Recap: Cavs 112, Bulls 102 (Or, 14: Moon rises, LeBron proves why he’s at the top)
2010-04-19Overview: The Chicago Bulls played the Cavaliers tough, but the Cavs were able to pull out a 112-102 win by outscoring the Bulls 35-25 in the fourth quarter. LeBron James finished with a line of 40/8/8 and took over the game in the fourth. Joakim Noah led the Bulls with 25 points.
Game Summary:
-Give the Bulls a lot of credit. They looked like a completely different team on Monday. They made the extra pass, moved the ball from side to side, and only turned it over four times. They also dominated the Cavs on the offensive glass, to the tune of a 13-5 advantage in offensive rebounds. They looked to attack, and Noah was trailing every play for a layup or a put-back. They outscored the Cavs 56-38 in the paint. The Bulls did everything in their power to get a game on the road, but in the end the Cavs had too much three-point shooting and too much LeBron James for Chicago to handle.
-The 09-10 Cavaliers flummox me for a number of reasons. Chief among them is that they seem to be two completely different teams. When they execute offensively and make their shots, they get lax with their defense and rebounding. When they get stagnant on offense and miss open shots, they start locking teams down and beating them to every loose ball.
The 08-09 Cavs would dominate on both ends against teams they could handle, but struggled when they couldn’t impose their will on elite teams. This year’s squad is confident they can beat anybody, but will let weaker teams make it a game. It’s worked so far, but it hasn’t been great for my peace of mind.
Anyways, the first two games of this series were a microcosm of the 09-10 Cavs. In game 1, the Cavs locked down the Bulls but couldn’t establish their offense. In game 2, the Cavs gave up 102 points to an iffy offensive team but scored at will. Go with what works, I suppose.
-The Cavs started out the game doing all the right things on offense. They started their offense close to the basket, and looked to get LeBron by getting him some catches on the move for easy layups. It worked. When the Bulls collapsed, the Cavs kicked it out and hit an open three. As a result of that, all of the Cavs’ points in the first came from shots at the rim, threes, and free throws. Exactly what you want. At the end of the quarter, James Johnson decided to try and get physical with LeBron on the perimeter. Pieces of his pride are still scattered around the Q.
-The Cavs missed so many chances to break this game open it’s ridiculous. At the end of the first quarter, Jamario Moon failed to complete an easy alley-oop chance that would’ve put the Cavs up 12. He then compounded the problem by letting Ronald Murray get to the rim in the final seconds of the quarter.
In the second quarter, LeBron made a crushing block on Luol Deng and missed a wide-open three on the ensuing possession that would have put the Cavs up eight. Instead, Deng came back and dunked to cut the lead to three. Mo bricked a transition three that would have put the Cavs up nine, and the Bulls got a fast-break dunk off the long rebound. This kind of thing happened countless times. Every time the Cavs were on the verge of breaking it open, they got a little careless and let the Bulls back in it.
-The second quarter was not Cavalier basketball. Way too many offensive rebounds for the Bulls, and they were knocking down open shots. LeBron hitting four mid-range jumpers in the quarter was the only thing that allowed the Cavs to keep the lead. LeBron hitting mid-range jumpers is not something the Cavs should need to rely on against a .500 team.
-The Cavs had success going to Shaq early in the third, but he got into foul trouble and ended up sitting the rest of the way. The Cavs made some jumpers to keep their heads above water while the Bulls got whatever they wanted and scored 27 points in the quarter to tie the game heading into the fourth.
-The heartening thing about this game is that the Cavs didn’t back down when they got challenged. In the fourth quarter, everyone on the Cavs stepped up and made plays when they were asked to. While LeBron sat, Antawn had a nice floater in the post and Delonte made a huge and-1. (Delonte once again failed to put the Bulls away when he bricked a layup on the Cavs’ next possession.) Jamario drained a contested three.
Then LeBron entered the game. He scored 15 points in the last eight minutes of the game, and assisted on Anderson Varejao’s clutch jumper to boot. (Anderson Varejao’s clutch jumper!?)
After Andy made that shot, LeBron hit a huge three over Noah to put the Cavs up six with 4:20 to play. Then, because he’s LeBron, he decided to try a 17-foot up-and-under shot his next time down the floor. I have never seen him make or attempt that shot before. Why not try it out in a close playoff game? He missed, but got the offensive rebound back and drew the foul. He’s LeBron. It always works out. Then he dodged Noah in mid-air for a twisting lefty layup. Then he nailed two contested jumpers for the sheer fun of it. When the Bulls finally doubled him up top, he passed out of it and the ball got swung to Moon for the dagger three. LeBron is better at basketball than you are at most things.
