Recap: Bulls 97, Cavs 95 (or, Not A Pretty One)

The Cavs opened up the season for the NBA on TNT against the Bulls. It was a sloppy occasion for everyone involved, outside of the Bulls. TNT started the night on a weird note having some band named Ambassador X play a song called “Big” for their opening show held at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. This song utilized just under fifteen words from the English dictionary, and according to Wikipedia, it was played to a group of very angry attendees. It was alternative rock of the worst brand. It couldn’t even elicit a reaction from a male getting ready to watch a basketball game. Hip-hop would have been a better choice for the NBA’s audience.

The Cavs contributed to the occasion’s sloppiness by forgetting to do the little things that help teams win basketball games. There were numerous instances where someone bit on a pump fake and then got blown-by for an easy two. There were fouls after what should have been easy defensive boards, because guys didn’t box out. There were lots of long twos, because guys didn’t realize that the Bulls were giving those away since they’re inefficient. At one point in the game, the Cavs had a shot clock violation followed by a turnover, when they threw the ball out of bounds trying to avoid a second shot clock violation.

The end of the fourth quarter was perhaps the messiest part of the game. With the Cavs down by as much as 13 in the quarter, Kevin Love scored eight points in the span of a minute to bring the Cavs within two with just 32 second left in the game. After Love’s scoring barrage, Derrick Rose dribbled up the court and bricked a long two; however, this shot may have been taken because the scoreboard showed the Bulls were up by three points. In reality, they were up by just two (someone is going to have a poor performance review after that gaffe).

After a Cavalier timeout, LeBron James drove the ball around a Tristan Thompson high screen and into the paint. Pau Gasol swatted the King from behind, and with just three seconds left, the Cavs took their final timeout. On the baseline inbounds play, Mo Williams was unable to get the ball in, and the Bulls walked away with a win handed to them by David Blatt.

First Quarter

The Cavs started out hot, and hit five of their first seven shots to go up 10-4. Love opened the game sprinting down court to seal off Nikola Mirotic for an easy two. The King nailed a jumper over Jimmy Butler, and hit a reverse alley oop layup off a baseline cut. He even had a monstrous dunk after Timofey Mozgov turned a Derrick Rose layup down, just like a hot girl would turn a Dungeons and Dragons kid’s advances down. The Wine & Gold were firing on all cylinders for easy buckets.

https://vine.co/v/eY62BhX6ilA/embed

Unfortunately, the Cavs would go on to hit just one more shot for the rest of the quarter. What followed was a six minute scoring drought, featuring plenty of missed long twos from the Cavs. Tristan Thompson was particularly emblematic of the teams’ troubles during this time. He kept forgetting to box out, allowing three offensive boards to go with his own two bricked shots. He also fouled Joakim Noah after Noah ripped a stolen ball from him. At one point, James Jones was actually matched up with Noah and had to resort to fouling the big man to stop the carnage.

Nikola Mirotic led the Bulls offensively scoring eight of his 11 points in the quarter on a flustered Kevin Love. The Bulls went into the second quarter ahead by just nine points, despite the Cavs shooting 29% from the field.

The Cavs’ shots in the first quarter weren’t what keeps teams in games.

Second Quarter

The Cavs appeared to be on the up-and-up early on this quarter, but the good times didn’t last. Mo Williams hit a 3-pointer on a J.R. Smith inbounds pass to start the action. Then, LeBron sprinted down court to get fouled on a layup. He missed both of his free throws though, and the Cavs wouldn’t score for another three minutes, despite two offensive boards and multiple runs at the rim. The Bulls didn’t play much better, scoring just six points in the first six minutes of the quarter.

When the reserves came into the game, the Cavs picked it up. In Anderson Varejao’s first few seconds of action, he chased down an offensive board with his hair trailing in the wind. He threw it to Mo for a corner three. When Richard Jefferson checked in, he grabbed a steal and got an easy two in transition. Delly came in and handed Love an easy three, then nailed a deep two himself off a Jefferson drive and kick.

Despite all the reserves’ greatness, the Cavs still shot themselves in the foot numerous times. Joakim Noah leaked out on a missed Love 3-pointer and got two freebies. Andy put him to the ground on the dunk attempt, and I felt the familiar happiness regular season NBA basketball often brings me. Still, those types of plays are the ones that come back to haunt you when the game is decided by just two points. Doug McDermott scored seven points to end the quarter for the Bulls. The Cavs went into the locker room down, 40-46.

Third Quarter

The King opened the quarter taking Jimmy Butler to the baseline and under the hoop for a reverse layup. Then, LeBron intercepted a pass and ran it down court, only to throw it to a nonexistent trailer – instead of going to the rack. That didn’t slow his overall effort though. He sprinted down court the next play, after a Bulls make, to receive a pass from Williams for an easy two. The Cavs clearly started the quarter focusing on defense and running, but just couldn’t maintain their intensity.

I hope Love’s hair hasn’t sucked all his defensive awareness up.

Mirotic and Snell broke off for totally open 3-pointers when the Cavs were scrambled in transition, and Derrick Rose had two And-1s on Mo Gotti. The two And-1s were literally from the exact same spot on the floor using the same motion. This quick blast of points put the Bulls up by 13, and caused David Blatt to call a timeout. J.R. came out of the break looking to drive the ball inside, and it worked to a degree. He sliced up the defense to get two layups and two freebies, which kept the Cavs in striking distance.

Again, when the reserves checked in, good things happened. Andy, Delly, Mo, and RJ played the motion offense Blatt dreamed of when he was overseas. Andy stayed at the top the key to receive passes and set screens to free up guys running across the floor, and the Wine & Gold went on a 12-4 run to end the quarter down just three. Bulls, 71-68.

