Cavs fall short on the road following late Bulls rally

Cleveland Cavaliers streak ends at five

The Cleveland Cavaliers ended a five-game winning streak after coming up short late against the Chicago Bulls, 117-104. The Cavs imploded in the final minutes after coming very close to mounting an impressive comeback on the road against one of the league’s top teams.

Cleveland remained on Chicago’s heels for nearly the entire match and had just gone on a 7-0 run to cut the deficit down to just a single point at the 4:18 mark of the final period, but the conference-leading Bulls dominated the remainder of the match to close the game out with a big win.

After the spirited last-ditch effort, the Cavaliers appeared to have completely run out of juice and allowed the Bulls to mount a suffocating 14-2 run of their own to dash any hopes of a potential comeback. In reality, it was their dismal second-quarter outing that dug the deep hole, to begin with.

Lauri Markkanen was the high man for the Cavs as he torched the nets against his former team, draining five triples en route to 28 points to go with five rebounds. Darius Garland continued his streak of double-doubles with 20 points and 12 assists, while rookie and fellow aspiring NBA All-Star Evan Mobley added 18 in the loss.

Meanwhile, DeMar Derozan and Nikola Vucevic tallied for 54 combined points to lead Chicago as they snapped their four-game skid.

Cavs look to bounce back at home

After an impressive win over Brooklyn that capped off the now-defunct win-streak, the Cavaliers had moved back up to fourth place in the East, but have now fallen back to sixth following the loss in Chicago and subsequent wins by both the Philadelphia 76ers and the Milwaukee Bucks.

Despite the loss, Cleveland continues to stand tall at 27-19, still only 2.5 games behind the conference-leading Bulls in a highly competitive division, and appears poised to make their first postseason appearance in four years.

The Cleveland Cavaliers will look to benefit from a couple of much-welcomed rest days ahead of the three-game homestand at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. Next up for the Cleveland Cavaliers are the Oklahoma City Thunder, New York Knicks, and the Milwaukee Bucks, beginning on January 19.