Good news for the Chicago Bulls, as head coach Billy Donovan confirmed. The Cleveland Cavaliers might have stretched their winning streak to 11 games after taking down the Chicago Bulls, but you wouldn’t have known it by stepping into their locker room at the United Center. No big celebrations. No high-fives. Just a quiet understanding that, despite all these wins, something still isn’t right.
On paper, a 139-117 victory looks dominant. But anyone who watched the game knows that score doesn’t tell the whole story. Once again, the Cavs dug themselves into a hole—this time against a depleted Bulls squad missing six key players. They trailed by as many as 15 points, forced to mount yet another furious comeback. It’s becoming a pattern. And they know it.
“Unacceptable,” Donovan Mitchell said without hesitation. “We can’t keep doing this. Yeah, we’re winning games, but eventually, it’s gonna catch up to us. We need to start games better. Set the tone. These slow starts can’t keep happening.”
It’s hard to argue with him. This isn’t just a one-off issue—it’s becoming part of who they are. Just last week, Boston jumped out to a 25-3 lead before the Cavs stormed back to steal a win. A few nights earlier, they let Portland build an 18-point lead at home before flipping the switch. And against Chicago? Same story, different night.
These sluggish starts aren’t just bad luck. They’re becoming a habit. And not a good one.
“We all know it,” Jarrett Allen admitted. “It’s a bad habit. When we start playing playoff teams, they’re gonna come at us hard. We can’t always be the team that has to climb back. That makes things way harder. But the thing about this team? We recognize our bad habits, and we fix them. I’m not worried.”
He’s got a point. The Cavs have already proven they can adjust. When their defense started slipping, they tightened up and became a top-three unit over the last 15 games. When rebounding became an issue, they cleaned it up and cracked the top five in boards since late January.
Now, the next step is obvious: stop waiting until the fourth quarter to show up.
That was the story again in Chicago. For three quarters, the Cavs looked off. They bricked 13 of their first 15 threes and put up just 24 points in the opening frame. They went into halftime trailing—again. Then, with the game still up for grabs, they flipped the switch. A 32-10 run. A dominant 43-23 fourth quarter. The box score made it look like a blowout, but the players knew better. It never should’ve been that close.
“We’ve gotta be careful,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “This league is too tough. We had a great fourth quarter, but for three quarters, we were sleepwalking. If you play around too much… eventually, it’s gonna cost you.”
And that’s the danger for Cleveland. Right now, they’ve got the best record in the East. They’re closing in on the No. 1 seed. But in a seven-game series against a battle-tested opponent? They won’t have the luxury of waiting until the final stretch to get serious.
“We weren’t playing our brand of basketball,” Allen said. “It just clicked at the end.”
Sure, the numbers are impressive—11 straight wins, a 51-10 record, a franchise-best 16 blowout victories. But this team isn’t chasing regular-season success. They’ve got bigger goals. And if they want to reach them, they can’t keep letting teams punch first.
Right now, they’re getting away with it. But come playoff time, they know the margin for error will be razor-thin.
