CLEVELAND — The leap between being a great team and being a championship-caliber one is the hardest to make. This series shows that the Cleveland Cavaliers have a lot of work to do before they can say they’re on that level.

This was supposed to be a somewhat even matchup with the New York Knicks, but it wasn’t.

The Knicks dominated every aspect of the series since the fourth quarter of Game 1. That continued as they completed their sweep with a 37-point victory in Game 4.

The ending to this season was always going to be messy, but this was much worse than anyone could’ve reasonably expected.

This series, and the playoffs as a whole, were a referendum on Donovan Mitchell.

This group was constructed around Mitchell. Each player was brought here because they either cover up a weakness or accent one of Mitchell’s skills. So when Mitchell isn’t playing at a star level, things can get sideways quickly.

It’s not impossible for elite playoff teams to gameplan around a 6’2” guard who can only score at a high level. We’ve seen this throughout his four postseason runs in Cleveland, and did so again here.

Each team the Cavs ran into this postseason was able to take Mitchell out of his comfort zone.

The Toronto Raptors were physical at the point of attack and able to switch every on-ball screen. The Detroit Pistons put one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, Ausar Thompson, on Mitchell, making it difficult for him to get to his spots. And then the Knicks just crowded the paint, making it difficult to get anything going inside.

This all added up to Mitchell accumulating his lowest point total and the least efficiency in his last three postseason runs.

Throughout the playoffs, the Cavs were better with Mitchell off the court than they were with him on. They lost the minutes he’s played in 12 of the 18 postseason games. This includes every matchup against the Knicks.

Mitchell had good moments — including an impressive Game 7 in Detroit — but they made it to this point despite his play on the court, not because of it. That’s a problem.

Game 4 showed this again.

It was a four-point game when James Harden subbed out with three minutes left in the first quarter. Evan Mobley and Mitchell anchored a hybrid bench lineup without him. And by the time Harden came back into the game, it was a 12-point game.

This had been happening all postseason. Mitchell couldn’t elevate groups when Harden isn’t on the court, even when he’s going up against other teams’ bench units. As a result, the Cavs are losing the minutes Mitchell plays without Harden by 9.4 points per 100 possessions going into Game 4. Overall, the Cavs were outscored in when Mitchell is on the court by 1.4 points per 100 possessions.

It’s fair to wonder if the Mitchell and Harden pairing can ever work in the postseason. Far too often, the flaws of the backcourt — mostly on the defensive end — came through while their strengths didn’t. Those lineups weren’t outstanding offensively, and didn’t hold up well on the other end.

The duo didn’t have much time to gel in the regular season. Figuring out an entirely new playing style with under 1,000 regular-season possessions is nearly impossible. That alone could give you hope that they could improve.

“He’s helped this group and myself get somewhere we’ve never been,” Mitchell said of Harden. “And that’s with three months of work, three months of prep, three months of whatever. Now, you have a full summer of conversations, of film, of working out together, training, you have a whole year now.”

All that said, banking on them doing so is far from a guarantee, given both players’ track record in the postseason and Harden’s age.

For as inconsistent as this postseason was, the Cavs don’t get to this point without Mitchell.

This regular season was a disaster in so many ways. A combination of injuries to key players, the offseason acquisitions not living up to their standards, and a general step backward from most of the remaining pieces resulted in this team being 17-16 just after Christmas. For context, they didn’t lose the 16th game of the season before until the beginning of April.

This could’ve, and honestly, should’ve been a lost season. However, it wasn’t.

“He’s the number one reason we went to the conference finals,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said of Mitchell. “He took it to another level. Led even better than he did the year before. Adapted to a new roster. … With his communication, his leadership, he kind of made that work on the fly.”

For as frustrating as it ended, you don’t accidentally make it to the conference finals. That’s something you have to earn, and the Cavs proved something that they haven’t previously during this postseason run. However, just getting to the conference finals wasn’t the end goal, and there’s no guarantee that you will get back to that point.

This all makes deciding what they should do in the summer so much more difficult.

The argument for making a drastic change is straightforward. We’ve seen this group not play up to their standards in too many postseasons to run back the same basic two guard, two big structure and expect the result to be different.

Figuring out the perfect move that gets them over the hump isn’t.

Do you try to make a big swing for a player like Giannis Antetokounmpo? This would require giving up multiple key players and draft picks to do so, and then you’d have to figure out a way to retool the roster around a new number one.

Would doing everything you could to convince LeBron James to return for one more go around turn them into championship contenders?

Is there a way to retool and get younger, while not losing your standing in the conference?

There is still merit to wanting to avoid shaking things up too much. After all, this run showed that they can have postseason success. If they handle business quicker and shoot better against New York, this would be a very different conversation. A full offseason with Harden trying to figure out a more concrete playing style on both ends of the floor should help as well.

“I have no doubts that this group can get there,” Mitchell said. “I’ve said this all year. I think the biggest thing is you use this as a learning lesson. It’s a tough learning lesson, but now we know. … This team that we faced had to go through this. They’ve been together and had to go through this tough experience. So this is our turn.

“And I’m sorry for the city of Cleveland, for it to be like this, a sweep, like, that’s ass. But I told y’all last year, and I’ll say it again, we’ll be ready, and we’ll be hungry, and be locked in.”