Overview: The Bulls extended the Cavaliers’ losing streak to 16 games with a 92-79 win. Cavaliers not named Antawn Jamison shot 15-62 against the NBA’s top-rated defense. Ramon Sessions suffered an abdominal strain that limited him to 11 minutes of play.
More injuries, more losses, more of the expected bullets:
I don’t know what we expected to happen when the team with the worst offensive efficiency in the NBA played the team with the best defensive efficiency in the NBA, but this is probably what we should have expected. I’ll give Antawn Jamison credit, because he had a great game — he gets shots up from every spot on the floor, and on Saturday night he was making shots from all of them.
Unfortunately, none of the other Cavaliers could find room to breathe against Tom Thibodeau’s defense, even with Joakim Noah still out. The Bulls fly through screens when they aren’t there, collapse the paint and react back to the perimeter, and make every pass a risky proposition. And they started Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer, Kurt Thomas, Luol Deng, and Kurt Thomas. Two of those players had bad defensive reputations before this year, two are old guys who nobody thinks of as defensive wizards, and the last one is Luol Deng. That’s the starting lineup of the best defensive team in basketball. Would anybody be surprised if the Bulls were an average/below-average defensive squad, especially with Noah out?
If there’s one point that I’m going to continue to drive home this season, it’s that trying to make a team with this little talent a run-and-gun squad was a fundamentally flawed plan. The team’s rebuilding effort needs to start with a real defensive system and players that will work in it. Everything else is secondary. If the Bulls had won this game with Rose and Boozer combining for 60 points on 45 true attempts, that would be one thing. But the Bulls won this game with Rose and Boozer combining for 44 points on 45 true attempts, and a lot of defense.
I loved the effort JJ showed on the boards — usually his effort goes away when his shots aren’t falling, but he went after it tonight. That’s all I have for now. The takeaway: the Cavaliers need to remake themselves in the image of the Bulls. Don’t look at Rose, don’t look at Noah, look at Thibodeau. He’s the key.
Wow, Kurt Thomas was so effective he cloned himself!
I think it’s more that Keith Bogans is so inconsequential, John’s mind glossed over him back to another old fogie.
John, I get what you are saying as far as rebuilding with a defensive mindset. Despite what many people would have us believe, it should be easier to build an elite defensive team than an elite offensive one. That being said, I think that Byron Scott will be here for the length of his contract if not longer. Bringing in another coach is not something the Cavs seem to be interested in at all, nor do I think they should be. The key in the future seems for Scott to enforce defense first from the start of training camp and bring the offense along over the course of the season. Since the team is rebuilding, the core players should have several years to really grasp the offense, and having a solid defense in place would keep them competitive in games as they figured out the offense.
So they need Mike Brown back.
Of all the moves the Cavs made to keep LeBron around and happy, dropping MB was the only one I think they really got wrong. They guy was a great defensive coach and humble enough to know he needed help on offense. Yes, the Cavs great Off Eff numbers were driven because of the best player in the league, but what’s wrong with that? Miami is 4th right now with two of the top 5 players in the league. Were the Cavs going to be up there again of offense with him gone: No. But they sure wouldn’t be at the bottom defensively.
Hopefully Mike gets a job soon because he is too good (and too young) a coach to be running a bad three-man weave with Jalen Rose and Tim Legler on NBA Fastbreak. Maybe once Phoenix realizes Gentry isn’t the answer they’ll pick up MB to turn that team identity around. The GM is a former Cavs assistant so there is a connection there. Krolik: any rumors on the street on Brown?
Eli – last I read about Brown in the local newspaper, he was assistant-coaching his son’s middle school football team, or something to that extent. He was completely away from anything basketball related.
As for the Cavs – I don’t know to say. They need talent. Someway, somehow they need to acquire talent. If Gilbert wants his franchise to succeed he needs to show the fans he’s willing to put money into I and acquire talent. If not, it’s going to be like the Indians franchise – owners dont spend money on talent, lose games, fans don’t support the franchise and owners blame the lack of support as the reason why they can’t spend money on talent – a bullishly cycle.
Bullsh!t cycle – not bullishly wtf.
The Cavs looked good in stretches last night. When they played defense, and when rookies weren’t hoisting up bad shots, they looked really really good. So they need to figure out who was playing well – and who can work in this system to build around. Varejao, Gibson? Maybe Hickson if he can play defense and stop taking long jumpers. And move Jamison & Williams for some other pieces, and draft someone with offense. Maybe Stephan Curry? He’s available…
I’m trying to figure out what being a better defensive team would actually mean here. So instead of having 8 wins we’d have….14? We’d still be a lottery team with this talent, only instead of a very high draft pick, we’d get a lower lottery pick. What’s the good here?
Somewhere, Mike Brown reads this article, and cackles in perverse delight.
Gilbert probably shouldn’t have run out the 60 win coach and GM while knowing he was likely to lose his franchise player as well. But hey, THE MAN’S A SAINT BECAUSE HE INSULTED LEBRON!
Gilbert’s like a mini-Sterling in training; its horrifying.
Personally, I have felt that the MB firing was absolutely justified, as he lost his players in last year’s playoffs. Scott is not Jesus. With this roster, full of injuries, raw youth, and and even D-League caliber talent, you can’t expect water to be turned into wine.
It is hard to watch this team. Absolutely crazy that this team always seems to get down a bunch, fight back, only to falter in the end. When they got it down to 2 points after locking down defensively, two things happened: Rose said enough, and started attacking, resulting in that critical and one, AND Cavs started having a few guys tryin to play the hero, rather than allow the half court offensive sets to flow. As a result, Cavs couldn’t make layups nor outside shots because the reality is that there aren’t many (if any) finishers on this team. If I were AJ last night, I would’ve demanded the ball. He seemed to disappear down the stretch because nobody passed him the ball down the stretch. At least last night, the offense should’ve ran through him once game got in single digits.
Couple Cavs getting cold with the defensive lapses and And-1 conversions, it got ugly mighty quick. Until the younger guys start to learn the ins and outs of playing team ball, both offensively and defensively, and until the right talent is acquired, more losses are on deck :/
Sorry, not even Mike Brown could save this team’s defense. Hickson doesn’t know how to play D, Jamison doesn’t want to play D, and the other 3 guys (Sessions, Harris, Gee), on a good night, are below average defenders.
This has nothing to do with coaching and everything to do with having no talent.
Damian, he didn’t know he was about to lose his franchise player…so yea.
I love, just LOVE how this W-L stuff works. If a team wins 60, then keep the coach because he’s great. BUT, BUT, blame all of the surrounding players and talent because THEY suck. How is it that people want to give all the credit to the coach for the wins while simultaneously blaming the players on the team for not “getting it done?”
The farther I get away from MB, and the more I watch LeBron, it’s harder and harder to figure out who to blame. Did MB lose the players, or did LBJ quit? Similary, was Danny Ferry a train wreck (Christian Eyenga over DeJuan Blair?) or was it all at Gilbert’s fault? Did they really pass on Amare cause they didn’t want to lose Hickson? Was that Ferry or Gilbert’s call?
All I know is that the farther LeBron gets from the Cavs, the more I realize he listens to people, acts like he’s paying attention, and then goes out and does exactly what he wanted to do the whole time. MB could be an offensive genius for all know. It may well be that LBJ never listened to him. Yes, the worse the Cavs do this year, the better MB looks. He’ll be a fantastic coach for a young team with talent like the Kings, or the Blazers. The Wizards would be fools not to hire him next year (or maybe even this year).
If Gilbert didn’t know he was losing him, then it still doesn’t make him look any better.