Live Thread: Bulls at Cavs
2016-01-23
Game 1 of the LueBron era starts tonight. Â Also, Game 1 of the Saturday night NBA on ABC era.
Well, the Bulls have dropped six of eight and Joakim “Pebbles” Noah is out for the season. Â Mike Dunleavy is still recovering from surgery and Kirk Hinrich is out. Â Derrick Rose is a shell of his former self. Â The Bulls are hurting, basically.
Jimmy Butler has asserted himself as one of the best young players in the NBA and Pau Gasol remains surprisingly effective at age 35.  The Bulls have some pieces in Tony Snell, Taj Gibson, and Nikola Mirotic but they seem to be stuck in “6th-man” or “x-factor” type production/consistency.
Ty Lue has already stated that he will play a 10-man rotation. Â Good. Â I’d rather he just do it than signal that he’s going to do it but, whatever. Â I’m getting prepared for some awkward press conferences – Lue turned off a lot of Cavs fans today when he said he wasn’t going to be make the Cavs different from Blatt, just “better”. Â Sounds like he didn’t mean any slight by it, but…that’s a rough transcript to spin. Â He also said that he’s going to get the ball to Kevin Love at the elbow. Â If it’s not painfully obvious that this is happening in the near future, and the Cavs struggle, prepare for all the heat of this collective hot seat to cook Kevin Love alive.
I’m actually optimistic about tonight’s game. Â Let’s talk about it here. Â As a fun aside, let’s have a Lue pun contest. Â If you see a good one, just reply to the comment and award points or Schrute bucks. Â Here’s the conversion:
lue resting big three all at once. people dont evem do thaf in 2k
Your first home game under a new coach, you’d think we’d come out with everything we have and just dominate.
So tired of watching no dribble penetration, kick out 3 point bricks. Can’t we do anything impressive offensively other than just give it to one of our 3 star players? Shouldn’t we have an offense that takes advantage of those guys getting double teamed? Easy buckets? Come on.
We are getting dribble penetration… just not finishing.
Yeah we need guys to realize when to cut to the bucket, and for guys to get the ball in the high post
Looks great when 3 variance goes your way, looks like garbage when it doesn’t. It’d be nice if they could get more easy inside looks, to offset bad variance nights.
Good effort so far but the Bulls are matching so far.
So…high post/elbow action…anyone seen any from any player yet? Cuz I thought that was Lue’s thing. Not seen it yet myself.
They look too excited. Missing easy shots.
Putting on a brick laying clinic. We’re getting open looks too.
Cavs playing good D… just need to control the boards better…
Cavs giving up too many second chance opportunities.
Man, if Lue will just call Lebron out for his lack of effort getting back in transition he will earn my trust and then some. That is a correction that could make a big difference over time
Nice look by Delly… Shump misses open 3.
Man, that wrong leg Delly layup usually goes in…
Jackson: Lue got 716 text messages. That’s not 716 sincere folks… Can I get an Amen?
Delly misses an easy kiss off a good drive.
Decent defense, decent ball movement on offense, a couple bad jumpers. Cavs playing good; they look…just like they did the last two games.
I guess that answers the Delly/Mo question…
He’d have to Lue-se his mind to go to Mo over Delly.
Why, he’d have to have a screw Lue-se…
Nice drive by LBJ… didn’t finish.
ESPN runs a Lue clip with a flame graphic behind him. Yes, it’s a hot seat.
So far, there’s been 1 possession with great ball movement… Cavs being somewhat reckless in transition last couple of possessions.
LeBron’s jumper looks so bad tonight. Is he shooting too much pre game? It’s gotta be psychological at this point.
He’s too amped up probably…
Yeah Mark Jackson, that’s outstanding hand checking with his left while straight up with his right. Glad to know since you can’t have our coaching gig you’re immediately stopping the praise of lebron
Mark Jackson… bitter party of one…
JR bricks open 3… he was too open
Smart foul by Irving with LeBron all the way back on the other side.
That seemed like a missed call…
Looked like LBJ got bumped early… but not on the shot.
Interesting… Lue goes to Champ early.
Let’s hope James jumper doesn’t eLuede him all dang night
Tom…you know I want shrute bucks right now…
Kyrie dibbles into corner. Lobs one out to LBJ who bricks j
Moz gotta learn to keep his feet more on the up-fakes…
That looked like a questionable call on KLOVE.
Good recovery by Moz after the block…
NICE!!! MOZ jumper works on the baseline!
Do you think Bulter called Glass there or was that Luecky?
James with his first bad shot of the Lue era, about 4:15 into the game.
UGLY 3 by LBJ… predictably bricks…. NICE 3 by JR… predictably SWISH!!!
Pretty Lue-tine steal and finish by Kyrie there
JR SWISH!!!!
Kyrie deciding to go iso and getting stuffed by Rose on a pull up jumper.
Makes up for it with the steal!
