CLEVELAND – There’s a good chance that as this is being read, Donovan Mitchell has just scored another basket against the Bulls.

Considering he finished with 71 – the most an individual player had ever dropped on the franchise – it wouldn’t be far-fetched.

The sting in the Bulls locker room after blowing the 21-point first-half lead to lose 133-130 in overtime to the Cavaliers?

It should have never reached that extra session.

With 4.1 seconds left and Cleveland down three, Mitchell made his first free throw, leaving him with no choice but to purposely miss the second. That he did, but then had the wherewithal to cut toward the rim, avoid the Patrick Williams box-out, and put his own miss in to tie the game.

DeMar DeRozan had a tough look on a three-point attempt and missed, and once the overtime started the Bulls looked defeated. They eventually were, as Mitchell continued his scoring assault in the extra session, giving him the highest scoring performance in the NBA since Kobe Bryant’s 81 in 2006.

“It’s humbling, and it hasn’t even sunk in yet,’’ Mitchell said after. “I haven’t been the best, and just needed to force myself into the game. I tried to set the tone early. Coming into the third, I just told myself, ‘Make the simple play.’ ‘’

That he did, scoring 24 points in the third alone.

But it was the free throw blunder that was hard for the Bulls (16-21) to swallow.

Coach Billy Donovan rarely criticizes anything outside of his own locker room, but had trouble with that play.

“It’s a clear violation, unequivocally [Mitchell was] crossing the line on the basket before the ball ever touches the rim,’’ Donovan said. “He beat Patrick, but kind of the reason he beat Patrick was because he went in there too early. Listen, in that situation we have to find a way to come up with the ball.’’

Williams knew that, and even had a hard time getting through the post-game interview without showing some of that emotion.

“I did hear other guys saying he kind of left early, regardless, I feel like we’ve got to come up with that rebound, regardless,’’ Williams said. “Obviously the officiating didn’t go our way all night, so shouldn’t have expected it to go our way late in the game, especially down the stretch.

“Put that on me. I’ve just got to get that rebound, anyway. I’ve just got to get it.’’

The other gut-punch in the latest loss was the Bulls couldn’t have asked for a better first half, looking like they knew Cleveland’s offensive sets better than the Cavs did.

Not only did they handcuff the home team for just 20 points in the second quarter, but went into the halftime locker room with six steals, and 13 points off of eight turnovers. Arguably the best opening half the Bulls have played since they dismantled Dallas early last month.

All that hard work quickly disappeared, however, and Mitchell was the reason why.

All Mitchell did was help cut into a one-time 21-point deficit, and doing it from everywhere. The one place that irked Donovan the most, however, was they put Mitchell at the free throw line far too often.

Of his 71 points, the guard hit 7-for-15 from three-point range, but also went 20-of-25 from the free throw line.

Donovan threw Alex Caruso on him, Ayo Dosunmu, double-teamed, everything and anything, and it still didn’t slow him down.

Near the end of his presser, Mitchell was asked if he had ever scored 71 in a game at any level, and after thinking about it, smiled and replied, “in [NBA]2K.’’

Note: Javonte Green missed his ninth game with inflammation in his right knee, and this latest setback was starting to concern the highly-energetic wing player enough so that he will again see team doctors in Chicago on Tuesday.