The Cleveland Cavaliers’ season could have unraveled after falling behind 2–0 to the top-seeded Detroit Pistons.

Instead, Donovan Mitchell and James Harden have dragged them right back into the series and have them just one win away from the Eastern Conference Finals.

Cleveland has won three straight games in this series to take a 3–2 lead over Detroit, turning what looked like a difficult second-round matchup into a legitimate chance to reach the franchise’s first conference finals since 2018.

For Mitchell, it would be the first time in his nine-year career to advance past the second round. Now in his fourth season with the Cavaliers, the 29-year-old guard has made the playoffs every year since entering the league. This postseason has already become the longest of his career, with 12 games played and counting.

Harden knows the latter stages of the playoffs far better. The 36-year-old has reached four conference finals and one NBA Finals in his career, though a championship has still eluded him across 17 postseason appearances. When Cleveland acquired him last February for Darius Garland, a younger All-Star guard 10 years his junior, the deal was immediately questioned. Harden was a former MVP, but also an aging star with a complicated playoff reputation. Pairing him with another ball-dominant guard in Mitchell did not exactly feel seamless on paper.

In reality, it has given Cleveland the balance it badly needed.

This older version of Harden has leaned more into being a veteran point guard and organizer. He still picks his spots, but his role is now built more around organizing the offense than carrying it. Mitchell remains Cleveland’s primary scoring option, and that balance has been clear in the Cavaliers’ three straight wins over Detroit.

In Game 3, Mitchell led all scorers with 35 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists, but Harden delivered the shots that mattered most late. After being criticized for clutch turnovers in the first two games, he steadied Cleveland down the stretch with a series of timely baskets, including the decisive step-back three in the final minute of a 116–109 win.

Game 4 was their most complete tag-team act yet. Harden carried the Cavaliers early, scoring 15 of his 24 points in the first half while Mitchell struggled to find his rhythm. Mitchell then took over after halftime, scoring 39 second-half points to finish with 43 in Cleveland’s 112–103 win. His second-half total tied the NBA playoff record for points in a half, matching Sleepy Floyd’s mark from 1987.

The Cavaliers brought a different version of the same formula to Game 5. Mitchell struggled through regulation, scoring only 14 points on 4-of-15 shooting, while Harden picked up the slack with 30 points, eight rebounds, and six assists. In overtime, Mitchell finally broke through, hitting all three of his shots, including his first and only three-pointer of the game, to help Cleveland secure a 117–113 win. It was Cleveland’s first road win of this year’s playoffs, and perhaps its most important one yet.

Detroit will not go out quietly, especially after proving all season that it can absorb punches and keep coming. The series now shifts back to Cleveland with the Cavaliers taking the first of two chances to close this series out.

For now, at the very least, the Harden-Mitchell experiment has already gone better than many expected. It has given Cleveland two distinct options to lead its offense, both with long playoff histories and a real chance to change how their postseason resumes are remembered.