Alan Kornspan
Believeland Media
The Cleveland Cavaliers traveled to Chicago to take on the Bulls on Monday night at the United Center.
The Cavs, trying to win their twelfth game in a row to start the season, trailed by one point at the end of the first quarter.
The Cavs then took a one point, 67-66, lead into halftime.
With 4:26 left in the third quarter, the Bulls took a nine point lead over the Cavs. However, the Cavs regained the lead, 95-92, heading into the fourth quarter.
The game remained extremely close until the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
In fact, the Bulls tied the game at 106-106 after Zach LaVine drained a two point field goal.
In the final five minutes of the contest, the Cavs outscored the Bulls, 13-7, to claim a 119-113 victory.
In the post-game press conference, Cavs Head Coach Kenny Atkinson said that the Bulls played well and that they were tough to stop on the defensive side of the court.
Atkinson said that to try to slow down the Bulls offense, the Cavs played various defenses including a 2-3 zone.
“They're really fast, they spread you out with five out stuff,” said Atkinson.
Atkinson also said that fatigue was a factor against the Bulls since the Cavs were playing their third game in four nights.
With the Cavaliers getting behind late in the third quarter, they certainly had to stay focused in order to overcome adversity.
And that's what they did.
Cavs star shooting guard Donovan Mitchell said that the Cavs demonstrated a gritty performance.
“(This game took), grit, determination, fortitude, it took everybody,” said Mitchell. “I think the biggest thing for us, I got to give credit to the bench, they came in and really changed the game. You could tell we were a little mentally fatigued.”
As Mitchell mentioned, the Cavs needed contributions from both the starters and bench players in order to defeat the Bulls.
In fact, the Cavs were led offensively by starters Donovan Mitchell (36 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists), Darius Garland (17 points, 5 assists, 2 rebounds), and Evan Mobley (15 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists).
In addition, the Cavs bench players played great. Ty Jerome, Caris LeVert, and Georges Niang all had 12 points off the bench to help propel the Cavs to victory.
After the victory, head Coach Kenny Atkinson and shooting guard Donovan Mitchell spoke about the great start to the Cavs season.
“To have a great start like this is unique, and to be honest, something to celebrate,” said Atkinson. “I think this group is locked in."
Mitchell added, “It's great to be part of history. You don't want to take those things for granted along the road. We're doing it in various ways. We're doing it in ways where we are blowing out teams, where 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."
The Cavs will now try to win their 13th game in a row when they face the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night.
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