Have they shown anybody with a Mozgov hat yet?
GET THAT WEAK STUFF OUTTA HERE!
Mozgov guarding the rim well… but gave up a close shot there.
Nice PnR defense there…. but got lucky on the tip out by CHI.
Inspired D so far…
LBJ closing out like a banshee right now…
Nice ball movement for a KLOVE 3… Can’t believe Moz caught that pass in traffic!
KLOVE!
Nice push by LBJ… easy lay-up.
Bring on the destruction!
I want lots of bizarre statements from JVG tonight!
LET THE TY LUE ERA BEGIN BRINGING US JOY AND A NBA CHAMPIONSHIP !!
Ty Lue looks funny….
Funny how? Like a clown? Does he amuse you?
LUE-S-ING IS NOT FUN !!
Fast pace and great effort at the defensive end is all I ask.
Go Cavs!
Man… it’s good to have a basketball game to talk about!
I hope Matthew DelLUEVadova hits a lot of treys tonight as a thank you to Blatt!
If the crowd at the Q sounds like they’re booing… they’re actually just saying “Luuuuuuuuuueeeee!”
Or Huuuuueeeeee if the Browns head coach is in the building.
LBJ looks like he was just teaching MDN a new handshake…
I dunno, all this Blatt firing business…sounds like a Palace Lue to me.
Jackson: The Cavs will win the East, but can they beat the Spurs/Dubs or will they Lue’szzzz!!!!
Bulls been playing a bit soft, a bit feminine recentlyIMHO. Suspect more than a few of them wear LueLue Lemon under their shorts.
Looks likes we are getting Jackson and JVG!
Their hands are smoking from rubbing them together for this game…
Parliaments, Marlboro, or Cols special cigs?
Knowing those guys… probably Virginia Slims…
Wow… you guys brought ALL the puns tonight…
I think Lue is going to get Kyrie to become more of a leader in this offense. Kyrie pushed the pace against the Clippers and I think we need to continue to have him do the same thing. The pressure has definitely been turned up, and that isn’t a bad thing. No more excuses here. No more “they’ll turn it on in the playoffs.” Championship teams play like champions during the regular season. Yes, we’re 30-11, which is a great record, but we lost to both GS and SA and until we can prove that we can beat them, we’re… Read more »
So it begins. Let”s see what they got.
I just hope Tyrone doesn’t Lue-se his cool tonight, in Lue of all the media attention.
Or all of us here will Lue-se it!
This punning is getting a little Lueny
I’m probably wrong, but I think this team is going to be depressed. I think they’re going to see how their lack of heart and effort cost a man his job, and that the pressure just got turned up, rather than the other way around.
They have not shown to handle distractions well and have not shown mental fortitude. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of iso ball and a lot of sloppy turnovers. I hope I’m wrong.
NO JOEYB!!! Plop that 12B on the CLE cover!
You sound depressed yourself, JoeyB… you okay fam?
LOL LueBron is brilliant
O.K. I’ll get the ball rolling…
Now that Blatt’s gone, will the Cavs’ season end up in the Lue?
Hope none of us resort to Lued insults this game…
The Cavs will pick up their game, with the playoffs Lueming
Good evening CtB! Here are your numbers for tonight: CLE is a 10.5 point favorite over CHI w/ and o/u @ 201.5. Bets are split down the middle 50/50 on the line, and heavy smart money favorite on the UNDER. Post-Blatt firing, the betting has been a little stronger on CHI covering… but as we come close to game time, sharps are taking CLE. I’m taking CLE to cover 106-95 over CHI. My personal feeling is that they cannot make this line high enough… this is easy pickings to take CLE to cover. The betting suggests CLE’s defense to carry… Read more »
For me, the most anticipated regular season game since the home opener vs the Knicks last year.
Doug Collins: (to the Cavs) do you want to be a championship team, then get rid of the drama and start focusing on basketball. You don’t see the Warriors dealing with drama. I’m tired of it. I’m tired of this 2-day discussion in the Blatt firing and drama behind it (not verbatim)…
Once the game starts, we can start talking about the game in Lue of the Blatt firing… or is that just not quality punning? lol
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just messing with ya JMay… had to give ya crap for that one.
I’ve never been great at puns, but I love them. So it just results in silly, poorly constructed ones like above.
+100 Schrute Bucks.
Hurrah! Schrute Bucks!
Yeah. I’m just baffled the more I hear. I can’t believe LBJ walked into this team and wouldn’t hold himself and other accountable. Undermined the coach and management. He’s just not a real leader. Talent through the roof, but not a leader. Hopefully Lue is. Because James isn’t and never will be.
You think Collins would be a little biased about a coach getting fired because of a superstar? Lol. Let’s just hope Lue is our ego-managing Phil Jackson.
I didn’t like the firing but I am still hoping he is a coaching savant and ends up turning the Cavs into a team destroying robot.