The game wasn’t the dominant performance most people expected, but it followed the blueprint the Cavs have been following all season. Balance early, LeBron late. Once again, the Cavs allowed the game to stay close until the final seven minutes, and counted on LeBron to hit the afterburners. I’m not thrilled that this game was in doubt at any point, but that’s how the Cavs have played all year.
Cavs-Related Bullets:
-Good God, LeBron. 40 points on 77% True Shooting. Eight assists and eight rebounds. 20 points on 16 jumpers. Fourth-quarter takeover. Two crushing blocks. In a playoff game that saw the Cavs in serious trouble at home. Games like this deserve to be etched as a stone tablet. This season, it’s just what he had to do to keep himself from becoming a punchline this off-season.
-Shaq looked fine when he was in there, but foul trouble is foul trouble. Hopefully he can keep his nose clean for the rest of the series.
-Andy had some nice moments, but he hasn’t quite looked like himself so far this series. Maybe he’ll turn it around in Chicago.
-Antawn Jamison: 14 points on 12 shots, four rebounds, three assists. A few jumpers mixed in with some nice cuts and a post move or two. It’s the same. thing. every. night. It’s getting creepy. Not complaining, though.
-Mo’s shot was off, but he looked to be aggressive. He got six assists, but the best news is the eight free throw attempts. And he flat-out earned four of those free throws, with two other ones coming from a savvy rip move. Good to see a 90% free throw shooter trying to get himself to the line.
-GLOBETROTTER GOOSENECK FOR THE WIN. Yes, I wrote a few days ago that I didn’t trust Jamario to make big threes. Well, I’m bad at life. He was flat-out money from deep tonight. He was huge in the fourth quarter. Play him until he starts missing. By the way, when Jamario does the goosey it may actually mean that he made a pact with evil forces in order to make big threes in the playoffs. And you know what? I’m fine with that. In all seriousness, Jamario had a great game tonight.
Bullets of Randomness:
–Begrudgingly give Joakim Noah some credit. I know he’s been trolling the city of Cleveland. He’s like that. But he talked trash and backed up by having one of the best games of his career against a hostile crowd. He was instrumental in keeping the Bulls in the game tonight. He was everywhere on the boards, played great off the ball, and even had some nice moves off the dribble on offense. Yes, he’s a jerk. But it’s not like he talked trash for his 15 minutes and then failed to back it up at all on the court. (*cough*DeShawn*cough)
-Rose got his points, but once again had to work for them. I’ll live with 23 points on 24 FGA every day of the week.
-Deng seems to have found some life — he looked worlds better tonight.
Alright, that’s all for tonight. The glass-half empty view is that Chicago gave Cleveland something to worry about tonight, and will give them hell when the series goes to United. The glass-half full view is that the Cavs took the Bulls’ best shot tonight and remain standing. We’ll see what the real deal is on Thursday. Until then, folks.
The other side effect of no movement on offense, its simple to defend and easy to box out which limits second chance points and extra possessions, if LeBron isn’t hitting.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see when we go up against Orlando. Statistically speaking his mid range game won’t be anywhere near what it was last night. So I don’t think SVG is going to freak out if LeBron is the only one scoring for most of the 4th quarter, except maybe game 7 :-)
@James: Not to mention its how all of Jordan’s teams and Kobe’s team last year operated. Team involved early, best player takes over at the end. The difference in the score is irrelevant.
What if LeBron had had that streak to end the second quarter? Then the rest of the team scored in the 4th. The Cavs still win by the same score. Doesn’t make sense.
“LeBron is better at basketball than you are at most things.”
should read
“LeBron is better at basketball than you are at anything.”
