so willing to pay a kings ransom for his services via trade a year and a half ago. With the team getting back to full strength after Garland and Evan Mobley each spent a month and a half sidelined with injuries, Mitchell will be looked upon to oversee their onboarding into this new style of Cavs basketball.

Night one getting re-acclimated went pretty smoothly for Garland. In 20 minutes, he compiled 19 points, while assisting on three buckets. The 24-year-old took a spill on his second made bucket of the game – a 25-footer that cut Detroit's early lead to 12-11 – drawing an and-one situation. It was a symbolic sequence as he went on to finished the four-point play, that he was indeed back.

Oh, he's so back. @dariusgarland22 | #LetEmKnow pic.twitter.com/PxtmYN9nUY

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) February 1, 2024

Mobley was also back in the line up for the second consecutive game and still working on a minutes restriction. He followed up a near double-double on Monday with an eight point, three rebound night, adding three assists to his box score as well.

Bickerstaff conceded that everything isn't going to come together at once.

"It's gonna take us some time, just because of how the rotation has to be kind of jumbled when you've got starters on limited minutes," he said. "So guys are kind of in and out trying to find their rhythm, but I thought the guys tried to do what we asked them to do. We're going to be good. Once we get an opportunity to let it all settle in, we'll figure each other out and we won't have those ups and downs we did tonight."

In the meantime, on a night where some of those ups and downs reared their ugly head, the Cavaliers feel fortunate to have a closer.