Three years after Donovan Mitchell’s scoring performance that ranks among the best in NBA history, a weird detail from that night has surfaced. Cavaliers star revealed he had a few drinks on New Year’s Eve before dropping `71 points the next day.
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What makes the admission even more surprising is that Mitchell says he had never done anything like it before or since.
“We played them on New Year’s Eve. Then we had New Year’s in Cleveland. Then we played the next day. Now, I will say this. I’ve never drank before a game in my life. It was New Year’s. So I did have a few drinks the night before the game. Never done that in my career. Haven’t done it since…..So I tell people like that was probably would have, you know, allowed me to have the night I had.”
Speaking on Cousins with Vince Carter & Tracy McGrady, Mitchell explained the unusual circumstance of Cleveland’s schedule.
The result was anything but ordinary. On January 2, 2023, Donovan Mitchell erupted against the Bulls, shooting 22-of-34 from the field and knocking down seven three-pointers while carrying a depleted Cavs lineup.
He needed every one of those points.
Late in the fourth quarter, Spida Mitchell intentionally missed a free throw with Cleveland trailing, raced through the defense, collected his own rebound and converted a wild shot to force overtime. He then dominated the OT, scoring 13 of the Cavs’ 15 points as they escaped with a 145-134 victory.
The performance placed Mitchell among the small group of players to ever score at least 70 points in an NBA game. Afterward, the significance was not lost on him.
“To be in the record books with guys like Wilt is truly humbling,” Donovan Mitchell said. “I always believed I could be one of the best players in this league, but to do this, it’s speechless.”
Yet that night has remained an outlier. Mitchell has continued to rank among the NBA’s most dangerous offensive players, but he has not come close to reproducing the explosion. More than three years later, his highest scoring output since that game has stopped at 48 points.
Can Donovan Mitchell Break His Scoring Record Again?
A second 71-point performance would already be difficult to imagine. Mitchell’s own revelation about preparing for the first one makes the feat even stranger: he had a few drinks on New Year’s Eve before facing Chicago the following day.
Mitchell stressed that he had never consumed alcohol before a game and has not done it since. Somehow, he produced the greatest scoring night of his career, later suggesting the unusual circumstances may have helped him deliver the performance.
Replicating it would require more than the same shot-making. Donovan Mitchell went 22-of-34 from the field. He drilled seven 3-pointers and scored 13 of Cleveland’s 15 OT points. The combination of efficiency, volume, and circumstances made the 71-point explosion extraordinarily difficult to reproduce.
His current supporting cast also changes the equation. James Harden gives Cleveland another high-usage scorer and elite playmaker, meaning Donovan Mitchell has less reason to control every possession.
Peyton Watson’s inclusion adds another two-way option alongside Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, allowing the Cavs to distribute their offensive burden more evenly.
That could actually make Mitchell more efficient while making another historic scoring binge less necessary.
The alcohol revelation adds an unusual layer to the story. Mitchell has effectively ruled out repeating that preparation. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers’ deeper roster gives him fewer opportunities to reach the extreme workload that produced 71.
He remains capable of another scoring eruption. Still, matching his career-high may require the same rare combination of volume, efficiency, and circumstance that produced it.
Three years later, that night remains an outlier, and perhaps one Mitchell will never recreate.