It’s kinda funny that people are upset about the Cavs’ late-game offense, seeing as they’ve won game after game this way all season. In fact, big wins over the Lakers and Magic came when LeBron took over a close game in the final minutes. While some of their scorers disappeared at times during the game, the offense all game wasn’t really a problem. After all, they scored 112 points. When Lebron sat out to start the 4th, the team managed to build a lead. If there’s something to complain about, it’s the suspect interior defense and the difference on the… Read more »
@Tom Pestak: Its because of last year. Last year, the Cavs lucked out by playing an inferior team that had given up on the season. This year, the Cavs are again playing an inferior team, but the team they are playing (as you said earlier) actually cares and wants to win. That’s why you don’t see ANY teams winning blowouts. Every team in this postseason thinks they can win, and therefore is still trying to win. The Lakers are clearly superior, but they struggled with the Thunder. Why? Because the Thunder think they can win and are playing as hard… Read more »
@Hylton – it’s hard to really draw a lot of analysis from the Spurs series. The Cavs never had a chance, the Spurs were playing some phenomenal ball, Boobie Gibson (the Cavs second option…think about THAT for a moment) was off his game, and Larry Hughes was playing with some kind of ankle injury (as if he wasn’t bad enough already). The Cavs were happy to be there. As far as game 6, yes LeBron was worn down, and yes the offense failed. I’m just pointing out that LeBron deciding in an isolation situation that he is going to attack… Read more »
Can’t really compare last night to Pistons ECF game 5 or Magic game 5. The 40 points Lebron scored last night came easily. He didn’t have to absorb a lot of hard fouls, or repeatedly force his way to the rim against 4 or 5 defenders, because his mid-range J was working so well. This isn’t the type of game that’s going to wear him out.
All the game stories focused on Lebron’s and Moon’s shooting, but it was also great to see Parker finally start making those open 3s again in the first half.
Any reference whatsoever to the ’07 finals is a borderline ridiculous comparison.
Can Lebron win 4 games by himself against the Magic? Absolutely not. Can he win one or two? Sure. There’s nothing wrong with that. The team is better around him this year, and that’s probably all he’ll need to do. Sometimes, you just let the best player in the world do his thing.
The main story of this game is the fact that the Bulls got 22 more shot attempts than we did. This was due to their superb offensive rebounding and ball protection (4 TO’s). Nevertheless, we still won by double-digits.
This series will be a sweep; the Bulls gave us their best shot, and they still lost.
BTW, I totally agree with Tom about the whole LeISO thing. Against elite defenses (ORL, LAL), our plays will break down, and LeBron will need to go into Hero mode and win the game for us. That’s just how it’s going to be…
@Tom: In point 3 you brought up where LeISO worked, Pistons ECF and Magic game 5. What were LeBron’s stats in the ’07 finals? Did we get swept? Bad team that year I know, so lets look at Game 6 against Orlando. LeBron was tired the entire game and the Cavs didn’t get the score down to single digits. Its not just the number of shots or whether not he’s going to make them. It uses energy and lots of it as you could tell by watching the finals and game 6 last year. IMO its no coincidence that role… Read more »
@TR: That’s an interesting take, and I think it might be a spot-on assessment of my sentiments. I don’t mind when Lebron goes one on 5, I only get worried when he’s FORCED to go one on 5 because nothing else is working and he’s fed up.
@Tom: Completely agree. Excellent analysis on point 3 in particular. I love the reference to “basketball apocalypse.”
I don’t know if this is what bothers others about it, but I usually get uncomfortable when Lebron tries to do it all himself because it reminds me of the Orlando series, where it seemed like he took over because he felt his teammates were useless. The idea that Lebron is frustrated with his teammates’ abilities makes me nervous, for obvious reasons. It didn’t seem that way last night (at least not on offense) – I think he was just feeling it at the end of the game.
With my pulse on Cavs Nation: 1.) I think people underrated Chicago going into this series. I’m not surprised they have put up a fight. They are a good team when Noah plays and Derek Rose is playing the best ball of his career right now. Don’t be fooled by their record, remember Rose was hurt/playing injured for the first half of the season, and basically their whole starting lineup was hurt for a 10 game stretch in March. 2.) The way John described the 08-09 Cavs vs these Cavs is exactly how I have felt for a while. This… Read more »
When I first saw LeBron talking back and forth with the Bulls bench during the 4th (and later had it confirmed by Bron himself that they were encouraging him to shoot), I thought, “Stupid Bulls. That’s exactly what he wants.”
Today though, I’m not so sure. Yes, LeBron made them, but should we be concerned that he was that easily coerced into taking those shots? Proving a point is one thing, but if LeBron was choosing to shoot jumpers specifically to spite the Bulls’ bench…. I don’t think I like that idea.
@bradleyH
you’ve hit the nail on the head and krolik is very guilty of that too. unfortunately, it’s a psychological consequence of being a clevland fan. you look every gift horse in the mouth. it’s frustrating and frequently damn stupid but i don’t see it going away anytime soon…
It’s like you guys are ashamed of LeBron being the best player in the world. Acting like his 4th quarter was something to panic over. Be glad you have somebody who can make those plays.
