Recap: Bulls 111, Cavs 105 (Or, This Is What Complacency Looks Like)

The Cavs continued their horrendous play against the Bulls, and Chicago made sure to take advantage of it. Cleveland allowed the Bulls to shoot 49% from the floor and let them establish a civilization in the paint right from the start.

Taj Gibson scored 23 points on 10-13 shooting and had 11 boards. Just one of his attempts from came outside of the paint. As a team, the Bulls scored 44 of their first 49 points down low (78 total points in the paint). The Cavs made it easy on them by acting like the ball was covered in grease turning it over 20 times this game, which translated to 18 points. LeBron had eight turnovers of his own on his way to 27 points and 13 assists.

Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler led the Bulls scoring wise. They combined for fifty points. It was Rajon Rondo who surprised  though getting a triple-double. He had 15 points, 11 rebounds, and 12 assists. Rondo made his presence felt early on.

On the very first possession for the Cavs, Rondo stripped Kyrie Irving and then proceeded to get a layup. Cleveland’s troubles continued. The next play Kevin Love had the ball stripped away on a post up attempt. Thankfully, the Cavs didn’t turn the ball over the entire quarter.

J.R. hit 3-5 deep shots and was getting great looks as the Cavs found him early in the shot clock. LeBron was also automatic in the quarter driving relentlessly to the rim. He had a beautiful spin move to get past Butler, and he had a great behind the back crossover to get to the rim. He also ripped off two surprise layups by just pushing the ball up after Bull’s makes. The Bulls weren’t helpless though and matched the Cavs intensity/took advantage of a complete lack of interior defense. Taj Gibson was 5-5 for 10 points in the paint. He made multiple hook shots over Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson.

The refs let the teams play. When they finally called a shooting foul eight minutes into the game on Isaiah Canaan after Irving drained a layup, Irving completed the 3-point play to give the Cavs a five point lead. The next play for the Cavs, TT rolled to the hoop after Irving got Rondo on his back and forced Robin Lopez to help out too much. TT got fouled and made the shot. It felt like the Cavs had some momentum when Tristan drained the +1 free throw to put them up seven, but the good feelings were short lived. When James and Irving went to the bench with 3:19 left, the team stagnated. Love couldn’t score and the team had four turnovers. They ended it up 33-30.

The second quarter was more of the same with both teams unable to play strong defense. The Cavs shot 47.8% and the Bulls shot 52.2%. The Cavs opened up with a 7-2 run. Channing Frye capped it off when the Bulls tried to trap James, and he just rolled to the rim for a freebie. The run wasn’t enough to demoralize the Bulls though, as they slowly fought back. Taj put up eight points, going 3-3 all in the paint.

James did his best to guide the Cavs. He had five assists (two resulted in corner threes). He also had a viscous alley oop when he stole the ball, passed out to Irving, and then ran the floor.

https://twitter.com/CavsNationTV/status/804867977266991104

The Bulls didn’t make a single shot outside of the paint in this quarter. Despite that, the Cavs still were closing out a little hard, and didn’t pack the paint to at least prevent the automatic shots the Bulls were getting there.

The Cavs entered the locker room ahead by one.

The third quarter opened with Kyrie and Jimmy Butler trading mid-range jumpers. This quarter took on a different feel. The Bulls started to play defense and the Cavs, mainly LeBron, showed a lack of understanding. Things felt shaky for Cleveland. Early on, Taj Gibson nailed an +1 when TT somehow ended up on Wade and figured it would be a good idea to leave Smith alone down low. A few plays later Wade dribbled back to the right corner with LeBron draped on him, only to drain a three over him. The Bulls hit shots that were demoralizing, the Wade three seemed especially disheartening since James was “locking him down.” And, when the Cavs tried to get going, they’d just mess up by giving up a shot right after they had scored.

With 2:44 to go, LeBron hit Kevin cutting to the rim for a quick give and go.

https://twitter.com/CavsNationTV/status/804878883925463040

The Cavs followed that play up by letting Butler drive and find Wade running in from the three line heading towards the paint. Wade dribbled past J.R. and did a little hop step to the rim past LeBron, who didn’t even raise his hands. A play later, LeBron watched Butler cut extremely hard from near the elbow to the hoop to catch an oop. LeBron didn’t even take a hard step to follow him. He lazily waved his hand and jogged behind. That put the Bulls up 11.

