Donovan Mitchell scored a hat trick Sunday, achieving career, season and Cleveland Cavaliers team milestones in a single game.
Just three minutes into the first quarter, facing the Dallas Mavericks, he drained his 200th three-pointer of the season. The 2025–26 campaign marks the fourth time Mitchell has beaten at least that many in a season.
At the 8:45 mark of the third, on a pass from backcourt partner James Harden, Mitchell drilled another trey from 25 feet on the left wing to surpass the 15,000 mark.
Mitchell is the fifth NBA player to reach 15K since entering the league in 2017. Since that time, only Harden, DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo have accomplished the feat. According to Stathead, he is also the 35th player in NBA history to record 15,000 points in his first nine seasons.
Then, in the final frame, Mitchell recorded a 20-point game for the 193rd time, and in the process passed franchise legend Mark Price for sixth-most all-time in Cavs history. He needs only four more to make the jump to World B. Free to make the top five (196).
It has been a remarkable year for Mitchell in many ways, which deserves much praise.
New-look Cavs going through tough first stretch together
The Cavs are 4-5 in their last nine games, having been swept by the Orlando Magic and Toronto Raptors for the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference.
It is the first time that this version of the team has run into issues, after Mitchell, the returning Max Strus and Cleveland head coach Kenny Atkinson described the Mavs as a "bad loss."
"I'm not going to use the word concern," Mitchell said. "I think it's something that we have 12 games to fix and move on from there. With the current structure of the group we haven't had this, really any, adversity. So how do we handle it, right? Like, two tough losses defensively, that really hurt us. We go back and watch film. We're going to have an important trip, and then when we come back. We'll have some home games, right?
"That's going to be the biggest thing. It's not always going to happen... We would love to go out there and win these games, but you learn more through these losses, and use it to improve and get better."
