Monday night in the NBA playoffs, the Cleveland Cavaliers roared back to tie their second-round series with the Detroit Pistons, while LeBron James missed a go-ahead shot in the final seconds as the Oklahoma City Thunder swept the Los Angeles Lakers.
Here are the winners and losers from Monday night’s playoff tilts.
Winners
The Cavs’ All-NBA guard scored 39 of his 43 points after halftime of Cleveland’s 112-103 win. That’s the most points in a playoff half since the NBA started tracking play-by-play data in the 1996-97 season.
Mitchell scored on a variety of shots and on a variety of defenders. He and the Cavaliers started off the second half with a 24-0 run that buried the Pistons, with Mitchell contributing 15 in the run. By the end, the Pistons were digging deep in their bench to find anyone who could slow down Cleveland, and the Cavs had evened the series at 2-2.
LeVert led the Pistons with 24 points, which is 10 more points than he scored in Games 1-3. He scored and played effective defense on his former Cleveland teammate Mitchell, outscoring Spida 17-4 before halftime.