The King showed his lack of understanding when he got Nikola Mirotic switched onto him the next play. Instead of taking him to the rack, he pulled up for a long 3-pointer. He made it, but it was the idea that that’s what he thought was best to help the Cavs come back that was so aggravating, especially when Love was getting to good spots on the floor and was 2-4 in the quarter. The Cavs entered the fourth down big, 88-80.

During the fourth quarter, the Cavs couldn’t mount a run. The Bulls seemed to respond whenever they needed to, and it made sense because the Cavs had five turnovers. LeBron had five assists, but he continued to do bizarre things. With 8:55 to go, he had Canaan on him. He took a 3-pointer. Why not post-up?

Ultimately, the Bulls wanted it more. When the Cavs got within three after a James layup in semi-transition, Rajon Rondo got an offensive board, no Cavs seemed to have seen him running in, the next play and put it back in. He then made a 3-pointer the Bull’s next possession when every single Cavalier was ignoring him a second time in a row. That put the Bulls up eight.

When the Cavs cut their lead to four after James drove and found Love in the corner for a 3 to bring the Cavs within four with 4:07 left, Jimmy Butler drove the floor in transition, got fouled, and made the shots to calm the game.

https://twitter.com/CavsNationTV/status/804885487022460929

When Irving cut to the hoop and James floated him the ball to get within four with 3:03 left, Wade came down the floor and drove to the right on LeBron. He just got a step on him, it was enough space to glass it down. The Bulls won this one easily.

Gripes:

1.That’s the Bull’s shot chart for the whole game. No lie. At some point, why didn’t the Cavs wall off the paint. They could have done it Red Rover style and dared Jimmy and Wade to break their hands apart with drives. The Bulls went 3-18 from deep. Forcing them to take that shot by giving every guy on their team eight feet to shoot might not have been a bad idea.

2.The worst part about the defense tonight was that it was lot of individual breakdowns. The Bulls were’t running elaborate multi-screen sets. The Cavs just couldn’t stay in front of anybody. They actually did okay with defending pick and rolls, it was the blow bys that killed them.

3.Love and TT were jokes down low. Taj Gibson weighs 225. Why is he getting his shoulder into either Love or TT and creating enough space to score? On top of that, Robin Lopez had 10 points on 50% shooting using his ultra long four second wind up hook shot. How do the Cavs not come down and strip that shot every time?

4. The Cavs showed no effort rebounding. Chicago had 49 boards and Cleveland had 33. Chicago had 16 offensive boards.

5. The Bulls had 22 second chance points and 18 points from turnovers. If the Cavs could have actually boxed out and allowed just 11 second chance points, they would have won this game. If LeBron could reduce his turnovers, the Cavs could have won this game.

6. Speaking of LeBron, he’s gotta stop being so unaware. If he has a smaller guy on him, he needs to post or bulldoze to the rim. If he has a bigger guy on him, he needs to drive by him. At no point will any mismatch he ever goes against dictate that he takes a 3-pointer. Also, on defense he has to try. He can’t get back cut for alley oops every game. And, the layup he gave to Wade at the end of the game to put the Bulls back up by six was unacceptable. He played with Wade. Wade can’t shoot. He isn’t the best at going left. He’s great at going to his right. It seems you probably want him to not go to his right, yet that’s exactly what LeBron let him do. Tyronn Lue also needs to step in here. When Butler got the oop over LeBron, LeBron should have been benched. It’s the second game in a row where someone has scored like that over him because he’s too lazy to try and stop the pass.

7. Kyrie stunk defensively too. He actually went over several screens on Rondo and Rondo just made an easy pass while a Cavalier big left his own man to prevent penetration and Irving was trying to recover from behind. READ THE SCOUTING REPORT IRVING.

8. And, why play LeBron 45 minutes? It’s the second night of a back-to-back.

Hypes

1.Iman Shumpert and Channing both had respectable games. Shump had nine points on 4-6 shooting and Frye had 11 points on 5-6 shooting. Frye was really good on offense rolling to open space and filling the corners when he needed to.

2.Love definitely struggled to score going 5-14 for 15 points, but he didn’t give up. And, towards the end of the third quarter and during the entire fourth quarter he did a great job. His two 3s in the final frame brought the game within striking distance.

3.It’s the first three game losing streak of Lue’s career. Let’s all see how he handles it. The Cavs are in Toronto on Monday, and if they play how they have been, they’ll lose by forty.