Recap: Cavs 103, Bulls 94 (or, Cleaning House in the Windy City)

Recap: Cavs 103, Bulls 94 (or, Cleaning House in the Windy City)

2021-03-29 Off By Adam Cathcart

Nothing like a little spring cleaning. This was one of those weird pre-trade deadline games that had a little bit of everything – odd lineups, distracted players and coaches, sloppiness, some high-level performances, and, in the case of Chicago, the sense that the team was about to be blown up. Indeed, the day after this game, the Bulls traded five of their players, including their number one pick from 2018. As the Bulls organization conveniently spelled out the headline move:

The Chicago Bulls have acquired center Nikola Vučević (KNEE-coal-uh VOOCH-uh-vitch) and forward Al-Farouq Aminu (al-fah-ruke ah-ME-new) from the Orlando Magic in exchange for forward Otto Porter Jr. and [2018’s seventh overall pick] center Wendell Carter Jr., as well as two first-round picks with certain lottery position protections.

The Bulls also traded two backup centers — Daniel Gafford and Luke Kornet  — meaning that Bulls traded all three of their centers at the deadline and brought in two: namely Vucevic and Boston’s experienced big, the German Daniel Theis. (Now that both the Bulls and the Cavs have backup centers with German roots, Cavs: the Blog analyst Ben Werth may be able to tell us if there is some footage somewhere of Theis going toe-to-toe with a much younger Isaiah Hartenstein in the Bundesliga.)

Rounding out the roster cleanout for Chicago was the sending of forward Chandler Hutchison to the Washington Wizards and the pickup of Javonte Green from Boston. More here on the Washington-Boston-Chicago musical chairs, none of which seems destined to rebalance the Eastern Conference but may have some consequence for teams on the lower end of the spectrum.

In the immediate aftermath of these trades, the Bulls faithful appeared to be in a type of ecstasy, rejoicing that Chicago had not seen a trade of this magnitude since Dennis Rodman arrived in 1995. At the very least it ought to make for an interesting contrast with the Cavs rebuild.

As for the Cavs in this match, a number of players were out, most notably Collin Sexton and JaVale McGee (the big man would end up being shipped the next day to Denver). Covering the game at the United Center from Cleveland, Austin Carr captured how everybody’s mind seemed to be somewhere else, going on a melancholy tangent about how much he missed the restaurants of the Windy City.

The Cavs were kind of looking at a mirror image a team that needed to score in the paint, with very little outside shooting in the first half, with the eternal exception of Zach LaVine. Ultimately the Cavs were able to find enough sparks and basic competence against the Bulls turnover-prone offense and, led by Garland, Nance, Allen and a very good game by Isaac Okoro, won it down the stretch.

First Quarter

The Cavs came out blazing in this game, with Okoro at the shooting guard spot, and shooting it well. The rookie from Auburn dropped in burly yet beautiful drives to the hoop on successive possessions, capping his mini-explosion with a smooth straight-on three.

Having gashed the Bulls for seven points, Okoro then turned his focus to the defensive end, where he was tasked with chasing around Zach LaVine. Isaac valiantly did what has become his standard work of fighting around picks and trying to render transcendent offensive players into merely average shooters. J.B. took him out after seven minutes, but Okoro returned for the last 30 seconds to guard LeVine.

Okoro still occasionally has miscommunications coming off of screens. Here is one, where he followed the roller to the basket with Larry Nance, Jr. instead of staying on LaVine.

Lauri Markkanen, the Bulls’ lanky power forward, was another player who needed containing; this was a task largely left to Larry Nance Jr. and Jarrett Allen. Allen swatted one of Markkanen’s dunk attempts but later had one of his own sent back.

Bulls center Wendell Carter Jr. seemed to sense he was already gone. Facing a height mismatch on Okoro, he tried passing out and created a turnover. Carter later fell down under the hoop, with literally no one else in the paint, missing an uncontested layup. Cursing audibly, the Bulls big man was the target of a vintage retro Austin Carr quip: “the Invisible Man was guarding him that time.” And the invisible hand of the market would soon be pushing the oft-injured and Carter out the door. Requiem for an alternative future in Chicago.

Garland started looking a bit tired, dribbling down the shot clock and ending one possession on a low-percentage, off-balance fadeaway/airball. Fortunately Nance picked up the slack and was just his relentless self in the first. Nance had a thunderous dunk early on.

Larry also threw a crosscourt football pass to Wade, the kind of the kind of routine but beautiful play for which he is known. After Wade converted at the line, the Cavs were up 20 to 12.

With a bit over four minutes to go in the period, the horn sounds. Enter Dylan Windler and Damyeon Dotson, stage left.  Dotson may have raised a few viewer eyebrows, for this was his first action in nearly two weeks. Immediately the Bulls started to show some fight, clawing back into parity with the Cavs, who went cold. Markkanen finally uncorked a successful three-pointer, and Coby White, the Bulls counterpart to Collin Sexton drafted in 2018, nailed an acrobatic shot.

JB called time out, not so much to scheme as to give Darius a chance to get his wind back. This resulted in what might be called “the reclamation project guard combo” that hopefully will not become a regular one – Quinn Cook and Damyean Dotson, who were paired with Windler, Wade, and Allen in the frontcourt. Wade finally drilled an open three, ending an 0-7 stretch by the Cavs.

