Recap: Bulls 99, Cavs 93 (Or, This Is How You Alienate Your Fans)
2017-03-31
The Cavs came out in the first half defending better than they have since the All-Star break. They held the Bulls to just 34% shooting, and led by 11 after 24 minutes. The only reason they didn’t lead by more was because Nikola Mirotic caught fire. He went 6-9 from the field hitting three 3s for 17 points.
Cleveland only had two quarters of trying in them though. After roughly three minutes of acceptable play in third, they decided they wanted to make fans across the country pound on their tables in unison. The Wine & Gold had six turnovers and the Bulls scored 37 points. Cleveland’s defense became non-existent for several stretches, and the Bulls easily held on during the fourth quarter.
The final frame was very frustrating. Kevin Love, who was in foul trouble most of the night, sat the first part of the quarter. He returned with five fouls with 6:24 left to go. He then promptly fouled Jimmy Butler in the middle of the paint to prevent a lay up. It was weak foul though and Butler drained his floater. Thankfully, he didn’t drain the freebie, so the Bulls were up by just nine. Love must have been so disappointed watching the Cavs flounder during his time on the bench that he just wanted to get back on the pine away from the destruction.
No matter what the Cavs did in the fourth, they couldn’t come back. With about a minute left in the game, LBJ threw Tristan Thompson an alley oop from around the half-court line. That brought the Cavs within five. The next play down the court, the King picked up Jimmy Butler. He forced Butler to pass to Robin Lopez. Lopez then got called for a charge. With less than a minute to go and down five, most coaches would have told their players to get an open 3. Not Tyronn Lue. LBJ just dribbled up and jacked a contested three. It was to be expected though as 12 of the Cavs 19 shots in the quarter were 3s (they just made one).
For the night, Nikola Mirotic led the Bulls with 28 points on 9-14 shooting. He had 10 rebounds and hit six 3s. Butler put up 25 points (10-17), six rebounds, and five assists. The King led the Cavs with 26 points (11-20), ten rebounds, and eight assists. He was just one of seven from deep though. Kyrie Irving had 20 points (7-20) and went 4-7 from downtown.
First Quarter
The Cavs started the night out with some defensive lapses. The Bulls first points came after Rajon Rondo missed a layup and Butler soared in to put it back. Some Cavs forgot to box out, “nothing unusual,” I thought. A few possessions later Irving decided to go over a Lopez screen for Rondo. TT naturally had to stop Rondo so when Rondo bricked a shot, Lopez got a free slam.
After those two lapses, the Cavs locked in. The Bulls scored just 22 points, 13 of which came from Mirotic. Mirotic got open early for some shots, but later in the quarter he was just draining shots over people. The Cavs also forced two 24 second violations.
Offensively, the Cavs kept it simple. They tried to involve Love a little early on and then relied on drive and kicks to generate some looks. J.R. Smith helped get some momentum midway through the action. After draining a 3, Smith came down the floor and dribbled into the paint before finding a cutting TT. He caught TT cutting again the very next possession.
J.R. Smith finds Tristan Thompson for the slam! pic.twitter.com/U7KhIGrOdQ
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) March 31, 2017
Smith capped the 10-3 run with a 3-pointer to tie the game at 14. James needs to be mentioned too. He kept Chicago guessing after every rebound he got. He managed two one man fast breaks.
LeBron hit em with the spin-move! 🌪 pic.twitter.com/isTUNvLiqO
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) March 31, 2017
On the final play of the quarter, Irving Nashed it and passed the ball out to Shumpert from the paint. He then continued running the baseline and got the ball in the corner for a 3-pointer.
Second Quarter
Cleveland’s defense held the Bulls to 19 points in the second, while putting up 22 of their own. The offense looked crisp. Channing Frye hit LBJ with a touchdown pass from the baseline on the first play. James then made a quick backdoor cut for another easy two. Love even made baseline cut for a layup. The Bulls called a timeout at 10:53 when Cleveland’s lead stretched to ten.
