Preseason Recap: Cleveland 107, Chicago 98 (or, Rose Might Be Back)

Tonight’s preseason game between the Cavs and Bulls was the first in a series that should lead to an intense rivalry come playoff time.  Both teams came into the game looking at it as dress rehearsal for the regular season, especially the Cavs who will probably be resting LeBron James during their final preseason game against Memphis.  This game oscillated between stellar ball movement, great individual play, and transition basketball for the entire 48 minutes.  Derrick Rose seemed like he’s back, but Kyrie Irving and Anderson Varejao didn’t let that stop them from having great games as well.

Derrick Rose led all scorers this game with 30 points on 12-18 (4-5 from behind the three line) in just 24 minutes.  However, he only had three assists.  Kyrie led the Cavs scoring 28 points on 10-20 shooting to go with seven assists, two steals, and just two turnovers in 38 minutes.  Kevin Love acted like his arms were industrial vacuums ran by turbo charged engines installed by Vin Diesel to grab 13 total rebounds. Varejao looked like his legs were powered by the same engine brand as Love’s arm vacuums.  Wild Thing had 22 points on 8-10 shooting to go with two assists, two steals, two blocks, five defensive boards, and three offensive boards.  Whoever had to fill out his box score must have gotten a sore hand.

This game the Cavs started Andy at center, and it payed off.  Andy scored the first points for the Cavs, ran around like a madman, set screens, made quick passes, and cut to the hoop to get himself four points and two assists in the first four minutes of the game.  Andy was the lead man for the Cavs as Irving and Love struggled shooting the ball in the first quarter. Although, Love was setting gorgeous off ball screens and rebounding like crazy.

Rose had four early points for the Bulls as a result of blowing by Irving.  The Bulls seemed to keep up with the Cavs only ending the quarter down four, but it felt like much more, as the Cavs seemed to be hustling a lot harder than the Bulls.  Waiters was the first Cav out in the first quarter, but he came back in after only a minute of rest to lead the second unit without James and Irving.

The second quarter started with Tristan and Dion running some two man plays.  On the first play, Thompson ended up getting an offensive charge, but on the second play, Dion penetrated into the paint and dished the ball to him for a thunderous dunk. The following possession Dion hit the rewind button and had Shawn Marion swap places with Thompson, so Marion could also get an easy dunk. Aaron Brooks punished the Cavs guards showing speed and poise scoring the first seven Bulls points in the quarter to keep them within four of the Wine & Gold.  However, the Cavs continued getting assisted baskets from great off ball movement to stretch the score to 29-38 with about four and half minutes left in the half.  Derrick Rose then decided he was “Officially Back.”  He scored sixteen points at will.  At one point after he made two layups in twenty seconds, I wrote “Can he even shoot the ball anymore?” (he hadn’t taken a single jump shot at this point in the game).  He then came down the court, jab stepped, and sailed a three that seemed to push Dion Waiters backwards in awe.  The Cavs finished the quarter ahead only by two, 49-51.

The third quarter opened up with Andy hustling to receive a super quick pass from Love right underneath the hoop for an easy bucket.  Rose continued trying to prompt “He’s Back” headlines by getting the first seven Bulls points on open layups.  Andy had six of the first eight Cavs points in the quarter.  After Pau Gasol had two unacceptable baskets, the second from an offensive board, the Cavs were forced to call a timeout with the Bulls leading.  The score was 63-62.  Kyrie came out of the timeout ready to outshine Rose’s individual skills.  Kyrie had nine points in four minutes while love contributed another four at the same time taking the Cavs on a 13-2 run putting them up by ten points.  The Cavs ended the quarter up with the score 75-82.

The fourth quarter started with the Cavs defense doing some crazy trapping that looked really unorganized, but was surprisingly effective, as it managed to make the Bulls lose the ball four times in six possessions. It wasn’t pretty basketball at all. After the Bulls took a timeout to stop the Cavs super effective ugly defense, LeBron made two turnaround jump shots in a row, then missed the third, which led to an offensive board and Kyrie getting fouled.  The Cavs went up by thirteen after Kyrie sank the two free throws, and LeBron checked out of the game with six minutes left. The Bulls then went on a quick 6-2 run, but David Blatt called a time out to slow the Bulls’ momentum.  The Cavs finished the game trading baskets with the Bulls, while Thompson scooped up two more offensive boards and had a monstrous dunk from Matthew Dellavedova on an inbounds play from under the basket. Cavs win, 107-98.

