Even Donovan Mitchell found himself surprised by James Harden's "special" alley-oop pass during Cleveland Cavaliers 112-84 win over Brooklyn Nets
The Donovan Mitchell, James Harden pairing is off to a roaring start.
Since Harden made his Cleveland Cavaliers debut against the Sacramento Kings on Feb. 7, the wine and gold are 4-0. That's on top of being 5-0 in the month of February overall, and 15-5 since the new year.
Things are rolling right now for Cleveland, perhaps at the perfect time, and for the new additions to be fitting in so quickly is a pretty remarkable feat. That was on full display during the team's 112-84 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday night.
Just three minutes into the 1st quarter, Harden and Mitchell connected for what instantly became one of the top plays on ether players career highlight reel.
Nets forward Noah Clowney drove baseline and tried to toss the ball into the key, looking for a cutting teammate, only for the ball to end up in the hands of Harden instead, who intercepted it and darted the opposite direction for a fast break opportunity.
Mitchell trailed the play out wide to Harden's right, following his new teammates lead as he went coast-to-coast with the ball. Harden understood where Mitchell was in his peripheral vision, and as he closed in on the basket sold his lob as a shot attempt that instead wound up as a perfect feed for Mitchell to throw it down with one hand.
The sequence brought the house down; it also symbolized just how in sync this team appears to be right now, despite the new additions and Thursday being the first game out of the All-Star break.
Mitchell knew instantly it was a special play.
"Honestly, I didn't even think I was gonna dunk it," Mitchell said after the game. "And he threw it up there and I went and got it. I was really nervous about falling on, whoever it was under the basket and that's why I hung on the rim. But that's a special pass, knew to put it there, knew to act like he was shooting. And I'm definitely putting that one on the wall, for sure."
If the Cavs go on to make a deep playoff run or even end up hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy come June, Harden's alley-oop to Mitchell will go down as one of the most memorable plays in franchise history.
It may already be.
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