The real highlights of this quarter came on the defensive end. On one occasion, Michael Carter Williams tried to drive in, and Love swatted him. The Bulls rebounded the block, but Shumpert Shumped the ball away. Chicago got the ball back again and scored, but the effort by Cleveland was amazing. LeBron showed his appreciation for that sequence by reminding the team of the Finals.
After getting the ball stolen from him two possessions later, the King reacted like he was twenty again or just 31 and at the Finals. He sprinted down the court and glassed the fool who dared be the recipient of a ball stolen from greatness, MCW.
That looked familiar… ✋ pic.twitter.com/sH541QfK9n
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) March 31, 2017
The Cavs ended the quarter strongly when James hit two mid-range jumpers back-to-back. They went into the locker room up, 50-41.
Third Quarter
The third quarter was when it all fell apart for the Wine & Gold. The final 9:37 of the quarter, the Bulls went on a 33-15 run. The Cavs turned it over six times. Love and Tristan both had offensive fouls, James threw it out of bounds once, and Irving was called for a tech after complaining about a phantom call he had on Butler. Frye even got called for an offensive hold and threw it out of bounds once.
The Cavalier defense didn’t help matters either. Rondo blew by whoever was covering him. I’m not going to watch this quarter again, but I’m 90% positive that Rondo went by Kyrie every single time he was guarded by him. Rondo missed five of his eight shots, but he handed out eight assists.
Rondo and Butler connect for an ally-oop! 👀 pic.twitter.com/fvjApgVBMe
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) March 31, 2017
Irving was a -16, despite leading the team with 11 points in the quarter. Mirotic capped the third with two 3s in the final minutes. Valentine also drained a 3. The Bulls entered the final frame up, 78-71.
Fourth Quarter
As mentioned above, the Cavs weren’t able to mount a comeback. The only other thing of note was Butler. Butler scored ten in the fourth, and it wasn’t completely related to the Cavs not playing defense. He hit all contested jumpers.
Gripes
- This team still can’t put together 48 minutes of solid basketball. They played 24 minutes of stellar defense in the first half, and about six minutes of decent defense in the forth to hold the Bulls to 42.2% shooting. The Bulls made 11 of their 18 3s, but that was mainly because Mirotic got so hot.
- Irving cannot get torched so badly by Rondo. Rondo should never get to the rim on anybody. He can’t shoot, so it’s ridiculous not to sag off of him. Cleveland clearly doesn’t understand that. When he penetrates he’s going to make the right decision, which is why he had 15 assists.
- Iman Shumpert was 2-8 and hit no 3s. He impresses me with his ability to make the wrong decision no matter the circumstance. If someone screens for him and pops wide open, he will almost automatically dribble for a few more seconds and take a mid-range jumper, even if three defenders are hovering on him. He still hasn’t figured out why teams leave him open. He doesn’t get why teams let him dribble. He is the Anti-Morey.
- In the first quarter, I watched how many times the Cavs passed the ball more than once on a possession before shooting. It happened no more than five times on 19 shots. Not that that is all that matters, but the Cavs offense is downright hideous at times. They work just to have one guy drive in and then dish the ball out. They haven’t been ping ponging the ball around. Tyronn Lue needs to work on this. When the Cavs need a bucket they should work for something better than a “LeBron pull up or drive and hope it works out when he jump passes the ball.”
- Also, with an offense that is as simple as this one is, a rational person is left wondering why the team can’t focus on defense just a little bit more.
- The Cavs turned it over fifteen times and gave up 15 offensive boards. That’s just not winning basketball. The Bulls took seven more shots than the Cavs on the night.
- Love had foul issues all night and looked relieved when he finally fouled out. He had eight points and ten rebounds. Mirotic started his feast against Love.
- The Cavs hit just ten 3s.
Hypes
- The Cavs actually kept a team from shooting over forty percent for a half.
- Butler and Mirotic both got their points, but the Cavs really covered them. They weren’t giving points away because of gross incompetency. Those two were making tough shots all night.
- Smith had a bounce back game. He hit four threes, and seems to have found some chemistry with TT. He found him four times for oops. I’m surprised that Smith can dribble as good as he still does. He was navigating some serious traffic.
- TT had a great night too grabbing nine rebounds and 15 points. In typical fashion, all of his points were off put backs and passes near the rim.
