Mitchell’s 36-point explosion helps Cavs maintain perfect NBA record

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

12-0.

The NBA’s best team right now. Make way for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Despite coming off a grueling come-from-behind win over the Brooklyn Nets, Cleveland showed no signs of slowing down and maintained their perfect NBA record with a grind-it-out victory against the Chicago Bulls, 119-113, in the ongoing regular season on November 12, 2024.

With another win, the Cavaliers just extended their best NBA start in franchise history. They have yet to drop a matchup in 12 games.

After a sub-par performance against Brooklyn, Cleveland’s superstar Donovan Mitchell knew when to bounce back and torched Chicago with his best offensive outing of the season so far, dropping 36 massive points.

Mitchell was a huge problem on both ends of the floor for the Bulls, dissecting them with his deep scoring bag, which stood out on the road. Despite the soft double teams that Chicago deployed in the second half, the athletic shooting guard still found the small gaps and continued attacking them, putting them in early foul trouble situation.

In 34 minutes of playing time, Mitchell buried a game-high seven three-pointers and also tallied an all-around outing of eight rebounds, four steals, and two assists.

Despite Chicago’s early stand courtesy of Zach Lavine’s scoring offensive run, the Bulls regressed in the second half hounded by costly turnovers and a ton of wide-open missed shots from downtown.

Cleveland then capitalized on that window of opportunity and sensed blood in the final five minutes of the ball game.

During that crucial stretch, Caris LeVert also played huge for the Cavaliers, sinking clutch treys that increased Cleveland’s cushion to seven points with only two minutes remaining in the game.

Savvy floor general Darius Garland then drained the ice-cold game-sealing layup upon receiving the matchup mismatch he had against Nikola Vucevic.

Evan Mobley, Cleveland’s star power forward, extended his streak of double-doubles after registering 15 markers and 11 rebounds.

Garland backstopped Mitchell on the offensive department with 17 points alongside five dimes, four steals, and two rebounds.

On the other hand, Chicago’s dynamic duo of Lavine and Zuvevic combined for 46 points, but their efforts were put to waste against the rolling Cleveland team that is the best in the NBA right now.