The Cleveland Cavaliers are on fire to start the 2024-25 NBA season, and they showed no signs of slowing down on Friday night. In their NBA Cup opener against the Chicago Bulls, the Cavs went crazy in the first quarter, scoring 49 points in the opening 12 minutes to open up an early lead.
The 49 first-quarter points are the most in any quarter in franchise history, and they made 19 out of 22 shots from the floor to get there, according to Rob Perez of Sirius XM NBA.
They broke the record from the 2022-23 Cavs, who scored 47 points in a quarter against the New York Knicks. Every single one of the Cavs’ misses in this historic quarter came from behind the three-point line, where they finished 7-for-10. They were a perfect 12-for-12 from inside the arc.
The Bulls battled back over the course of the game, but they were eventually no match for the heroics of Donovan Mitchell and company in the fourth quarter. Mitchell exploded down the stretch for the second straight game as he scored 218 fourth quarter points to get to 37 for the game, setting a new season high. That outburst helped the Cavs turn what was a fairly close game into a 144-126 win, as they outscored the Bulls 37-24 in the fourth quarter.
Mitchell was a huge part of the bug first quarter too, as he knocked down a pair of threes and scored 11 points in the opening period. The Cavs stayed undefeated with the win, moving to 14-0 on the season after a historically good start. They are also off on the right foot in the NBA Cup as they try to make it out of the group stage and into the eight-team bracket. They will have three more games in group play against the Boston Celtics, Atlanta Hawks and Washington Wizards.
If the Cavs beat the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday, they will be 15-0 heading into that NBA Cup matchup with the defending champs. The Celtics lost their first group stage game against the Hawks, so they will be very desperate both to stay alive in the tournament and to end the Cavs’ unbeaten start.
