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:
Jackson: if this keeps up, we might see hack-a-Cav!
1-10 FTs for the Cavs… lack of mental fortitude.
Or they are actually shellshocked by the firing and Lue didn’t have any time to prep the club. Or lack of mental fortitude.
Is the crowd shouting “Luuuuuuuuue?”
1-10 FTs. WTF?
I feel bad for the fans watching this at the game. Seeing bricked free throws in person is the worst.
Man, KI’s mid range jumper is still off. Can’t wait till its back.
KI misses jumper TT active off the glass… need to make a run here.
Great play Lebron, great job
That was nice Irving.
Pretty move by KI…
KI circus shot…. GOES IN!!!
Love playing well. Would like to see Delly in there and Shump
I am. It’s been more fun reading this than coaching.
Cols is that you?
KLove can do that all day…
KLOVE only guy playing decent offense… nice post up.
They have looked pretty bad offensively in terms of their shot selection since about midway through the second.
I hope Dave Blatt is reading CtB tonight.
We dont have 50 points as yet with 30 minutes in da game so far
To be fair, these Bulls are a mighty 4-6 in their last 10 games and missing Noah.
Here we go again…….
Did Lue just bench LBJ after that three?
How dare you Lue!!
Any time he rests we should tweet out he was benched.
I don’t know if you’re being sarcastic but Lue did actually pull him. Without having anyone ready. Could be a great sign
James should have the same rule Moz used to. You can take one three. If you make it, you can take another. Miss and you’re done.
I vote for this
JR off the dribble 2… clank… LBJ wide open 3… clank..
I love the bitterness on the forum right now. And it’s fully justified.
Hot take: The Bulls will be representing the East in the Finals!
If Lue doesn’t go with a that tough defensive line-up that has given Cavs success; they lose this game
Interesting not to see Delly. Blatt loved him…wonder if Lue will come around when LBJ reminds him Delly is our best help for the big men on offense
So Lue really hasn’t expanded the bench much. A little harder than it looks huh?
I actually agreed with Lebron’s take on the bench guys: “they knew what they signed up for”. A team trying to win a championship, and bench guys apparently salty about not playing against the best team in the league.
Rose just wrecked Lebron off the dribble
Love, Moz, LBJ – 0 for 6 on FT.
DEAR GOD on the Free Throws.
Game would be tied if not for missed FTs I think…
Well we know what they’ll be doing in practice.
Getting connected and raising their spirit.
while shooting 100s of FTs
holding hands, singing kumbaya
Irving and Mozgov are definitely connected in spirit. Mozgov is only ever ready for irving’s bounce passes
Delly and TT too. Love and Bron.
Moz with the hands and draws the foul.
I lterally dont want Lebron shooting any jumpshots, he’s been horrible
LBJ with an ugly long two point shot… off the rim.
That offensive set was atrocious
Rose blows by LBJ. LUe needs to take him out and chew him out.
Would like to see Delly in there.
I really liked the Delly and Kyrie line up.
We made a free throw!!!
These guys played better passing the ball last 3 games than today. Feels like they are going back to their old ways
Kyrie with a tough layup… no dice.
We have a five point game. Cavs almost to 50 pts.
At least KI is shooting the tech an dnot LBJ.
Throw that goof out, he touched the ref. Smith would be gone.
That’s a great point. Smith would be gone.
Uh, it’s Pau Gasol. He’s like the Earth’s nicest human being.
The old missing /s
Ugh. This is the same bills team that has struggled to beat and lost to bottom feeders. Cmon Lue, we need some of that famed Cavs killer instinct! Please help us score 8 points a game and play well against Cleveland…
LeBron with a very Saint Weirdo drive to the rim.
that was what it looked like!
That’s unacceptable. LBJ not hustling down the court when Chi had numbers after his miss. Just standing there.
Well, this supposed to change with Lue, right?
If Lue doesn’t say anything in the post-game, the “Lue is willing to call out LeBron” storyline might have started and run its course in less than a day.
LBJ PnR drive and misses layup… no transition defense leads to easy Bulls layup.
I feel like this thread needs a healthy dose of well timed comedic images from EG
Or a whole lot of booze and what ever cols takes.
Hahaha Cols takes a proprietary vitamin and ganja mix that only Klutch Sports provides
Didn’t let me down did you
Great post up for Love.
KLOVE in the post… easy jump hook for 2.
Cavs yet to make a FT in the Ty Lue era…
0-5 FTs for the Cavs indicate lack of concentration.
AKA connected spirit, as it were.
you all killing me, Griffith forever using “connectiveness” for all his answers
KLove with the wonky spirit on those FTs.
If mozzy can hit that shot consistently, we will have a LoT fewer bad possessions. He is open all day from the baseline. Not sure why we don’t feed him there til they guard it
Because he hasn’t hit it consistently this year.
Man, I can’t take anymore of LBJ yelling at official during live play. Just shut up already. It doesn’t work and no one cares, not to mention half the time you are complaining about a good non call.
First of all, usually he gets hammered. Like 90% of the time.
Second of all, that’s the kind of crap Blatt was supposed to get on him about and he never did.
Well, it ain’t changed under the Lue administration.
Kevin Love is a bad ass!
LBJ misses the layup… KLOVE on the offensive glass.
Nice fight by K Love on those boards.
Kyrie goes one on four… gets the lay up on lazy Bulls defense.
I have no problem with a LeBron iso in the post. But what I’m seeing overall right now is more of the same. Players realizing that is on them now – Blatt is no longer around to be a scapegoat.
WTF was that possession???
rims are definitely not right. broadcast guy even mentioned it
All this “spirit” talk is such complete, utter bull****. And it makes the team look like sissies.
What are you talking about?
Yeah, I’d be embarrassed if my coach said that was my problem. “My several hundred thousand dollar game check cleared, but I just don’t feel like I’m on the same emotional plane as my teammates…”
LBJ on the post nice kiss off the glass.
LeBron iso, Kyrie iso, LeBron iso. Revolutionary.
This team is soft. What they don’t realize is that if their spirit or connectiveness or chemistry or whatever is off, its because of them. Not the coach. Tha’ts not the coaches job.
Kyrie for a circus shot on the drive… KLOVE camped at the 3pt line.
ISO jumper for LBJ, no dice.
If these guys can’t align their chakras, they’re not gonna win.
This team is a collective headcase! Fixing spirit. Go to the desert on a payote tour.