Donovan Mitchell is playing the best basketball of his career, but not for the reason you think

Scoring 40+ is cool. However, Mitchell would rather talk about his one steal or five offensive rebounds from Game 3.

INDIANAPOLIS — The Cleveland Cavaliers still have a chance to win their second-round series with the Indiana Pacers despite their injuries and falling behind 2-0. Donovan Mitchell is to thank for that. He’s playing the best basketball of his career when the Cavs have needed it most.

Indiana has no answer for Mitchell, even though he can’t get his outside shot to fall so far this series (7-31, 22.6%). He's averaging 41.3 points per game by continually willing his way to the basket and free-throw line.

Mitchell has shown throughout his career that he can dominate a series with his scoring. But even his bubble playoff run with the Utah Jazz in 2020 didn’t have him averaging over 40 a game.

This is different.

But if you ask Mitchell if he’s playing the best basketball of his career, he won’t necessarily say that he is. He has a different way of describing what he’s doing well in this series.

“I’m playing the most mature basketball of my career,” Mitchell said at shootaround ahead of Game 4. “I think the 40 points is obviously what everybody looks at. But I’m just as excited about the five [offensive] rebounds and [five] assists. I’m trying to do all the little things.

“Like, the biggest thing about last game, I was excited about is I got the steal on Myles Turner on the help side. Being there in those situations, you know what I’m saying?”

The steal Mitchell had on Turner was nice. But most people — even a younger version of Mitchell — would point to the incredible acrobatic layup he had in the first quarter that should be on highlight reels for years to come as their favorite play or something they’d remember from that performance.

This illustrates how far Mitchell has come in recent years. He doesn’t just think scoring is the only way to impact the game anymore.

“[My] younger self, you know, you score and it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m doing [good],’” Mitchell said. “No, there’s other ways outside of that. So that’s kind of where my mindset is. That it could be 20, it could be 30, could be 50, but I got a career high offensive rebounds [Friday] night. ... That’s what I’m excited about. It’ll be little things to help the group on the defensive end, making it tough...boxing out. Because that’s what it takes to win a series.”

Mitchell has repeatedly shown through the first three games that he’s willing to do these things to win the series. But this isn’t who he’s always been. He didn’t embrace doing all the little things right at the beginning of his career.

Coming up short in the playoffs led to a change in Mitchell’s perspective.

“Losing. I’ll never forget. We (the 2020 Jazz) were up 3-1 and lost to Denver, but the series should have been over because in Game 1, I got an eight-second violation that swung the momentum of the game. And we lose that series.

“My [first] year, we played Houston and I’m tired, like, I’m exhausted, and we’re in Game 3. ... I told one of my teammates, ‘Man, I’m tired.’ He’s like, ‘I don’t want to hear that.’ I’m grateful I had a bunch of OGs and vets to kind of help me get through that.

“But when you you lose and you fail in certain instances, if you’ve had some success, when you fail, you go back and say, ‘What is it?” You watch the film, you’re not watching the explosion on the offensive end. It’s like damn. Case and point, the box out in Game 2 with Nesmith. Or even the rebound (that led to the Tyrese Haliburton game winner). I should’ve grabbed it. It’s just that much. It’s just that much that can take you to a Finals or can have you sent home. So just the little details.”

Mitchell came into these two road games with the goal of taking the series back to Cleveland tied. Winning Game 4 will be a tougher task than winning on Friday. Mitchell knows that. It’s just how these series go.

He’ll be ready for what Indiana throws his way.

“Game 4 is gonna be different,” Mitchell said Sunday morning. “Whether it’s physicality, whether it’s pace, whether it’s pressure, whether it’s whatever. Because, like I said, they don’t want to lose their homecourt advantage. They don’t want to go back to Cleveland 2-2. So understanding that whatever we did in Game 3 is gonna have to be even better and even more detailed.”