Donovan Mitchell scored a season-high 36 points, and the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Chicago Bulls 119-113 on Monday night to become just the eighth NBA team to begin a season with 12 straight wins.
Darius Garland scored 17 points for Cleveland, and Evan Mobley had 15 points and 11 rebounds. The Cavaliers scored at least 110 points for the 11th time this season. Their 12-0 record is the best start to a season since the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, who went 24-0 to open their campaign. That Warriors team finished the season 73-9, another record, although they lost the NBA finals to … the Cavaliers.
“It’s great to be part of history,” said Mitchell. “I never want to take those things for granted along the road when we’re doing it in various ways. We’re doing it in ways where we are blowing out teams. We’re winning from behind. We’re winning close games. And it’s somebody different every night leading the charge. It’s always a group effort.”
Garland rolled in a layup with 24 seconds left, and Mitchell made two free throws to help close it out.
Zach LaVine scored 26 points for Chicago, who lost for the fifth time in six games. Coby White and Nicola Vucevic each had 20 points. The Bulls opened a nine-point lead with 4:26 left in the third quarter before Cleveland bounced back late for a second straight game.
Five of the other seven teams who have started a season 12-0 have gone on to play in the NBA finals.
“This group is locked in,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said. “I do think there’s [been] questions about this group, whether they can get to the next level, can they make the next step? So, I think when you have that, you have that chip [on your shoulder], you focus even more. There’s another level of concentration, another level of focus, another level of detail that these guys use to carry us to 12-0 so far.”
Atkinson is in his first season with Cleveland and Mobley gave him credit for the changes he has made to a team who lost 4-1 to the Boston Celtics in last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals.
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“Kenny did a great job of infusing everybody,” Mobley said after the game. “We knew the defensive system coming in, and he had an offense scheme for us that he wanted to work out. And he mended that very well, and I feel like everyone just bought in right away. Since then, we’ve just been going up from there.”