Cavaliers, Donovan Mitchell experience same heartbreak in conference semifinals

CLEVELAND (AP) — Donovan Mitchell thought this Cleveland Cavaliers team would be the one to get him to a conference final for the first time.

Instead, this trip ended with the same heartbreak as his other three to this point in the playoffs.

Mitchell started, played 38 minutes and scored 39 points despite a sprained left ankle, but it wasn't enough as the Indiana Pacers wore down the Cavaliers in the second half and eliminated the Eastern Conference's top seed 114-105 on Tuesday night.

About 10 minutes after the game ended, Mitchell went back on the court at Rocket Arena and was still shocked over the sudden ending to the season.

“I just couldn't believe it. I didn't want to believe it. I still don't want to believe it," he said.

The All-Star guard was questionable two hours before tipoff after he did not play the second half of the Cavaliers' 129-109 loss at Indiana on Sunday after he reaggravated the ankle injury.

Mitchell provided an early clue about his status three hours before the game when he took to X with the Cavaliers’ hashtag theme of #LetEmKnow.

Coach Kenny Atkinson then said during his pregame availability that Mitchell participated in Tuesday morning’s shootaround.

All doubts were then put to rest when Mitchell came out for his usual pregame shooting routine less than an hour before tipoff.

Mitchell didn't show any effects from the injury during the first quarter when he aggressively drove to the basket. Of his 13 points in the first 12 minutes, seven were at the foul line.

However, Mitchell struggled from the field the entire game. He was 8 for 25, including 4 for 13 on 3-pointers.

Mitchell was 15 of 21 at the foul line, but missed all three shots with 1:49 remaining and the Cavs trailing 106-100. He would make a 3-pointer on the ensuing trip down the floor to get Cleveland within three before the Pacers went on an 8-2 run to close the game.

“We just didn’t get the job done. Nothing else needs to be said. … We let the city down. We let each other down," he said.

The Cavaliers easily dispatched of Miami with a four-game sweep in the first round but could never find the answer against an Indiana squad that plays quick and wears teams down.

Mitchell thought the decisive moment of the series came in Game 1, when Indiana went on a 15-4 run during the fourth quarter of a 121-112 victory.

Cleveland was missing Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and De'Andre Hunter in Game 2, but blew a 20-point in the second half and lost 120-119.

“I think Game 1 set the tone. And obviously, guys are out for Game 2 and you’re fighting an uphill battle,” said Mitchell, who averaged 34.2 points in the series and 29.6 in the postseason. "We had some mental lapses. You can’t have that because you’re fighting an uphill battle against a team with the fastest pace in history.”

Cleveland was second in the league in the regular season with a 38.3% accuracy rate on 3-pointers, but was 29.4% against Indiana, including 9 for 35 on Tuesday night.

“The season was not a success in terms of where our goal was. Success would be going to the conference finals, but we didn’t do that," Atkinson said. "Quite honestly, I expected more coming off the Miami series (a four-game sweep). Now, we’ve got to figure out the next piece.”

It is the second time Mitchell has been on a top-seeded team that didn't make it to the conference finals. In 2021, Utah lost to the LA Clippers in six games.

After going 64-18 in the regular season — which included three winning streaks of 12 games or more — Mitchell and the Cavaliers will ponder what might have been in what is an open chase for the NBA title this year.

“We have a window with this group. I believe in this team. That’s what just (stinks). We’re a good team, but ultimately for three games, we didn’t seem it," Mitchell said. "There is going to be a long of talk (from media). We didn’t capitalize, so everyone is going to write us off. It’s, ‘What are we going to do about it next year?’”

“Y’all are going to say a lot of (stuff). And that’s what it takes. I’ve been here.”

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, right, shoots as Indiana Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard defends during the second half in Game 5 of an Eastern Conference semifinal NBA basketball playoff Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland, left, and guard Donovan Mitchell hug each other after the Indiana Pacers defeated the Cavaliers 114-105 in Game 5 of an Eastern Conference semifinal NBA basketball playoff Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, right, shoots as Indiana Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith defends during the second half in Game 5 of an Eastern Conference semifinal NBA basketball playoff Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, left, and Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell greet each other after the Pacers defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 114-105 in Game 5 of an Eastern Conference semifinal NBA basketball playoff Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, left, takes a break during a timeout in the second half in Game 5 of an Eastern Conference semifinal NBA basketball playoff against the Indiana Pacers, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after the audacious U.S. military operation in Venezuela, President Donald Trump on Sunday renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is “in a lot of trouble.”

The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro underscore that the U.S. administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.

With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who's next?

“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the U.S.-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.”

Trump, in his administration's National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.

Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary — a justification invoked by the U.S. in supporting Panama’s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. — as he's made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.

Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth U.S. president's foundational document as the “Don-roe Doctrine.”

Saturday's dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas and Trump’s comments on Sunday heightened concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a statement that Trump has "no right to annex" the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the United States, a fellow member of NATO, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.

“I would therefore strongly urge the U.S. to stop threatening a historically close ally and another country and people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale,” Frederiksen said.

Denmark on Sunday also signed onto a European Union statement underscoring that “the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their future must be respected” as Trump has vowed to “run” Venezuela and pressed the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, to get in line.

Trump on Sunday mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s national security posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.

Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON."

“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Amb. Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark's chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump's influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

During his presidential transition and in the early months of his return to the White House, Trump repeatedly called for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has pointedly not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island that belongs to an ally.

The issue had largely drifted out of the headlines in recent months. Then Trump put the spotlight back on Greenland less than two weeks ago when he said he would appoint Republican Gov. Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.

The Louisiana governor said in his volunteer position he would help Trump “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”

Meanwhile, concern simmered in Cuba, one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners, as Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government. U.S.-Cuba relations have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban revolution.

Rubio, in an appearance on NBC's “Meet the Press,” said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.

“It was Cubans that guarded Maduro,” Rubio said. “He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” The secretary of state added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of “internal intelligence” in Maduro’s government, including “who spies on who inside, to make sure there are no traitors.”

Trump said that “a lot” of Cuban guards tasked with protecting Maduro were killed in the operation. The Cuban government said in a statement read on state television on Sunday evening that 32 officers were killed in the U.S. military operation.

Trump also said that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, is in tatters and will slide further now with the ouster of Maduro, who provided the Caribbean island subsidized oil.

“It's going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It's going down for the count.”

Cuban authorities called a rally in support of Venezuela’s government and railed against the U.S. military operation, writing in a statement: “All the nations of the region must remain alert, because the threat hangs over all of us.”

Rubio, a former Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants, has long maintained Cuba is a dictatorship repressing its people.

“This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States," Rubio said.

Cubans like 55-year-old biochemical laboratory worker Bárbara Rodríguez were following developments in Venezuela. She said she worried about what she described as an “aggression against a sovereign state.”

“It can happen in any country, it can happen right here. We have always been in the crosshairs,” Rodríguez said.

AP writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana, Cuba, and Darlene Superville traveling aboard Air Force One contributed reporting.

In this photo released by the White House, President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Venezuela, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Molly Riley/The White House via AP)