- The Cavs haven’t righted themselves yet, but this game was a start.
- Cleveland hosts Philly tomorrow. Lue probably will rest some guys, but hopefully he doesn’t.
- Lue shortened his rotation to eight guys tonight and LeBron played 39 minutes. He was trying hard to get the win. Philly might provide an avenue for a non-LBJ forty minute game win.
Lebron didn’t know what he was talking in demanding a back-up pg and play-maker. He and Kyrie don’t leave room on the roster for another play-maker. Another play-maker gets in the way. And Deron is too old to be a major play-maker any way. Cavs need athletic defenders that can hit the deep ball. Honestly think that Cavs need to take Deron Williams out of rotation if they want to repeat. He should be there just as an assurance and get only garbage time minutes. The February rotations were the best all year. Kyrie, JR, Lebron, Love, TT Lebron, Korver,… Read more »
It actually was a great season minus January and March. But I guess January and March together is a huge portion of the season.
November, December, and February were pretty darn tremendous.
Lue had one good point originally. Supposedly he was the first coach ever to take charge with LeBron. It appears that that is long over.
Well I couldn’t watch the game but at least they played defense for 3/4 of a game. I don’t know what Lue is doing with rotations. His game management skills are pretty awful, not to mention the lack of an offense that doesn’t rely entirely on James and Irving initiating everything. At least he is good at out of bounds plays, but he seems to have completely lost the ability to motivate this team or hold people accountable. Not sure he ever had it to begin with. Phil Handy was the guy that lit a fire under them in the… Read more »
Has Longabardi ever made a defense better in his coaching tour? Every place he goes the defense gets worse.
Raise your hand if you’d feel better with Delly on this team. I’d trade Shump for Delly straight up right now.
Absolutely. Shump has had spells of decent play, but most of the time be belongs in the CBA. Shump’s best days are about at the level of Delly’s worst days. Shump might be a better athlete than Delly, but Delly is much tougher, smarter, and knows how to win.
It probably isn’t feasible, but I’d love to see them bring Delly back this summer.
I disagree with you David on the point about Love looking relieved to be out. To me, it looked like he was incredibly frustrated and felt, perhaps, like there was nothing he could do. He picked up a LOT of calls that were questionable at best. His 5th foul call was absurdly bad. He hardly made any contact with anyone.
That sixth foul was with either him quitting, or monumentally dumb. It seemed like quitting to me.
I guess we just interpret differently. I think it was just dumb. I’ve made that foul before because I was too slow. Just not thinking. Either way, he obviously needed to be more careful in that situation, so no excuse there.
A strange thought: David Griffin might be the figure least likely to be back if the Cavs don’t play well in the post-season. He’s the one responsible for bringing in the bevy of all offense, and no defense players. He also botched the McRae situation, and failed to pull the trigger on a Shumpert deal, which is looking like a mistake now. I like Griff, but his penchant for offense is starting to bite him in the tail. He’s also on the last year of his deal.
Griffin is not under contract, either. I expect you are right if the Cavs flame out in the playoffs…if they get to the finals, my bet is he’s back if he wants to be…
I don’t know. It’s hard to judge, Griff has made a lot of really good moves. Though I agree that he really misjudged the team’s need for defense. But he basically had his hands tied when LeBron called for yet another playmaker. I still think Lue is the primary culprit in all of this. His coaching this season has been either non-existent or down right abysmal.
+1 on Lue
How did he botch the McRae situation? Did someone else pick him up, and now he is a star? And trading for Korver? That was dumb. He should have traded what’s his name for Steph Curry. I think a much more likely reality is that Lue is befuddled about what to do with the players he has.
Good recap, David. I will admit that I was only half watching, not getting my hopes up too much. Cleveland’s first half was awesome. Their second half was utter garbage. LeBron keeps smiling through it all, too. As he mentally checks out so does the rest of the team. More than one of his turnovers was of the “hot dogging it” variety. Like one time where he tried a behind the back instead of a simple two handed overhead pass… Most galling to me was the “give up offense” where they just dribbled down to jack a three. Or the… Read more »
Well, to me the most irritating was when the Cavs had a 2-point lead with about 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. James was replaced and immediately Kyrie played Kyrie-ball and turned a 2-point lead into a 7 point deficit in just 3 minutes . Probably even more irritating is Kyrie’s 7-20 shots and a whopping 3 assists and compounding a mistake by getting a tech. Most disturbing is that the Cavs have a supposedly point guard who have been regularly taking 20 plus shots on a team very reliant on playmakers to get their shots.
