CLEVELAND — Donovan Mitchell didn’t just vault past LeBron James in one corner of Cavaliers’ lore Monday night, he enjoyed one of the finest regular-season games in NBA history.
Mitchell, 26, stunned the Chicago Bulls with 71 points in a 145-134 win in overtime, becoming just the sixth player to score more than 70 points in a game. Mitchell also nearly had a triple-double, adding 11 assists and eight rebounds.
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It’s been 25 years since Michael Jordan played for the Bulls, but he’s worth mentioning after this one. The best MJ could do for Chicago was 69 points in a game.
Wilt (five times). Kobe. The Admiral. Elgin. David Thompson. And now, Spida. The NBA’s 71 club.
“It’s humbling,” Mitchell said. “I’m speechless, to hear (those names). For me, not only did I do that, but I did it in an effort where we became back and won — and it’s how we won. That’s really for me, like, ‘man, this is nuts.’
“I’m extremely blessed and humbled that I’m in that company, in that group, and I’ve always believed that I can be one of the best players in the league, but I got to keep working.”
In 50 shocking minutes, Mitchell finished 22-of-34 shooting and set another career best with 20 made free throws in 25 attempts. Considering his final point total, his seven 3s almost seem pedestrian. It all came on a night when the Bulls got a ho-hum 44 points from DeMar DeRozan and led this game by as many as 21 points.
The Bulls led 130-127 with 4.4 seconds left when they fouled Mitchell as he brought the ball up, to deny him a chance at a game-tying 3. Mitchell made the first foul shot and missed the second, but as the ball was tapped about, he crashed into the lane and batted the rebound off the glass and in to send the game into overtime.
In the extra session, Mitchell made all four of his shots and registered 13 of the Cavs’ 15 points.
“I wish I saw it on ESPN against another team,” said the Bulls’ Zach LaVine. “I just wish we played better defensively, gave him better looks, something. Too late to say that now.”
Mitchell’s 71 points are tied with David Robinson and Elgin Baylor for the eighth-highest score in a single game in NBA regular-season history. Not only did Mitchell zoom past LeBron and Kyrie Irving as the Cavs’ highest scorer in a single game (each had scored 57 points), and comfortably set his own personal best score, but he set the high mark for the NBA season to date and is the first player to score at least 70 since Devin Booker notched 70 on March 24, 2017.
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“I don’t know how many guys in our league who in the moment, when it’s needed, could go out and have a performance like he did tonight,” Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “It wasn’t one of those games where we were in control or it was back and forth or it was a blowout in our favor. Every single play that he made was a play that was necessary. I don’t know how many guys in our league that can do what he did tonight.”
Mitchell’s previous personal best in a regular-season contest was 46 points, which he reached three times with the Utah Jazz. But in the same 2020 playoff series against the Denver Nuggets, Mitchell scored 57 and 51 points — with the 57 coming in an overtime loss.
“The closest I think I got (to 71 points) was in the Bubble, but that was in a loss,” Mitchell remembered. “This one feels a lot better.”
The Cavaliers were without Darius Garland (thumb sprain), their second-leading scorer and an All-Star last season, and Evan Mobley (right ankle soreness), the 2022 runner-up for Rookie of the Year.
Chicago led by seven with 5:38 to go on a DeRozan pull-up. The Bulls gave up the first 10 points in overtime and saw the Cavs open on a 13-2 tear — with 11 of the points coming from Mitchell.
“I am going to dwell on what we did have control of, and certainly one thing we had control over was we could have gotten that basketball at the end of regulation, and two, I think we could have not fouled as much,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said.
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(Photo: Ken Blaze / USA Today)
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