Thoughts In No Particular Order:

1. Rose seems like he is back and is ready to summon the wizard powers of his tattoo.  He jetted past the Cavs guards too many times to count.  This was the best time.  Kyrie played terrible defense by standing upwards most of the time.  He needs to at least make an attempt to look he is trying. Matty D played hard when he was put on Rose, and even though Rose scored, Matty deserves praise for his efforts.

2. Andy is an animal and outplayed both Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah. He blocked Gasol two times on one play, and he scored at will on the pair with his odd hook shots.  Andy out Noah’d Noah.

3. The Cavs offensive rebounding abilities are insane.  In the first quarter, there was a sequence of two possessions where the Cavs grabbed a total of five offensive boards.  If teams give the Cavs two and three looks on a possession, they’re not going to be able to hang for long.

4. Tristan played great when he let the game come to him.  He had two dunks off of assists, a layup off an offensive board, and an open ten foot jumper off of an assist.  He missed two of his shots and had two of his shots blocked when he tried to do his own thing.

5. Dion needs to let the game come to him too.  He threw the ball up shooting just 4-11.  He had three assists and three steals; and, those influenced the game more than his shooting did.  Two of his assists led to Austin Carr screaming. The team thrives off of that.

6. Love did a good job influencing the game through rebounding when he couldn’t score.  Furthermore, he set off ball screens that kept the Cavs offense moving.  However, his on ball screens just seemed a little off.  He was setting them a tad too close to the ball handlers, which let Bulls defenders avoid them.

7.  The Cavs defense is sort of a mess.  The basic principle seems to be that if the players involved negotiating a pick can switch who they’re defending they should.  If they can’t, then the man who is covering the screener hedges hard and hopes to recover to his man quickly. A back line defender should be rotating if necessary.  If the pick is occurring in the corner, the Cavs are trapping and the closest man from the weak side rotates to the middle.  The trapping and switching were both working “okay.”

When the Cavs bigs tried to hedge on a quick ball handler, they weren’t coming out hard enough to slow the dribble and ended up just back peddling until the handler had a semi-open look or the screener was wide open.

8. The Bulls are deep this season.  Everyone on their bench is capable defensively; Doug McDermott was in a hunched stance the whole time he was on defense.  The Bulls are going to be extra deep when Jimmy Butler is back.

9. Matty D had just four assists, but he is the perfect man to make the second pass to the open man because he’s good at predicting where the defense shifts when Love, LeBron, or Irving has the ball.  It’s a no hesitation decision that gives whoever receives the pass an open shot or drive to the hoop.

10. The Cavs must have washed their hands with degreaser before the game.  They ball only slipped out of their possession nine times resulting in nine points.  Against the Mavericks, it slipped out 22 times resulting in 25 points.

11. Blatt seemed to have his regular season rotation nailed down. Dion comes out early in the first quarter and goes back in the game after a short rest to lead the second unit.

12. Shawn Marion looked like he was a little slow.  His man was blowing by him anytime I focused in on him.  He played 24 minutes and had no impact on the game.  That’s scary.  Mike Miller looked even more slow than Marion.  He hunched his way onto the court for just eight minutes tonight.

13.  Finally, after rereading my piece, I noticed I didn’t include LeBron enough.  LeBron had 18 points, seven rebounds, and six assists.  He got a lot of points by sprinting down the court after a rebound and getting fouled in transition.  He set great screens and made sure to make the Bulls pay when they doubled him.  It says a ton about the Cavs that LeBron can have a stat line like this and not steal the show.

*Kyrie bounced the ball very angrily when Blatt called a time out late in the fourth quarter. I’m not sure why he was so mad.  It seemed like someone was not getting open or to their spot.