CLEVELAND (AP) — Donovan Mitchell already had plenty of motivation in his offseason workouts after the Cleveland Cavaliers were eliminated by the Indiana Pacers in five games in the Eastern Conference semifinals despite being the top seed.
His drive went to another gear when he heard last month Max Strus was going to be out the first two months of the season due to a broken foot.
“I made it a point to be ready earlier, especially once Max went down. Honestly, once I got that phone call, I think within the next two days a mental shift just happened," Mitchell said Monday during the team's media day. "Just understanding what’s going to be required, not being Superman, but understanding that being ready for what’s necessary."
Darius Garland had toe surgery after the season ended and is also expected to miss the first couple months. Mitchell is likely to move to point guard with Sam Merrill at shooting guard while Garland is out.
Mitchell averaged a team-high 24.0 points, including 19 games of at least 30 points. He averaged 29.6 points during the playoffs, but it wasn't enough.
It was the second time Mitchell was on a top-seeded team that didn’t make it to the conference finals. In 2021, Utah lost to the Los Angeles Clippers in six games.
“I think the biggest thing is just understand that we’ve just got to keep going. Sorry, I gave you the political answer, but that’s really all I got," Mitchell said about what he learned from the Indiana series.
The Cavaliers surprised nearly everyone last season with a 64-18 record — which included three winning streaks of 12 games or more — to finish ahead of 2024 NBA champion Boston atop the East.
This season they are favored to win the conference according to BetMGM Sportsbook (+240).
Even though being the top seed in the East would be a nice reward for the Cavaliers, Mitchell's focus is getting to the NBA Finals in June and whatever it takes.
“Physically, you can be there, but mentally, can we continue to push through that?" he said. "We’ve run into the same wall three times in a row, so to speak, and mentally you can stop and quit. Are we willing to every day continue to hit your head against the wall and keep pounding, keep going as we continue to make this push?
"I’m just saying I’m ready for whatever. It’s just time. I really don’t have any other way to describe it. It’s just like I’m ready to go and I understand, at the same token, it’s a long journey, too. I’m ready to go and kind of setting the tone, it’s just like, all right, you know, it’s time to go.”
Besides getting engaged to singer Coco Jones, Mitchell's star power continues to grow. He was featured on NBC's “Roundball Rock” commercial during the playoffs and is part of Prime Video's ads as it begins coverage of the league.
Mitchell is featured along with stars Luka Doncic and Victor Wembanyama.
“I think obviously for myself it means I’m doing something right on the floor. But I also think, you know, what the league is doing, continuing to empower and show the faces of everybody, small market, big market, wherever. And I think that’s really what our game has been missing,” Mitchell said. “You got guys in smaller markets who are being talked about the way they should be because there’s so much talent in this league. And I think that’s what you’re starting to see the league doing.”
Cleveland has its core four back of Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Garland and Jarrett Allen, but also added Larry Nance Jr. and Lonzo Ball.
“What’s more impressive for me is seeing who he is off the court. He’s calculated, very intelligent about all the right things. He’s one of those guys that is who you hope he is which is cool to see,” Nance said of Mitchell. “He's going to be taking all the big shots and carrying a heavy load. So any little bit that I can take off his shoulders I’ll be looking to do that.”
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Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, right, talks with junior reporters during the NBA basketball team's media day Monday, Sept. 29, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell poses for photos during the NBA basketball team's media day Monday, Sept. 29, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
ATLANTA (AP) — Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed Tuesday, one day after powerful storms swept across the eastern half of the country and upended air travel in a cross-section of cities. Travelers have been facing additional jams at airport security checkpoints as a partial government shutdown strains screener staffing.
The disruptions come at an already challenging time for air travel, in part because the shutdown that began Feb. 14 has pressured staffing at some security checkpoints. At the same time, airports are crowded with spring break travelers and fans heading to March Madness games, the annual NCAA men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments.
More than 750 flights scheduled to fly into, out of or within the U.S. have been called off as of early Tuesday, and about 1,300 were delayed, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.
Flight delays and cancellations piled up Monday at some of the nation’s largest airports, including those in New York, Chicago and Atlanta. The storm system that dumped heavy snow across the Midwest raced toward the East Coast with high winds reaching gusts near 50 mph (80 km) in parts of New York, the National Weather Service said.
Kelly Price, who was trying to get home to Colorado after a family vacation in Orlando, Florida, said her Sunday night flight wasn’t canceled until early Monday.
“By that time the only place for us to sleep was the airport floor. So we’re all tired and frustrated,” she said, adding that the soonest she and her family could book another flight doesn’t leave until Tuesday afternoon.
The nationwide cancellations on Monday included about 600 in and out of Chicago O’Hare International, more than 470 at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International and over 450 at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, according to FlightAware.
Citing severe weather, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered ground stops at Hartsfield-Jackson and Charlotte Douglas International Airport and ground delays at JFK and Newark Liberty International Airport.
Danielle Cash found herself stranded in St. Louis on Sunday while trying to get home to Tampa, Florida, after a weekend girls’ trip to Las Vegas. Now she’s spending several hundred dollars more than planned on a hotel room in a snowy city she wasn’t dressed for.
“It was 80 degrees in Tampa when I left and then going to Vegas," she said. “And it was 90 degrees in the desert.”
Cash said she’s now booked on a flight that will take her to Tennessee before finally returning to Tampa by Tuesday afternoon.
The storms unfolded just as airport security screeners missed their first full paycheck over the weekend. The current partial government shutdown affects only the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration.
Democrats in Congress have said Homeland Security won’t get funded until new restrictions are placed on federal immigration operations following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this year.
It is the third shutdown in less than a year to leave TSA workers temporarily without pay. Once the government reopens, employees will have to wait for back pay.
Some airports have reported longer security lines because of staffing shortages as more TSA workers take on second jobs, can’t afford gas to get to work or leave the profession altogether. Homeland Security has said more than 300 TSA agents have quit since the start of the shutdown.
TSA union leaders in Atlanta held a news conference Monday outside Hartsfield-Jackson, warning that air travelers could face increasingly long wait times as the shutdown continues. Even so, union leaders said, many officers are still reporting to work despite mounting financial strain.
Many TSA workers “are coping with eviction notices, vehicle repossessions, empty refrigerators and overdrawn bank accounts,” said Aaron Barker, a local leader with the American Federation of Government Employees. Supporters behind him held signs reading, “We want a paycheck, not a rain check.”
Travelers flying out of New Orleans on Sunday and Monday were advised to arrive at least three hours early “due to impacts from the federal government’s partial shutdown,” Louis Armstrong International Airport said on X. And the airport in Austin, Texas, shared a video on X taken at 5:30 a.m. local time showing the security line spilling out onto the sidewalk outside.
Back in Atlanta, Mel Stewart and his wife arrived four hours earlier than usual for their flight out of Hartsfield-Jackson to make up for longer TSA lines.
“I think it’s being politicized way too much — way too much,” Stewart said Monday of the shutdown. “And these people are working. They work hard, and for TSA people not to get paid, that’s silly.”
Yamat reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press reporters Margery A. Beck in Omaha, Nebraska, and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to this report.
People wait in a departure terminal at Ronald Reagan National Airport, in Arlington, Va., Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Travelers wait in line at a security checkpoint at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilie Megnien)
People wait in a departure terminal at Ronald Reagan National Airport, in Arlington, Va., Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
A man sleeps in the baggage claim area of Ronald Reagan National Airport, in Arlington, Va., Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Jamie Sims left, and Carlos Serna, right, try to get some rest as they wait for their cancelled flight to El Paso, texas to be rescheduled at Love Field Airport in Dallas, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
