'That's Ass,' Donovan Mitchell Apologizes to Cavs Fans in Video After Knicks' Sweep in ECF

The Cleveland Cavaliers lost the last three contests of the Eastern Conference Finals to the New York Knicks by a combined 66 points, and Donovan Mitchell had quite the summary of the situation following Monday's Game 4.

"I'm sorry for the city of Cleveland for it to be like this in a sweep. That's ass," he told reporters.

It's hard to argue with his assessment, especially when it came to Game 4. The Knicks jumped out to a double-digit lead in the first quarter and never looked back on the way to a 130-93 victory as they easily clinched a spot in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.

New York fans also largely took over the crowd in Cleveland, much like they did in the second round when they faced the Philadelphia 76ers.

Mitchell was at least something of a bright spot for the Cavaliers and finished with 31 points on 9-of-18 shooting from the field and 5-of-9 shooting from deep. Yet teammate James Harden was just 2-of-8 from the floor and 0-of-6 from three-point range to go with five turnovers.

Harden had at least five turnovers in three of the four games and shot just 38.9 percent from the field during the series.

Knicks-Cavaliers Highlights

01:29

Despite the sweep, it seemed like Cleveland was going to be able to challenge the Knicks and perhaps even win the series in Game 1 when it jumped out to a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter. However, Mitchell and Co. blew that lead and ended up losing in overtime.

The Cavaliers never recovered from there and went home in the minimum amount of games while the Knicks now wait for the winner of the series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs after falling short in last year's Eastern Conference Finals to the Indiana Pacers.

"We can just use it as a learning lesson," Mitchell said. "It's a tough learning lesson. But now we know. … This team that we just faced had to go through this. Maybe not this way. But they've been together and had to go through this tough experience. It's our turn."