Mitchell, Cavs go into offseason disappointed by showing in playoffs after 64 wins in regular season

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (AP) — Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers won 64 games during the regular season, captured the top seed in the Eastern Conference and had two winning streaks of at least 15 games.

Mitchell, though, goes into the offseason feeling one thing.

Embarrassed.

That’s because, despite all the good things the Cavaliers did in the regular season, most people will remember Cleveland’s exit in the conference semifinals after being worn down by Indiana in five games.

Of the 28 times a team has won at least 64 regular-season games, the Cavs are only the fourth to not have reached at least the conference finals.

“I hope we all feel it, and I think we do. We lost 4-1. We were the one seed. It’s not like we were the eighth seed trying to beat the one seed,” Mitchell said Wednesday morning. “Don’t run from this. It’s gonna be a loud summer and a lot of voices about what the Cavs are and what they should do. I’ve been through a few of those. Use it as fuel. It’s the only thing we can do.”

Mitchell’s comments came after not getting any sleep and watching replays of the Cavs' 114-105 loss twice. Cleveland had a 19-point lead in the second quarter but couldn’t sustain it as Indiana pulled within four at halftime and took control in the third quarter.

It was the second time in the series the Cavaliers squandered a big lead. They had a 20-point lead late in the third quarter of Game 2 before losing 120-119 on Tyrese Halliburton’s 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left.

The biggest thing players pointed to that needs improvement is being mentally tougher in the playoffs.

After dominating Miami in a first-round sweep, the Cavaliers were outplayed on both ends of the court by the Pacers. Indiana dictated the pace and was more physical in the paint.

“We have to do it for longer. I feel like that was the name of the game for every game that we played during the series. I feel like we could have been more locked in mentally for longer, been more physical for longer,” center Jarrett Allen said.

It also didn’t help that Cleveland went into the Indiana series hampered by injuries. Darius Garland missed the first two games due to an injury to his left big toe, while Evan Mobley and De’Andre Hunter were out for Game 2.

Coach Kenny Atkinson and his group prided themselves on their defensive intensity throughout the season. Still, Indiana averaged 117.6 points as its five-out offense created a lot of open shots.

Cleveland was one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the league during the regular season, but had a 29.4% accuracy rate against the Pacers.

“Quite honestly, I expected more coming off the Miami series. Now, we’ve got to figure out the next piece,” Atkinson said Tuesday night.

The good news for the Cavaliers is that the core of their roster is under contract. The bad news is that they are over both salary cap aprons, which would hamper them if they wanted to add another forward or center to the roster.

Before beginning his preparations for next season, Mitchell will take some time off where he said he’s “going on tour” with “good music.”

This is Mitchell’s fourth time on a team that advanced to the second round of the playoffs but not further. He was part of Utah’s top-seeded run in 2021, which ended with the Jazz being eliminated by the Los Angeles Clippers in six games.

Mitchell pointed to Mobley, the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year, who averaged 18.5 points and 9.3 rebounds in the regular season, when asked if this team has more staying power.

“He’s continuing to grow. He’s a guy that next year coming in is going to be even more important, even more crucial. Trying to get him to be even more aggressive,” Mitchell said.

Center Tristan Thompson — part of the Cavs' 2016 NBA championship team — thinks the Cavs will be in the right frame of mind when training camp begins in September.

“You got to starve before you eat. We understand that. Guys across the board have that feeling,” he said. “We’ve got some hungry (expletive), so I know they’re going to do whatever they can this summer to get themselves right because we have some work to do.”

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Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson watches from the bench in the first half of Game 4 against the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, right, gestures after scoring and drawing a foul as forward Obi Toppin congratulates him during the first 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 Donovan Mitchell gestures to fans during the first 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)

Cleveland Cavaliers forward De'Andre Hunter, left, celebrates after hitting a three-point shot and drawing a foul on Indiana Pacers forward Pascal Siakam, right, 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)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sluggish December hiring concluded a year of weak employment gains that have frustrated job seekers even though layoffs and unemployment have remained low.

Employers added just 50,000 jobs last month, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%, its first decline since June, from 4.5% in November, a figure also revised lower.

The data suggests that businesses are reluctant to add workers even as economic growth has picked up. Many companies hired aggressively after the pandemic and no longer need to fill more jobs. Others have held back due to widespread uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s shifting tariff policies, elevated inflation, and the spread of artificial intelligence, which could alter or even replace some jobs.