Squiggles, That’s probably the best running team we could field. Except sub in Hickson for Varejao. Rebounds would come a premium, but would love to see them push the ball on offense.
I’m still astnoished no1 has mentioned the amazing that is the FT shooting last night. We won because of FT shooting. No1 thought we would be able to say that in a playoff game this year, including me. I was the one saying we would just have to win inspite of it, and last night they were shooting the FTs fantastically. It’s like LeBron does only what needs to be done and nothing more. If his team is up huge, FTs can start clanking. But when it’s tight, he suddenly starts hitting his jumpers and his FTs. BTW, jsut wanted… Read more »
look, i agree with windy’s take and that is the cavs absorbed the bulls best shot…and the bulls lost by double-digits. i can already sense the panic level is going to be nuts amongst cavs fans for these playoffs. calm down and ask yourself this; who will beat this cavs team, whom you’ve watched all season, FOUR TIMES? i rest my case…
The only real problem was the defense…i wouldnt trace that to rust..we just got outhustled inside with rebounds and loose balls. Bulls made great adjustments and did what they set out to do. We were great on offense and did well executing plays and getting wide open shots. When Lebron had to take over, he did, and like usual we pulled away and the opposing team was left for dead. Again if we improve the D and continue the offensive mastery, even at Chicago I see us winning again. As others have said, this was the best Chicago couldve played,… Read more »
Having a day to digest the game, I can’t be that upset. A win is a win. Would you rather play a team game, get everyone involved, and lose? Or have Lebron takeover and win the game on his own? I understand that it isn’t a great sign for the future, but I still think the team is dealing with some rust/chemistry issues and I’d rather they sort it out now.
The Cavaliers beat the Bulls in the game where the Bulls had ONLY FOUR TURNOVERS. FOUR TURNOVERS. I guarantee that will NOT happen again in this series, or in any other series for the rest of the playoffs.
I thought the Cavaliers would win in 5. It’s looking like 4.
I think that lineup is great. Just ask Wayne Winston. Moon is in a lot of the Cavs best lineups this year. You could put D-West at PG there too for even more defense. The thing is, you have decent rebounding all the way to the 2, and you can switch almost every pick and roll.
Who wants to see the following lineup: Mo-PG, LeBron-SG, Moon-SF, Jamison-PF, Varejao-C. Might not work in long stretches or against massive teams (magic, lal), but it could provide a dominating four-minute scoring punch to the nuts.
Thought Brown was actually pretty good tonight, though I fail to see the point of pulling a guy in foul trouble and then not putting him back in (unless you think he won’t be that aggressive). He finally realized that Moon is only good if he plays some extended minutes, and Moon came through, and Jawad sat (thank god). I actually thought they took the Bulls’ best shot tonight, and pulled out a win. One big thing in the Cavs’ favor: The bulls played a rotation of essentially 7, and the Cavs played 9. This really helped the Cavs pull… Read more »
These comments are pretty awful. Rich is the voice of reason.
“LeBron is better at basketball than you are at most things.”
Kudos.
That’s one of the funniest things I’ve read in quite some time. Thanks for the article and the laugh.
Ryan, I gotta ask, where is this bench full of athletic bigs you speak of? After Hickson…there is……..who? Has everyone already forgotten what a defensive disaster Hickson was this year? I love how today Shaq is an aging 7 footer not getting it done, and the other day he looked in shap and spry. Cmon guys, we are better than that. Oh, and Mike Brown made the more than enough adjustments last night. To yet again hear the old “mike brown can’t adjust” line is not good because, in this case, it is just wrong. The guy tried multiple different… Read more »
Looking at the stat line it’s easy to say that it was all interior defense and rebounding issues, but a lot of it was up-tempo game by the Bulls. They were looking to run on any missed basket, and generally any time they had numbers on the other end, even off of Cavs makes.
If they had even played adequate transition D this game wouldn’t have been close. Give the Bulls credit, they realized from game 1 that they don’t have the firepower to beat the Cavs set defense, so they started pushing the ball.