Fourth Quarter 

In Popovichian style, David Blatt kept the reserves in to start the action. They smothered the Bulls, forcing them to use all of the shot clock. The starters returned after a short break, and the King immediately scored four points to show he was in control of the game, bringing the Cavs within two.

J.R. had a mini-freak out when Mirotic had him on the left side of the floor and lowered his shoulder into him. Smith took offense, and gave him a forearm shiver to the gut, which the refs called. A little colorful language earned Smith a tech, and since the Bulls were in the bonus, they ultimately got three freebies from a slight lapse in judgement. The following play, since the Bulls also got possession, Jimmy Butler put on a ton of patchouli to ward off defenders, allowing him a wide open dunk down the middle of the lane. This put the Bulls up five with four minutes left.

At the end of regulation, the Cavs used Kevin Love’s eight point barrage to cut the lead to two with 32 seconds left. The Bulls then took the aforementioned ill-advised long two due to scoreboard error.  And, on the second to last play for the Cavs to tie the game, Pau Gasol cleanly blocked a LeBron James layup from behind. The Cavs couldn’t get the ball inbounds on their second attempt, even after taking a timeout to presumably draw up a play. Bulls win, 97-95.

https://vine.co/v/eYgHtt1qzZX/embed

Gripes & Hypes

1. Mo Williams has got to figure out how to keep opposing point guards in front of him. Derrick Rose made him his personal secretary in the third quarter when he got two straight And-1s on him. Rose was 8-22 for 18 points, and dished out five assists. J.R. Smith also struggled to stay in front of Butler, who scored 17 points, and had five boards to go with two assists. Kevin Love got smoked by Mirotic when he should have been taking him down low and schooling him. Mirotic had 19 on 6-11 shooting. He was 3-4 from deep. Overall, the Cavs struggled with individual defense.
2. The Bulls dished out just 13 assists tonight. This shows that the team defense worked to a degree. Mozgov was very effective contesting every shot he could. In the first quarter alone he turned away three shots.
3. There were lots of fouls tonight, and a lot of them made no sense. At times, guys would simply bump someone on a pick and get called for a moving screen. Sorry, Taj Gibson. Sometimes the bigs would tussle for rebounds and over-the-back fouls were called. In the fourth quarter, after J.R. received his tech, he drove to the rim. Gasol blocked his shot, but he slammed J.R. on the follow through. The next Bulls’ possession, Snell got a foul call on much softer contact around the rim. The refs must have felt bad though, because the Bulls were then called for a moving screen and two touch fouls in a matter of 17 seconds. At the end of the night, the Cavs had 21 personal fouls and the Bulls had 20. The Cavs hit 10-17 of their free throws, which is another issue entirely.
4. In twelve minutes, Andy was a team high +9. He had just two rebounds and missed his only shot. However, he was the motion offense. He kept getting the ball at the elbow and had to make the initial pass to a cutter or dribble to a hand off. In the third quarter, at the 1:55 mark, the Cavs ran a beautiful play. Andy stationed himself below the three point line. Williams then cut across the paint and Richard Jefferson, from the left side, ran towards a dribbling Andy for a hand off. Delly spotted up on the right side above the arc. As Mo went through the paint, his man followed him and Taj Gibson also leaned his way. RJ received the hand off from Andy and drove towards the paint pulling Delly’s guy in as a help defender. RJ’s original defender was navigating an Andy screen. Delly was then open at the three line, so RJ tossed the ball to him. He drove it in though and pulled in RJ’s defender as RJ was retreating to the 3-line. RJ then got the ball back and drove against all off balance defenders. At this point, Delly’s guy and Williams’ guy stepped in to deter an easy shot. All five Bulls were in the paint. RJ could kick it to an open Delly or Mo. He picked Delly in the corner. As two guys closed on Delly, he whipped it to Mo. A third guy closed on Mo, and RJ was open all by himself in the paint for an easy layup.

5. 

   The result of the above described play. Everyone is stuck in the paint.

6. Speaking of offense, if the Cavs aren’t always going to run one, they should capitalize on their offensive boards. They scored just 12 second chance points, but had 11 offensive rebounds.
7. J.R. Smith kept trying to drive into the paint. He only took two 3-pointers this game and missed both. He needs to be taking more 3s to space the floor.
8. I’m not sure what the deal with Kevin Love is. On one of the first plays of the game, he sprinted down court, and sealed off Mirotic for an easy dunk. After that though, he either struggled to get position in the post, or to just get the ball there. The Cavs sort of ignored him when he was down there. However, it seemed that he was often pushed off of his spots. If Love no longer has the strength to establish position deep in the paint, he needs to beat his defender down the court to get the ball and face up. Or, he can do what he did in the fourth quarter during his eight point barrage. With Mirotic behind him on the left block, he faked like he going to run to the three line. Nikola leaned, and Love spun behind him for an open look at the basket. Love’s speed was on full display. He didn’t make the basket initially, but he did get fouled and drained both free throws.
9. It’s not fair. The Bulls were supposed to be an offensive team this season. Yet, through a combination of Cleveland incompetence and decent defensive performance, they held Cleveland to 40% from the field and 30% from deep. And, when it really counted, Pau Gasol came up with a huge block. He had four of his six blocks in the fourth quarter.
10. LeBron put up a typical King line scoring 25 points to go with ten boards, and five assists. He was 12-22 from the field.
11. The Cavs take on the Grizzlies tomorrow. Let’s hope they can clean up their play on the offensive end, so Memphis doesn’t eat them alive.