Donovan Mitchell's drive intensifies with the Cavaliers after Max Strus injury

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Donovan Mitchell's drive intensifies with the Cavaliers after Max Strus injury

2025-09-30 06:29 Last Updated At：07:01

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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What to know about May Day demonstrations as workers face rising energy costs due to Iran war

PARIS (AP) — Activists worldwide held May Day rallies and street protests Friday, calling for peace, higher wages and better working conditions as many workers grapple with rising energy costs and shrinking purchasing power tied to the Iran war.

May 1 is a public holiday in many countries to mark International Workers’ Day, or Labor Day, when workers’ unions traditionally rally around wages, pensions, inequality and broader political issues. Demonstrations were held from Seoul, Sydney and Jakarta to many European capitals. In the U.S., activists opposing President Donald Trump’s policies also held marches and boycotts.

“Working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East,” the European Trade Union Confederation, which represents 93 trade union organizations in 41 European countries, said. “Today’s rallies show working people will not stand by and see their jobs and living standards destroyed.”

What to know about May Day:

Rising living costs linked to the conflict in the Middle East emerged as a key theme in Friday’s rallies.

In the Philippine capital, Manila, large crowds denounced the U.S. role in the Iran war. Protesters clashed with police blocking the way near the U.S. Embassy.

On a main avenue in Casablanca, Morocco’s largest city, taxi drivers honked their horns and bus drivers parked their vehicles to protest rising fuel costs.

“All my expenses have gone up, but my wages haven’t budged,” Akherraz Lhachimi of the Moroccan Labor Union said.

Turkish authorities in Istanbul detained hundreds of demonstrators for attempting to march in areas declared off-limits on security grounds, most notably central Taksim Square, the epicenter of 2013 protests. May Day rallies in Turkey are frequently marred by clashes with authorities.

Tens of thousands of people crowded into a public square across from the U.S. Embassy in Havana, celebrating Cuba's workers and decrying U.S. sanctions. Many held banners that read, “Down with Imperialism” and “U.S. hands off Cuba.” President Miguel Díaz-Canel and former President Raúl Castro attended.

A demonstration in Santiago, Chile, ended with vandalism and clashes between protesters and police, who used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Other demonstrations in the South American nation were peaceful as thousands of workers took to the streets to demand better working conditions.

Several thousand people gathered across Portugal as unions rallied together to protest proposed changes to labor laws that would make worker dismissals easier, limit how long breastfeeding women can claim a flexible work schedule and reduce miscarriage bereavement leave, among other things.

“It’s the only voice we have. If it may or not have power over those that decide? That’s another issue, but we need to tell them we are not happy with what we have,” public sector worker Paulo Domingues said.

Several rallies were staged in South Africa, where the head of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Zingiswa Losi, said workers were “suffocating” under rising costs of food, electricity, transportation and healthcare.

May Day carries special meaning this year in France, after a heated debate about whether employees should be allowed to work on the country’s most protected public holiday — the only day when most employees have a mandatory paid day off.

Tens of thousands of people joined marches across the country, including in Paris, where brief scuffles with police broke out.

Almost all businesses, shops and malls are closed, and only essential sectors such as hospitals, transport and hotels are exempt.

A recent parliamentary proposal to expand work on the day prompted major outcry from unions and left-wing politicians. Faced with the dispute, the government this week introduced a bill that would allow bakeries and florists to open. It is customary in France to give lily of the valley flowers on May Day as a symbol of good luck.

“May 1 is not just any day,” Small and Medium-sized Businesses Minister Serge Papin said. “It symbolizes social gains stemming from a century of building social rules that have led to the labor code we know in France.”

In the United States, where May Day is not a federal holiday, May Day Strong, a coalition of activist groups and labor unions, urged people to protest under the banner of “workers over billionaires” and called for an economic blackout through “no school, no work, no shopping.”

Protesters voiced opposition to Trump's policies, including his immigration crackdown.

“We’re seeing tons and tons of attacks on working people and on oppressed communities from the Trump administration, both at home and abroad,” said Kathryn Stender, an activist with the Party for Socialism and Liberation who was among thousands at a rally in a Chicago park.

The atmosphere was festive, with Native American dancers, mariachi bands and monarch butterfly signs, which have become a symbol of the immigrant rights movement.

While labor and immigrant rights are historically intertwined, the focus of May Day rallies in the U.S. shifted to immigration in 2006. That’s when roughly 1 million people, including nearly half a million in Chicago alone, took to the streets to protest federal legislation that would have made living in the U.S. without legal permission a felony.

May Day, or International Workers’ Day, traces back more than a century to a pivotal period in U.S. labor history.

In the 1880s, unions pushed for an eight-hour workday. A Chicago rally in May 1886 turned deadly when a bomb exploded and police responded with gunfire. Several labor activists — most of them immigrants — were convicted of conspiracy and other charges; four were executed.

Unions later designated May 1 to honor workers. A monument in Chicago’s Haymarket Square commemorates them with the inscription: “Dedicated to all workers of the world.”

Associated Press journalists from around the world contributed to this report.