Cleveland Cavaliers superstar Donovan Mitchell couldn’t be prouder of his teammates after they took down the red-hot Chicago Bulls during Saturday’s showdown.
Cavs shorthanded vs. Bulls
The Bulls entered the contest on a three-game winning streak and winners of four of their last five outings. Meanwhile, the Cavs were down three starters with Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Darius Garland still out. It didn’t raise hopes up that Sam Merrill, who has been carrying the offensive load for Cleveland in the absence of the team’s superstar guards, was also ruled out due to a wrist issue.
Jarrett Allen and Max Strus were the only remaining starters on the team, with Isaac Okoro, Dean Wade and rookie Craig Porter Jr. filling in at the starting unit for the other absences.
With that said, expectations were high that the Bulls would be able to extend their streak and pile more misery on the Cavs. Not only does Chicago have DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic leading the way, but with Coby White on a tear recently, it definitely looked like the Wine and Gold were destined to lose.
Max Strus, Jarrett Allen explode for Cavs; Donovan Mitchell hyped
Despite the clear disadvantage they were facing, though, it didn’t bother Cleveland at all. Max Strus and Jarrett Allen took over and led the way for the Cavs as they took down the Bulls 109-95.
Strus top-scored for Cleveland with 26 points on 9-of-22 shooting. While he was inefficient from deep, the Bulls did allow him to take 17 shots from long range and made five out of those attempts. It certainly helped Strus that Allen dominated the glass, grabbing eight offensive rebounds on his way to a total of 17 boards. The one-time All-Star also dropped 19 points and had seven assists on the night.
Craig Porter Jr. didn’t waste the opportunity given to him as well, with the rookie exploding for 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting. He also had seven rebounds and eight assists as he made his presence felt all night long.
After witnessing the Cavs’ performance, Donovan Mitchell quickly took to X (formerly Twitter) to heap praise on his teammates. He called them “dog” to further highlight that never-say-die attitude and tenacity that they showed.
The Cavs definitely deserve a lot of credit for the win. It would have been easy to use their injury woes as an excuse to lose, but they fought hard from start to finish.
As Mitchell said, the Cavs have “some dogs” in them.