QUICKHIT Bulls 99, Cavs 92
2015-05-04
Mike Miller started. Mike Dunleavy started. Mike Miller “defended” Mike Dunleavy. Mike Dunleavy’s first five shots went in. The experiment didn’t work.
Derrick Rose drilled multiple bail-out shot-clock-beating 3s (contested). Kyrie Irving had a 10-2 run of his own. The Cavs trailed by 15 in the 1st, but tied the game at 53 early in the 3rd. Fans and bloggers alike spoke of “sustainability” so much I wondered if we were live blogging a greenpeace press conference. Once all the craziness subsided it was just the Bulls reeling off 15 straight points in about two minutes.
The Cavs chipped away, with Kyrie leading the charge. LeBron checked back into the game with the Cavs down just four. He spent much of the night looking unsure of what he wanted to do offensively. Lots of hesitation, lots of jump-passes, lots of turnovers, lots of out-of-sync offense that could not keep pace with the surgical Rose/Gasol PnR. The Cavs had a chance to win, but they became impatient down the stretch, launching a lot of quick shots. Then, with time actually pressing them to hurry up, they dribbled the clock down to single digits and took awkward shots. LeBron and to a lesser extent, Kyrie, were no closers tonight. The Cavs lone buckets in the final five minutes were a TT tip-in off a sub-optimal baseline drive and oop from Delly of all people. The other was a Iman Shumpert bucket. Jimmy Butler scored seven of the Bulls final 11 points, icing the game with a banked in short-jumper.
In the end the Cavs attempted more field goals, more threes, more free throws, grabbed more rebounds, and committed less turnovers. That’s usually a recipe for a W, but the Bulls offensive execution was superior all night.
The Cavs were minus 20 in the 16 minutes Mike Miller played. Pau Gasol had 21 points on 10-16 shooting with 10 boards, 4 dimes, 4 blocks, and no turnovers. The Cavs had no answer for the Rose/Gasol PnR and kept frantically trying to close out on shooters (the Bulls finished 10/18 from behind the arc) and kept leaving Gasol wide open. If you want to talk about sustainability, I can guarantee you that Pau Gasol will hit a wide-open 17-foot jumper at a better than 50% clip until he’s 50 years old.
Yes, there are 5 defenders on the court. No photoshop trick. pic.twitter.com/LPTueZCil0
— Jason Nicholas (@JasonNweather) May 5, 2015
If the Cavs had any success it was against Joakim Noah, who LeBron checked at various times. Also, Delly and Shump played admirably, although neither guy is ideal to be the spacing safety valve. The Cavs didn’t really pay for going small from a rebounding standpoint. They really got exploited in the PnR, not in the trenches.
The Cavs need to win four out of the next six games without Kevin Love. Against a team that’s deeper (Tony Snell didn’t even play!) and has a coach that was literally given a head coaching job because he mastered defensive scheming against hero-ball. It’s a tough order. What’d you think of the game Cavs:TheBloggers?
Lebron had 19 points 15 rebounds and 9 assists. He had some wide open threes that he missed and didn’t get any calls when he drove to the hoop. That’s a pretty good game. If he had hit even one of those threes this game could’ve been different. We really missed smith and love.
Yeah Bron missed some shots he normally makes down the stretch. For as well as they played and as poorly as we did, this was close. Not worried about game 2, but def wanna head to Chicago looking on top our game.
As much as we miss Smith and Love, we also are missing the players formerly known as James Jones, Mike Miller, and Shawn Marion. Especially JJ – he’s not hitting three’s, so what good is he? These three guys are so totally done, unfortunately. Gonna have to ride the starters hard from here on out.
I thought Kyrie missed some 3’s he normally makes also. Cavs will play better, Bulls played out of their shoes and I doubt they repeat that performance. We need to figure out our rotation though.
Yeah, except he didn’t score for the last six minutes of the game and turned the ball over three times, which is unlike him. Overall, the numbers say he had a pretty good game, but he had a terrible crunch time…
5:00 LeBron James shooting block foul (Jimmy Butler draws the foul)
4:15 LeBron James misses 25-foot three point jumper
3:40 Pau Gasol blocks LeBron James’s layup
3:40 LeBron James traveling
2:09 LeBron James bad pass (Derrick Rose steals)
0:51 LeBron James misses layup
It was because we’re at home. He saves his best games for the road. Watch, we won’t lose a game in Chicago.
I don’t know if someone kept getting trapped in a screen but I counted numerous instances — especially down the stretch — when one Bulls player (usually Rose) got some penetration into the paint and immediately ALL FIVE Cavs would converge toward the basket with the guy driving, who would *very* predictably kick it out to a scorching Gasol or a wide open three. The Bulls took like 1,000 open shots last night so of course they hit >50% from deep. Our interior protection was pretty good so if we just play the drive a little more conservatively and make… Read more »
I was hoping for Panic! At the CtB and you guys let me down.
You were hoping for it?