Damyean Dotson looked completely out of sorts for Cleveland — cold and tentative, he turned the ball over and then had a brain fart which resulted in ceding Coby White a wide open lane for us for a dunk — easily one of the worst defensive breakdowns in the last several games.

Dylan Windler’s performance was typified by a tentative drive into the paint in which he picked up his dribble and, lacking any post moves, had to pass out. He almost fumbled a rebound in a miscommunication with Larry Nance, then again crashed the boards, leaving LaVine alone in the corner and the kind of smooth 3 that has been eluding Windler for what feels like weeks.

J.B. subbed Okoro back in with 30 ticks left in the quarter, trying to contain Zach LaVine, but the former Minnesota Timberwolf, All Star, and NBA Slam Dunk champ nevertheless managed to end the period by tying the score of 25 to 25 on a soaring sideways running 3, with Okoro having lost half a stride chasing around the inevitable screen.

At the end of the first quarter, it was 25-25.

Second Quarter

JB yanked Okoro, who in spite of having the hot hand early would get only about four minutes of playing time in this quarter, going again with the “guard reclamation project” lineup of Cook and Dotson at guards, with Windler-Wade-Allen in the front court. Dotson’s main job seemed to be feeding Jarrett Allen down low, and on two successive possessions in resulted in points for Cleveland. Watching Jarrett Allen dominate, Wendell Carter Jr. finally woke up and returned the favor with two possessions of his own in which he splashed midrangers.

Lamar Stevens got some run in this quarter, tallying five minutes and spelling Jarrett Allen to make for a small lineup in which Quinn Cook cannonballed his way in and ended an 8-0 run by Chicago. Stevens forced a turnover and hit a sweet jump shot, but was not the perfect answer on defense as Markkanen got a pair of baseline dunks.

Windler’s five minutes of action in this quarter resulted in a rare highlight of him going to the bucket in a jangle of limbs. Naturally half of the engagements on the Tweet were exhortations to “play Stevens more,” but at least no one was cruel enough to mention that Windler was short on the free throw, making these his only points of the night.

With Darius and Nance back in the game things settled down somewhat and at the half it was Bulls 55, Cavs 53.

Third Quarter

This was a crucial quarter for Cleveland, pulling ahead due to a load of Chicago turnovers and some stellar play by Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland, and Isaac Okoro. JB also kept the rotations short, relying on the starters, some Dean Wade and a merciful combined five minutes for Dotson and Windler. Allen and Garland started to dominate the game, with Jarrett punching in alley oops and putbacks and Darius burying threes.

There was a funny moment where Cedi followed Williams into the paint, leaving Markkanen open in the corner. While the Cavs assistant coaches were livid, Cedi’s energy apparently rubbed off on the Finnish player and he clanked it.

Okoro’s disruptive defense snagged two steals and Allen’s offense keyed a run, and Isaac and the Cavs kept LaVine scoreless in the quarter (0-5 in ten minutes of action). LaVine has obviously matured into more of a team player — at one point with Larry and Isaac both on the floor, he gave up an open path to the basket to feed Markkanen another shot at an uncontested three point attempt, which, of course, was missed.

Cedi returned the favor by missing two point blank shots and sulking back on defense both times. The Cavs were defending a mirror image of themselves, with Larry Nance and blocking ill-planned mid-range floaters. The Cavs ended up with seven blocked shots in this game.

Wendell Carter, Jr. became a little frustrated, spiking the ball off of Larry Nance’s abs in a play that in a more high-stakes match-up might have resulted in some chest-to-chest muttering.

But because the stakes were not particularly high, JB put in Dylan Windler for his final two minutes of run in this game. Windler made like the Bulls and started by spiking the ball off of Larry Nance Jr.’s foot for a turnover and then leaving a three pointer short. (In general Windler’s shots seem to go off the front of the rim these days, which at least makes them more predictable than Cedi Osman’s which are often lucky to hit the rim at all. Perhaps that is why both men sat in the most recent Cavs-Kings matchup.) But Garland was there to pace the Cavs and Cleveland ended the third up 78-72.

Fourth Quarter

In a pleasant surprise, Brodric Thomas started the quarter, playing most of the final frame.

Which allowed this to happen:

But structurally the most important aspect of the fourth quarter was the confident play by Larry Nance Jr., Darius Garland, and Jarrett Allen. Nance wasn’t ruffled by Carter again throwing the ball at his face, going on to block a Coby White three point shot, hitting his own three, ripping a board away from four red jerseys. Both Garland and Wade hit important threes down the stretch, and Billy Donovan was left to meditate on how to tackle the Cavs on another night, with a different roster.

 

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CategoryRecaps
TagsBilly Donovan Bulls Cavs Chicago Bulls Chicago Bulls trades Darius Garland Dylan Windler housecleaning Isaac Okoro J.B. Bickerstaff Lauri Markkanen NBA Trade Deadline Wendell Carter Jr. Zach LaVine
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Adam Cathcart

Give Windler some run and let Okoro take north of 12 shots for a change, how bad could things get?

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DanK

lol Hartenstein two fouls in 38 seconds

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