was in a state of disbelief after the second-round flameout.

“I love playing in that (bleeping) arena,” Mitchell said of Cleveland’s Rocket Arena after the team’s Game 5 elimination by the Pacers on Tuesday, per ESPN’s Jamal Collier. “That energy, that crowd. We were 0-3 at home, let the city down. This place is special. This place is really special and we didn’t get it done.”

Mitchell said the early exit will provide extra motivation heading into the offseason.

“We’ve had a lot of positives,” Mitchell said. “But we didn’t capitalize. Now we’ve got to use this motivation. Everybody’s going to write us off.”

The Cavs became the fourth team in NBA history to win at least 64 regular season contests and check out in the first or second round.

“I do feel like we got better,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “From the team aspect and then we had a lot of individuals make a step, so I just want to make that clear. But the truth of the matter is we didn’t get to the level we wanted to get to. So, I’m not pleased with that. And we’re not celebrating the season, if that all makes sense. But I do think we made strides. I think we took a jump. Now we got to figure out this last piece, how to get over this hump. And I was quite honestly expecting more, especially coming off the [first-round] Miami series.”

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