Still, economists were encouraged by the drop in the unemployment rate, which had risen in the previous four straight reports. It had also alarmed officials at the Federal Reserve, prompting three cuts to the central bank's key interest rate last year. The decline lowered the odds of another rate reduction in January, economists said.

“The labor market looks to have stabilized, but at a slower pace of employment growth,” Blerina Uruci, chief economist at T. Rowe Price, said. There is no urgency for the Fed to cut rates further, for now."

Some Federal Reserve officials are concerned that inflation remains above their target of 2% annual growth, and hasn't improved since 2024. They support keeping rates where they are to combat inflation. Others, however, are more worried that hiring has nearly ground to a halt and have supported lowering borrowing costs to spur spending and growth.

November's job gain was revised slightly lower, from 64,000 to 56,000, while October's now shows a much steeper drop, with a loss of 173,000 positions, down from previous estimates of a 105,000 decline. The government revises the jobs figures as it receives more survey responses from businesses.

The economy has now lost an average of 22,000 jobs a month in the past three months, the government said. A year ago, in December 2024, it had gained 209,000 a month. Most of those losses reflect the purge of government workers by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

Nearly all the jobs added in December were in the health care and restaurant and hotel industries. Health care added 38,500 jobs, while restaurants and hotels gained 47,000. Governments — mostly at the state and local level — added 13,000.

Manufacturing, construction and retail companies all shed jobs. Retailers cut 25,000 positions, a sign that holiday hiring has been weaker than previous years. Manufacturers have shed jobs every month since April, when Trump announced sweeping tariffs intended to boost manufacturing.

Wall Street and Washington are looking closely at Friday's report as it's the first clean reading on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.

The hiring slowdown reflects more than just a reluctance by companies to add jobs. With an aging population and a sharp drop in immigration, the economy doesn't need to create as many jobs as it has in the past to keep the unemployment rate steady. As a result, a gain of 50,000 jobs is not as clear a sign of weakness as it would have been in previous years.

And layoffs are still low, a sign firms aren't rapidly cutting jobs, as typically happens in a recession. The “low-hire, low-fire” job market does mean current workers have some job security, though those without jobs can have a tougher time.

Ernesto Castro, 44, has applied for hundreds of jobs since leaving his last in May. Yet the Los Angeles resident has gotten just three initial interviews, and only one follow-up, after which he heard nothing.

With nearly a decade of experience providing customer support for software companies, Castro expected to find a new job pretty quickly as he did in 2024.

“I should be in a good position,” Castro said. “It’s been awful.”

He worries that more companies are turning to artificial intelligence to help clients learn to use new software. He hears ads from tech companies that urge companies to slash workers that provide the kind of services he has in his previous jobs. His contacts in the industry say that employees are increasingly reluctant to switch jobs amid all the uncertainty, which leaves fewer open jobs for others.

He is now looking into starting his own software company, and is also exploring project management roles.

December’s report caps a year of sluggish hiring, particularly after April's “liberation day” tariff announcement by Trump. The economy generated an average of 111,000 jobs a month in the first three months of 2025. But that pace dropped to just 11,000 in the three months ended in August, before rebounding slightly to 22,000 in November.

Last year, the economy gained just 584,000 jobs, sharply lower than that more than 2 million added in 2024. It's the smallest annual gain since the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the job market in 2020.

Subdued hiring underscores a key conundrum surrounding the economy as it enters 2026: Growth has picked up to healthy levels, yet hiring has weakened noticeably and the unemployment rate has increased in the last four jobs reports.

Most economists expect hiring will accelerate this year as growth remains solid, and Trump's tax cut legislation is expected to produce large tax refunds this spring. Yet economists acknowledge there are other possibilities: Weak job gains could drag down future growth. Or the economy could keep expanding at a healthy clip, while automation and the spread of artificial intelligence reduces the need for more jobs.

Productivity, or output per hour worked, a measure of worker efficiency, has improved in the past three years and jumped nearly 5% in the July-September quarter. That means companies can produce more without adding jobs. Over time, it should also boost worker pay.

Even with such sluggish job gains, the economy has continued to expand, with growth reaching a 4.3% annual rate in last year's July-September quarter, the best in two years. Strong consumer spending helped drive the gain. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecasts that growth could slow to a still-solid 2.7% in the final three months of last year.

FILE - A hiring sign is displayed at a grocery store in Northbrook, Ill., Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)