Bulls Coach Billy Donovan Points Out Chicago's Critical Weakness

The Chicago Bulls came one point away from erasing a 29-point deficit against the Cavaliers on Thursday night. Moral victories don't mean much at this stage of the season, but they do provide learning opportunities for a mostly young team.

Cleveland led the Bulls, 93-64, with 1:40 to go in the third quarter. Chicago then used a 38-10 run to make it a 103-102 game before eventually falling to the Cavs, 115-110.

The effort that it took from Billy Donovan's group to come back was undeniable; that's the first step in rebuilding the Chicago Bulls. However, the Bulls still have a long way to go to make sure they don't find themselves in those massive holes again.

Donovan acknowledged how much his team cares and wants to succeed, both individually and collectively, but also singled out a key area for his squad to improve on moving forward.

"We get down too much, and we've got to become a lot tougher mentally when things are not going our way," Donovan said after the loss. "I thought the biggest difference from the middle of the third to the end of the game and the first half was that when things weren't going well, we hung our heads too much. It was more self-directed — when guys made a mistake, they turned it over, they missed a shot, they missed a defensive assignment — and I thought it just drained us. We've got to be able to keep pulling together."

By halftime, Chicago had committed 13 personal fouls and 12 turnovers. Cleveland led at the break, 61-45, as five James Harden three-pointers continued to demoralize the Bulls.

The veteran leaders remained vocal on the bench, though, according to Donovan. Players like Tre Jones, Guerschon Yabusele and Collin Sexton encouraged the other Bulls to stay in the fight, which eventually led to the Bulls' near comeback.

Chicago outscored Cleveland in the fourth quarter, 37-22, by shooting 56.0% from the floor and turning the ball over just once. Yabusele and Leonard Miller each scored 10 points as the leading contributors in the final frame, while Josh Giddey tallied seven of his 19 assists.

"There's just some things that we're going to have to fight through as a team with this group coming together like it has," Donovan continued. "If we don't do that, it becomes really tough. I thought the biggest difference was just the way we competed and how we fought when things were not going great. We switched that switch there, and it got us back into the game."

The Bulls have 12 games remaining in their 2025-26 regular season, and they'll need to show a lot more of that fight down the stretch to build optimism heading into the offseason.