Leo, I was kind of torn at one point when Mike Brown pulled Shaq and sent Z back in. I couldn’t decide whether or not to yell at the TV “Just give HIckson some burn! See what he can do!” Then Z grabs an offensive board without jumping — but then he totally biffs the put back. But he hustles back down to the other end of the floor and gets a block — but then he knocks it out of bounds, still Bulls ball. Would HIckson have been able to grab that board? If he did, I bet he… Read more »
basically the next two days the Cavs are going to fix their interior D and start locking down guys. The only Bulls that scare me are Rose and maybe Noah…Deng is a douche and Flip Murray will flip out once in a lifetime…doubt youll see him put those numbers up again. Theres no one else…Hinrich is doing nothing whatsoever and we have him in our control. The interior D and really the D in general needs to be improved big time itself. Not quite sure what Browns doing with Hickson…playing him 3 seconds or less at the end of quarters.… Read more »
The Good: -Lebron’s jumper was pretty good last night, his mid range game was excellent the second half. -Antawn Jamison was everywhere last night making plays. He gets a lot of sneaky rebounds and he can score so many ways. -Jamarion hitting those 4 threes was huge. The Bad: -Mo Williams can’t disappear like he did last night when the Cavs start playing good teams in the next couple of playoff rounds. -How many easy lay-ups did Shaq miss? The Ugly: -Interior defense, holy cow I don’t think I have seen the Cavs give up that many lay-ups all year!… Read more »
I think you’ll all enjoy this video of noah:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbsc8EXvfI8:
Okay, guys. Now that the Real Cavs Fan billboard is up, it’s time we focus on the next billboard. This one will be outside of Mike Brown’s house, and it will serve to remind him that he has a bench full of athletic bigs he can use when his aging 7 footers are immobile and ineffective. The Cavs have more than enough talent to win a title, but Mike Brown’s utter lack of growth with respect to making meaningful in-game substitutions over the past five seasons is deeply troubling. In fact, the Clevelander in me ultimately worries that it will… Read more »
Chicago played a nearly perfect game with only 3 turnovers and them cleaning up the glass, and they still lost. Cavs in 4.
Was a poor defensive performance by the Cavs again tonight. 2 games in a row. Hopefully the rust will be knocked off sooner than later.
Was getting a bit nervous there for a while, until I remembered that Flip Murray plays for the Bulls. Dating back to ’06-’07, dude has now lost 10 consecutive playoff games against the Cavs. I’m surprised nobody else has mentioned this.
Like Bad o Late pointed out, the bulls had 22 more shots than the Cavs.. Im actually amazed we won by 12. Given that we cant expect 50% 3 point shooting every night, im hoping for some more hustle from Andy, and fewer fouls from Shaq. If we get that maybe the offensive rebound totals won’t be so different.
I’ll take my wins any way I can get them, but also as I’d like to agree with D that this could well be a good thing. If they are going to work on adversity, this is the time to do it. In addition, a close game like this gives Brown something to yell about and hopefully get them fired up. It’s something to point to down the line. We knew that there would be rust/growing pains coming into this. We also knew that our Cavs love to play down to their opponent. This type of game really wasn’t unexpected… Read more »
All I know is, this is the playoffs. A win is a win. I dont care how or who gets it done, as long as the Cavs come out with a win. And they did.
@Rich… “can’t argue with what works” is exactly what we were saying in ECF game 5 where LeBron did everything for most of the 4th quarter… he had nothing left for game 6. The Magic are praying LeBron tries the same thing against them.
BTW, the bulls were right right there due to 22 more shots and 56 pts in the paint.
I get it… it worked. But just because the team is struggling you try to run plays for easier baskets. We need everyone to play with confidence and not just watch LeBron do his thing.
I would like to remind bad o late that the game was only broken open when LeBron went iso. The rest of the game when it was being played as “team” game…the bulls were right there. Can’t argue with what worked, and LeBron going iso led to more points per possession than you normally would expect from an offense. In the end, that is all you want from an offense..to get points. And he did.
I disagree with LeBron turning on the afterburners being the blueprint. It was a great stat line but he took the entire team out of its offense and luckily he made those deep contested jumpers.
Moon bailed him out on the second to late 3 ball when James passed to Delonte with only 4!! seconds on the clock.
I love LeBron and he’s the best, but at some point someone has to remind him its a team game. The late offense was reminiscient of last year’s ECF against Orlando and that’s not a good thing.
This may be the best thing for the Cavs. Last year they blew out teams in the first quarter for eight straight games and then got nervous when they couldn’t do it to Orlando. Some adversity now and next series may get them clicking for the Conference Finals.