Getty Alex Caruso #6 of the Chicago Bulls defends Donovan Mitchell #45 of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
There is not going to be any easy way around this one. The Chicago Bulls (16-21) are in desperate need of some introspection, especially after the latest remarks from Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell.
Just about everything went wrong on a sour night for Chicago but they may have also got a little salt in their wounds.
Mitchell scored a Cavs franchise record 71 points, becoming the seventh person in NBA history to do so. It was Mitchell’s career-best, the highest in the NBA this season, and the most since the late Kobe Bryant scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors in 2006.
It was the most an individual player has scored against the Bulls in their franchise history.
Donovan Mitchell Compares Scoring on Bulls to 2K
“2K, for sure,” Mitchell said during his postgame press conference about whether or not he has ever had a game like this. “Definitely, when I first got into the league, I played as the Jazz and I was shooting it every time. I don’t think I did it this efficiently in 2k.”
The Bulls held Mitchell in check to begin, holding the three-time All-Star to just eight points on 2-of-7 shooting for most of the first half.
Mitchell opened the floodgates on them after drawing a technical foul, scoring eight more points over the final 1:33 of the first half, giving him 16 points on 50% shooting in the first 24 minutes of action. Worst of all, he was just getting started, going off for 24 points on 6-of-9 shooting in the third quarter.
He would add another 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting in the fourth including the game-tying putback on his own missed free throw in what the NBA’s last two-minute report confirmed should have been a lane violation just as Bulls head coach Billy Donovan predicted.
You can complain as much as you want about the fouls.
Mitchell was 20/25 from the line. He had 71. That’s 51 points without free throws.
Let’s not act like this was just bad officiating
Another 13 points in overtime put Mitchell into the record books alongside Bryant and Wilt Chamberlain which he said left him speechless. Mitchell, who also had 11 assists, seemed even more proud that the effort came in a win.
Mitchell recalled scoring 57 points against the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the 2020 playoffs that took place in a bubble down in Orlando.
“But that was in a loss,” the former Jazz star noted. “So this one feels a lot better.”
Cleveland is now 3-0 against the Bulls including a blowout in the latter’s home opener and has a 14-plus-point average margin of victory this season. They have one more meeting, in Cleveland, on February 11 and the Bulls could look very different by then since it’s just two days after the trade deadline.
Bulls Are a Broken Record
This is becoming the worst kind of trend for the Bulls. On top of allowing Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker to go off for 51 points in just three quarters, they have also allowed the Minnesota Timberwolves to score a franchise-record 150 points among other discouraging performances this season.
The theme of defensive breakdowns has been consistent and the team’s stars are aware of the issue.
Still, it keeps happening.
Calls for changes, namely via trade, have gone from a national to a local level with NBC Sports Chicago’s K.C. Johnson listing a trade as something he would like to see from the front office in the New Year.