Cavaliers stars send blunt warning after latest win over Bulls

The Cleveland Cavaliers may have notched their 11th straight victory over the Chicago Bulls, but there was little cause for celebration in Chicago. The final score—139-117—painted a misleading picture of a game that required yet another desperate rally from Cleveland.

Against an injury-depleted Bulls squad missing six key contributors, the Cavaliers found themselves in an all-too-familiar position: playing from behind. This time, it was a 15-point deficit. A dangerous trend. A habit they can’t afford to keep.

“Unacceptable,” Donovan Mitchell said bluntly. “We have to stop doing that. We are a talented team and we are winning these games. But at some point it’s going to come back to bite us in the butt. We have to come out sharper. We have to come out and set the tone. Those things can’t happen.”

Donovan Mitchell’s warning has been brewing for weeks. Friday night, Cleveland fell behind 25-3 against Boston. On Sunday, Portland held a double-digit lead for most of the game before the Cavaliers came storming back in overtime.

Then came their contest against the Bulls, another sluggish start, another uphill battle. It’s a trend that’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, one that could spell trouble when the games matter most.

“It’s definitely a bad habit. We all know it is,” Jarrett Allen said. “We have these slow starts that we need to get rid of.

“When we start playing teams that are going to be in the playoffs, they are going to attack us early and we can’t always go down first and have to fight back.

“[It] makes it so much harder. But the thing about this team, we will develop a bad habit and we will change it in a couple of games. I’m not worried.”

This isn’t the first time Donovan Mitchell and the Cavaliers have had to fix issues hamstringing them

This isn’t the first time the Cavaliers have had to course-correct. When head coach Kenny Atkinson saw their defense slipping last month, he called it out—and the team responded.

Cleveland climbing back into the top three in defensive rating. When rebounding became an issue, they refocused and cracked the top five in that category. Now, their next challenge is clear: start strong, not just finish strong.

Tuesday’s game was a prime example of the problem. The Cavaliers missed 13 of their first 15 threes and struggled to generate any offensive rhythm.

They trailed at halftime. Again. It took a furious seven-minute stretch in the fourth quarter to flip the game, with Cleveland outscoring Chicago 32-10 to put things away. That’s a great sign of their potential. However, it’s also proof Donovan Mitchell and the Cavaliers aren’t playing a complete game.

“We have to be careful,” Atkinson admitted. “This league is too hard. We had a great fourth quarter, but for three quarters we were sleepwalking. If you play with your food too much … For a team with the best record in the league, that’s not our identity.”

And that’s what’s at stake. The Cavaliers have the best record in the East. They’re within reach of the No. 1 seed. But playoff basketball is different. No team gets away with sluggish starts against elite competition. They have the talent to dominate from start to finish—but they have to show it.

Cleveland has to slam the door on letting opposing teams gain confidence

The statistics are historic: longest active win streak, a 51-10 record, a franchise-best 16 wins by 20 or more points. But nobody inside that locker room is satisfied.

They know the real test is coming. The teams they’ll face in the postseason won’t be as forgiving. The moment they fall behind against an elite opponent, the comeback may never materialize.

It’s not just about the offense, either. Defensive breakdowns in the first half have allowed opposing teams to gain confidence.

Too often, the Cavaliers are playing catch-up instead of dictating the terms of the game. The coaching staff has emphasized that these sluggish starts are entirely within their control. It’s a matter of focus, urgency, and discipline.

There’s no doubt the Cavaliers have resilience. They’ve proved it time and time again. But if they want to make a deep playoff run, they need to eliminate the self-inflicted adversity. The coaching staff is hammering home that message: urgency from the opening tip, consistency for 48 minutes.

“I think it shows where our goals are and where we want to be,” Ty Jerome said. “We know how hard it is to get where we want to go, and we can’t keep messing around like that with the game like that.”

With the postseason on the horizon, the Cavaliers are running out of time to fix this. Their talent isn’t in question. Their ability to dominate is clear. Now, it’s about proving they can do it without waiting for a wake-up call.

Every game from here on out is an opportunity to tighten the screws, to refine their approach, and to establish the kind of identity that can carry them deep into the playoffs. If they don’t, the price could be steep.

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