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Donovan Mitchell Praised for What He Did During Cavaliers-Pacers Game 2

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Sean Deveney | Last updated May 6, 2025 10:33 PM ET

After the Cavaliers were stunned by the Pacers in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinals series--on the heels of Cleveland drubbing the Miami Heat in the opening round--much of the criticism fell on star guard Donovan Mitchell. He scored 33 points, but did so on 13-for-30 shooting, which included 1-for-11 from the 3-point line.

Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton, meanwhile, was a model of efficiency, racking up 22 points on 9-for-15 shooting, and dishing out 13 assists to go with two blocked shots.

In helping the Pacers past the Bucks in the first round, then pulling off the opening upset in Round 2, Haliburton has been putting to rest the reputation he has for being overrated, a notion that first started when he was named to the 2024 USA Basketball Olympic team, and gained traction this spring when a player poll by The Athletic found that Haliburton was voted "most overrated" by his peers.

Haliburton got 14.4% of the vote out of the 90 players the website polled.

His response to the poll: “I must be doing something right if that’s the case. I don’t have a big speech or comment on it. All I care about is this locker room and winning games. … I know who I am. I’m confident in my own skin and not worried what anybody thinks.”

On Tuesday night in Cleveland, with the Cavaliers down three key pieces--injuries forced them to hold out Darius Garland, DeAndre Hunter and Evan Mobley--Mitchell was leading the way to an early strong showing by the Cavs. He struggled from the 3-point line, but topped the 40-point mark in the fourth quarter.

He also got a bit of an assist. As pointed out by Bleacher Report, Cleveland fans at Rocket Arena began chanting "Overrated!" at Haliburton.

Cavs fans were chanting "overrated" at Hali and Spida signaled them to stop

Respect pic.twitter.com/2gkSoikwVL
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 7, 2025

But Mitchell was having none of it.

"Cavs fans were chanting 'overrated' at Hali and Spida signaled them to stop," B/R wrote on Twitter/X.

While Cleveland welcomed the offensive explosion from Mitchell, but are hopeful of getting healthy in time for Game 3, which will be played in Indianapolis on Friday.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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