CLEVELAND — The Chicago Bulls couldn’t play spoiler Friday night, fading down the stretch in a 144-126 loss to the unbeaten Cleveland Cavaliers in their first NBA Cup game of the season.
The Cavaliers racked up a franchise-record 49 points in the first quarter and 37 in the fourth behind Donovan Mitchell, who scorched the Bulls for 37 points, and Darius Garland, who added 29. Yet the Bulls trailed by only four with 2 minutes, 55 seconds to play.
Then came the final collapse. Ayo Dosunmu turned the ball over on a crucial play. Mitchell ripped off nine points in a little more than one minute. And in a blink, the four-point deficit turned into an 18-point defeat.
Mitchell scored 18 points in the final quarter for the Cavs, who are the sixth team to go 14-0 and first since the Golden State Warriors opened 24-0 in 2015-16. The Cavs’ 14-game winning streak is the longest in franchise history.
The Bulls fell to 0-5 all time in NBA Cup games.
Here are four takeaways from the loss.
1. A first quarter from hell
Nothing went right for the Bulls in the opening quarter. The Cavaliers went 19-for-22 (86.4%) from the floor, at one point bludgeoning the Bulls with a 27-point frenzy in fewer than five minutes. They scored the most points (49) of any team in a quarter this season, surpassing a 45-point quarter by the Minnesota Timberwolves — which also was accomplished against the Bulls.
Zach LaVine scrambled to keep up with Mitchell, who continued to pull up and fire jumpers with the cool confidence of a star whose team is undefeated. The Bulls eventually switched Patrick Williams onto Mitchell to combat his shooting with length, but that couldn’t help with the equally dangerous scoring of Garland, who ripped off an additional 15 points in the opening quarter while shooting 3-for-4 from 3-point range.
But while the teams traded 3s, the first-quarter onslaught was mostly lost in the paint, where the Bulls were outscored 20-6. Their inability to slow the Cavaliers at the point of attack led to unrelenting drives to the rim, where Cleveland did not miss a shot in the opening quarter. The defensive miscues continued throughout the game, leaving coach Billy Donovan baffled after the loss.
“When you have coverage breakdowns, when you’re giving up 12-for-12 at the rim — these things all add up,” Donovan said. “Our margin for error is not as such that we can have so many things like that and expect to finish out games against a really, really great team.”
2. The Bulls kept up the pace
How does a team respond to coughing up nearly 50 points in a quarter? By shooting their way out of it — which is exactly what the Bulls did. The Cavaliers cooled down in the second quarter, scoring only 28 points on 9-for-21 shooting. That kept the door open for a Bulls comeback.
Although LaVine was quiet — he finished with eight points on 4-for-16 shooting — the Bulls were powered by Coby White’s 29-point performance. White drained six 3-pointers for his sixth game this season with five or more. Nikola Vučević added 25 points and eight rebounds.
And the bench did its part after fading in prior games, providing 42 points. Matas Buzelis (nine points) went 3-for-3 from behind the arc while Dosunmu (15) went 2-for-3. The Bulls finished 20-for-42 from 3-point range with eight players making at least one.
Despite his frustration with the defensive effort, Donovan emphasized the importance of maintaining this offensive identity for the Bulls to remain competitive.
“That’s why I’m so disappointed — because our guys are putting so much into it,” Donovan said. “I love the way we’re trying to play. I love the commitment they’re making physically to the game. We need to help each other more on defense, but I really like the way we’re trying to play and they’ve been totally committed to it. As a coach, my frustration is more for them.”
3. Josh Giddey played himself out of the game
Perhaps the worst outing of the first half came from Giddey, who posted a minus-15 rating while going 1-for-5 from the field, picking up three fouls and turning the ball over twice. Giddey didn’t play for the final 11:23 of the first half, and Donovan benched him to start the second, opting for Dosunmu in the opening rotation.
Giddey checked in midway through the third quarter, then picked up his fourth foul after only 28 seconds and had to be subbed back out. But Dosunmu also was sitting on four fouls, so Donovan faced a quandary of which guard to favor down the stretch.
Donovan didn’t put Giddey back in until there were just under eight minutes left in the fourth. The Cavaliers pounced on him immediately. Garland blew by the guard on consecutive possessions, gobbling up the matchup on every possession until Donovan yanked Giddey barely two minutes later.
Giddey finished with a minus-27 rating after logging five points, one assist and four fouls. He played only five minutes in the second half and didn’t hold back in slamming himself for a “horrible” performance.
“I don’t blame it on the fouls,” Giddey said. “That was obviously part of it, but everything else was just as bad. I did foul and that was probably the reason I wasn’t in the game for long, but I wouldn’t play myself if I was Billy. No minutes tonight.”
4. Bulls remained winless in NBA Cup games
The Bulls are still seeking their first NBA Cup win after going 0-4 in last season’s inaugural tournament. They will play three more games in the group stage against the Washington Wizards, Atlanta Hawks and Boston Celtics.
NBA Cup standings were also the reason the Cavaliers left their starters in until the final buzzer. If teams are tied in wins at the end of the group stage, then advancement is determined by point differential, which means the Cavaliers benefited from racking up an 18-point margin well after the game was comfortably in hand.
The Bulls’ next NBA Cup game is Friday against the Hawks at the United Center.
Associated Press contributed.
