Donovan Mitchell promptly defends maligned Cavs teammate after Game 2 loss to Pistons

After a reporter asked Jarrett Allen about Evan Mobley’s one rebound in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ loss to the Detroit Pistons in Game 2 of their NBA playoff series, Donovan Mitchell felt the need to grab the microphone to set things straight about his teammate’s impact. Sure, the Cavs failed in securing boards at the worst possible time in the fourth quarter, but that isn’t on one person, especially Mobley.

“There’s a reason why the smalls have six, five, and four,” Mitchell said promptly following Allen’s answer. “So I feel like we look at a stat sheet and say, ‘Oh, he had one.’ There’s a reason, to JA’s point, why other guys had that many rebounds.

“In things like this, Evan contributed to them not getting a lot of offensive rebounds,” Allen explained before Mitchell’s statement. “He took himself out of a lot of plays to try to make sure that somebody else got the defensive rebound. The stat sheet, I mean, one rebound isn’t a lot, but the impact that he had on the glass was a lot more than that.”

Two things can be true at once. Mobley should absolutely pull down more than one rebound in 36 minutes. By the same token, he is spending so much time in help defense because of the guards and wings’ inability to contain or stop drives. It forces Mobley to switch and pulls him away from the paint, thus leaving him out of position to grab those boards. There are countless examples of this happening, not just in this game, but for years, when opposing drivers get by.

According to NBA Courtside, Mobley primarily defended Jalen Duren (4:26) and Tobias Harris (3:21). Additionally, he guarded Ausar Thompson for 2:21, Isaiah Stewart for 1:47, and Cade Cunningham for 58 seconds. Matchup data is tricky because defense is difficult to track, so it seems like a small amount of time. However, when the metrics indicate that he had to deal with Daniss Jenkins, Duncan Robinson, Ron Holland, and Caris LeVert as well, that’s a tall task.

no bro you dont understand he had 1 rebound! pic.twitter.com/2QrI6P33nA

— rs (@rhas202) May 8, 2026

So, when Mobley’s doing all of that, the Cavs’ perimeter players have to return the favor by at least finding a way to come up with the ball, particularly when they’re putting the strain on him. It’s not fair to Cleveland’s bigs to expect them to contest away from the basket and somehow also be there to grab the misses they’re making happen in the first place.

“It’s frustrating, especially those long [ones],” Dean Wade said postgame in the locker room. They shoot a three, and it’s a longer rebound that goes over everyone’s head. But we’ve got to find ways to come up with those — especially in the playoffs, especially down the stretch — you can’t let teams get multiple opportunities to shoot the ball and everything. So we’ve just got to be more physical, boxing out.

“Our guards [have] got to go through their windows and try to clean some things up, but there’s been some pretty unfortunate bounces going against us. So, hopefully the basketball gods turn that. But I think we really do have to be a little more physical, send two at the bigs, and just even if you can’t get to a rebound, just kind of get them out of the play and let everyone else come clean it up.”

Atkinson voiced that he loves both Mobley and Allen and won’t be moving away from the combination.

“Going to keep doubling down on playing those guys, especially together,” Atkinson said. “I just implore both of them to rebound better. And it’s not just on them. I don’t want to put those eight [fourth-quarter] offensive rebounds [from] Detroit on them, but them and the collective, we have to make a commitment to rebound better. And it’s just that simple.

“You get really good stops in that fourth quarter and the second-chance opportunities, it just takes the wind out of your sails. You play for 18 seconds on the shot clock, miss, offensive [rebound]. And I know that’s their strength, but we’ve got to do a better job [of] negating it. And that starts with those guys, our big guys, and then our guards [have] got to do a better job rebounding.”

The Cavs are statistically a better team on the glass when Mobley is on the floor, regardless of the box score and what is being criticized from afar.

Besides, there are bigger fish to fry when it comes to the myriad of Cleveland’s issues that are revealing themselves in this postseason run.

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