Actually I was slightly encouraged despite the Loss. The Bulls are not going to shoot 10/18 behind the arc, D. Rose is much worse playing off one night’s rest (like he will be for the rest of the series except game six), and Lebron did not play up to his standards. Assuming the Bulls shooting regresses to the mean, and Lebron plays like Lebron, the Cavs should be ok. I do worry about where offense is going to come from outside of Lebron and Kyrie. Don’t think you can expect Shump to score 20+ each night. In any event, this… Read more »
I felt similar jim. there might have been some rust after a long practice week. plus the mental block of loosing 2 key starters. miller and james jones were getting the shots that smith and love should have. plus the smith athleticism for playing lanes and loves boards. i think it was bound to be anti-climactic. the rest could be nice but the bombs away 3 point bulls were too much to handle. and gasol with the block party. jeepers.
clean up our PNR defense / eliminate a few stupid t.o’s / hit a few more 3’s and hopefully we can win game 2 and then get J.R. back into the rotation —-still staying positive ( cols is my leader ) and buying into the ” no excuses / next man up “—but it is rather obvious that our next ” men ” up miller / matrix / jones aren’t going to compete with the other teams subs —-hopefully we still have a lot of playoffs games to be played yet —–but it has to be a top priority this… Read more »
After getting burned from outside in the first quarter, the Cavs left the mid range jumper open all evening. But Chicago is one of the best teams at hitting that shot. I would have liked to have seen less aggressive moves running anyone not named Dunleavy off the line to spread the D out better. Chicago played a great game but did not look menacing. In fact, they looked like they wanted to get the hell off the court at the end.
That’s the right approach I think.
I am not worried for two reasons:
1. We will get better as the series goes on and the Bulls won’t (they’re as good as they’re gonna get)
2. We’re not winning the Championship this year w/out Love, so this is all learning and experience..
Yeah, agree. Not winning the title. unless Lebron starts partying like it’s 1999, and probably not even then. It’s a bummer, because with Love, even if they wouldn’t win the title, I think it would have been a hell of a series against the Warriors. Now it’s going to be dull unless Golden State gets knocked out somehow.
Don’t be so down on the Love-less Cavs! A team with Leb, Kyrie, JR, Shump, Mozzy and TT is certainly capable of winning a chip. We just might be underdogs in a series or two — and honestly, I relish that. Bring it home, ‘Bron.
Clips just trounced Rockets on their home court without CP3. Let’s not underestimate the rest vs rust debate. Clearly was a disadvantage for us tonight.
Why not play Moz and TT together? TT can chase Gasol (as he was in the 4th quarter).
LeBron can work down low but he really starts to gain steam when he can face up and attack from the top of the key.
Love LBJ screening for Kyrie. Blatt had some nice wrinkles but there are more adjustments to make.
Cavs played pretty bad and Bulls’ shooting was insane. It’ll even out.
I never thought I’d say these words… but thank you Cols. Tom, I think you’ve gone a little overboard on one game. Part of the reason the PnR was so open was because the Bulls were hitting almost everything from the outside early (partly due to Mike Miller on Dunleavy and partly because Derrick Rose was hitting wild contested threes at the buzzer) and the Cavs were massively over-switching. I thought Blatt’s biggest mistake (aside from starting Miller) was waiting too long to swap Moz out for TT in the first and third quarters. Moz just can’t get out and… Read more »
I agree evil, 55% at the three point line is crazy good and not going to happen very often. Lots of room for us to get better and not much for them. They played damn near perfect and almost lost. Butler looked whooped and he knows lebron is about to go off. Shump hopefully can play that good again and kyrie. Everyone has room to improve. Go cavs
Eh. The Bulls hit tons of contested jumpers while it looked like the Cavs were feeling things out because they had new rotations. I’m not worried. We still win this series in 6
Keep up the good work, Cols! I am changing my projection from Cavs in 4 to Cavs in 5.
I actually agree. Bulls played a perfect game, hit over 50% from deep, Cavs missed everything, scored 15 points in a fluky first quarter where they were full of rust, and still had a chance at the end. We gotta win Game 2, then JR saves us from Miller’s D, then we are good.
If Mike Miller starts game two I am going to (hyperbole warning) well and truly smash myself in the face with a dirty sock full of canadian pennies.
at least use a clean sock!
Or at least American currency, for the love of God, man!
Make sure you use a reverse peephole!!!!
The Bulls played almost a perfect game but the Cavs defense helped them a lot.
If the Cavs want to have a chance the first thing they need to fix is that PnR defense against Rose and Gasol.
LeBron needs to score more and the Cavs need to bring the right intensity from beginning to end. They got hit first and it took too much to comeback.
It’s doable , but the that Pick and Roll defense with Rose and Gasol is what killed us the most and just Lebron being unsure, if that changes we should be alright, we really missed the shooting from JR and Kevin tonight, but for the next 5 out of 6 games we will have JR and that should hopefully be enough.