That was a dreadful stretch. I pretty much knew it was a loss after that.
That was the stretch of play I mentioned last night as being incredibly ineffective when the lineup is Kyrie + Bench players if Kyrie can’t produce.
It was so telling the other night when Kyrie, frustrated with the team’s play, went back on the court to put up shots. Not study tape, not work on defense, not talk to Lue about sets. Take more shots. That’s his answer to everything, and its the biggest problem the team faces. His break downs on defense screw up everyone else. Love fouls out trying to cover Kyries mistakes. Rondo had his choice of open shooters as everyone collapsed in the lane to cover up Kyrie’s mistakes. No amount of Kyrie scoring can make up for the hot garbage on… Read more »
Cavs will always have problems for as long as the opposing point guards shred the perimeter defense and Kyrie is more interested in scoring than in running the offense and creating for on-dimensional teammates.
If this is how they look after 2 days of practice against a sub 500 team, can’t wait for the playoffs.
Delly.
Where’s Telly when you need him?
At least we showed we can play 24 minutes of elite-level basketball. Seriously, that’s a big step. So perplexed by Lue’s utter regression this year. Last year, when he took over, he seemed to have the respect of the team, and most importantly, the ability to speak truth to Lebr… er, power. This year he seems so passive, slow to react, and intent on using baffling lineups. At a certain point, don’t you stop tinkering to try to integrate new parts and “see what you’ve got” — and start focusing on cohesion and coherence?? Also, bizarre to see a locker… Read more »
“At least we showed we can play 24 minutes of elite-level basketball.”
The Cavs were playing the Bulls when they were displaying their “elite-level basketball.”
The bulls were playing really well and have been much better post-trade.
Veal Chop is a troll – read thru his comments on the past 3 threads.
Well no, I am not. Just a disgruntled fan. You always see the glass as half full. I however, see this glass (Cavs team) as half empty.
Glass half troll?
If not going down on every player on the teams pipe is a troll. Yes, I am a troll then.
Although he gave good effort, Kyrie just can’t continue to guard the opposing point guard. Lue waited too long to switch Smith or Shumpert on Rondo. Not that either of those two are making any all defensive team any time soon either, although they slowed Rondo down last night. And Deron Williams has sadly not been a benefit to the team. More often than not, we go backwards when he is on the court. It’s really inconceivable how far we have slid playing .500 ball for almost half a season now. David mentions in the headline alienating fans, and my… Read more »
I see people complaining all the time about why isn’t Deron Williams playing more? Why has Lue stopped playing Derrick Williams? The reason is they suck. They were free players, not saviors. If they had any worth they wouldn’t have been cut and free agents. Same thing with Larry Sanders. He might be a good player in the future, but he is not the X-Factor that is going to come in this year and lead the Cavs to the championship.
Do you actually Derrick Wiliams can play any worse than Shumpert? When Derrick was in the lineup in February the team had its best run in three months. No he isn’t the X factor, but he should be getting some minutes.
As to your season tickets, if the Cleveland players, coaches and media….and fans continue this “regular season doesn’t matter”…then why would anyone buy season tickets? Or any tickets at all for the regular season?
That is exactly how my friends feel
And Kyrie’s attempt to get back at his match up is to pound the rock and jack up millions of shots against a phalanx of defenders. There’s no reason for a shooting guard to regularly take 20 plus shots on a team full of shooters and point makers who can create for themselves.
Not enough good defensive personnel on this team. Lue and longabardi have not done well in their jobs either.
The team isn’t fun to watch right now. I miss the Wildcat lineup. Everyone seems confused and unhappy. Do they have a prayer in the playoffs? Are we making the same mistake we do every year doubting LeBron?