Recap & Podcap: Cavs 115, Bulls 92 (or, ‘Blow the Whistle, Jonathan!’)

It’s the 8th of December and cabin fever has already come to my home. The snow if falling, my children are running and screaming, my sizable dogs are wrestling; my ancient, aching house feels small. I retreat to the clandestine number station that is my attic to check the breakers and cables. The vintage tubes glow warmly, the dials lit yellow by tiny incandescent bulbs – my distant compatriots are still receiving their message should they ever care to listen, or should they even exist. I cross a few wires and crank the wheel that turns the antennae north toward Cleveland. The Cavs vs. Bulls game sputters to life on the CRT screen. It’s time for basketball.

1st Quarter

The Cavs entered the game looking to gain distance from .500 mark over a depleted, yet 2nd in the East, Bulls squad. Short Derozan, Green, Thomas, Caruso, and Williams due to various injuries and all-to-common ailments, the Bulls looked to get Vučević and Lavine going early. It worked, for a little while. The Cavs went back to basics with a high-low game to attack the paint with high efficiency, and while the Bulls were able to hang with some quick shooting and backdoor cuts, a play with seven minutes left in the quarter summarized the early going well: Vučević received a pass off the high pick and roll, surveyed the paint, decided entering the paint was not for him, and tossed up a weak 13 footer that harmlessly bounced off the rim. Vučević would continue to try and dominate the Bull’s shots throughout the game in a valiant attempt to make up for the lost offense of Derozan, scoring 18 points off of 23 attempts, but it wouldn’t be enough.

A late timeout found Moondog taking the floor. The bit was that Moondog thought an actual Bull was in the arena, from which he cartoonishly fled. The conceit was that Moondog is an idiot, and we love him anyway. It worked, and the crowd was on their feet as the dancers, dressed as hotdogs, danced on. Confused perhaps by the theatrics just described the Cavs came out somewhat slow and the Bulls were able to briefly tie the game in the last few minutes of the quarter before a Mobley block led to a smooth Garland and-one. The resulting foul shot was the 10th by the Cavs as the Bulls had yet to get to the line, a trend that would continue throughout the game. A couple became engaged to be married on the kiss cam, and the crowd’s excitement increased yet again.

2nd Quarter

Mobley got very involved on both ends of the floor early in the 2nd Quarter and, with a little help from Cedi and Love off the bench, pushed the lead to ten in the opening minutes. Levine was able to score somewhat easily, especially in transition, as the Bulls looked to avoid half-court sets as much as possible and capitalize on early Cavs turnovers. However, aside from Levine (23 pts, nine assists on the night), their shots were not falling. The Bull’s announcer remarked that “this Cavs team is very good” as the camera panned across the fine people of Cleveland, perhaps the heartiest and most attractive on earth.

The Bulls began giving Allen all the space he wanted from the elbow or perimeter and dropping coverage of pick and roll action, but the Cavs were able to move the ball and keep scoring. In spite of shooting just 29% from the field with 3 minutes left in the quarter, the Bulls found the energy to swarm the Cavs and pull within 5 points. With just over a minute left, Mobley and Garland took turns doing impressions of Kevin McHale, reaching deep into the memories of everyone watching over the age of 35, working low and high in the post to catch defenders midair and scoop toward the basket for hard shots made to look easy, and Cavs ended the half ahead by 9. Entering halftime the two team’s stats looked nearly identical with the points advantage coming from foul shots and the Bull’s injury-stressed bench’s lack of offense foreshadowing the ruinous half to come.

3rd Quarter

Mobley hit a smooth 17 footer to open the second half as the narrative of the game began to take focus: The Cavs were playing really well on offense, really well on defense, and were more talented than the Bulls in spite of a scrappy effort from the Chicago squad. Okoro came up with a steal nearly halfway through the 3rd quarter and slammed the ball home to bring the score once again into double digits, 65-51, before my signal briefly went to static.

Once I was able to tune my equipment an intrepid sideline gaffer managed to point a microphone directly at Bulls coach (and reigning Coach of the Month) Billy Donovan just as he resorted to one of Basketball’s most sacred traditions- yell at the ref and gain a technical in an attempt to motivate players and/or gain favor among the officials, one of whom was apparently named Jonathan. “Blow the Whistle, Jonathan!” bellowed the veteran player-turned-coach. “Blow the Whistle! You suck. You suck.” The plan, though admirable, failed.

The rest of the quarter played out as a showcase of the Cav’s burgeoning bench unit and once-again teammates Rubio and Love who, with a little help from Cedi, scored 11 points a piece out of the bench’s 25 points scored through 28 minutes of play. The Bulls bench had yet to score a point. Love’s release grew faster and faster as the Cavs stretched the lead to 22. The game felt over. Cedi made a Lebron-styled chase down block. Mobley finished the quarter with 5 blocks and 2 steals, shooting eight of 11 from the field. The fancam showed a tiny child, peering up at himself on the jumbotron, frozen in fear. My dogs began to bark. Outside, a herd of deer moved wordlessly though my neighborhood, tastefully lit from below by landscape lighting. Two of the deer began mating. Perhaps in the spring they will birth a calf, just in time for the Cavs to make the playoffs.

4th Quarter

Dear reader, the Cavs are simply good. Allen (13 points, 12 rebounds) opened the 4th quarter with consecutive spin-and-slam possessions to further embarrass the wounded Bulls. A member of the Bulls bench finally scored, meaninglessly, as the team mostly turned to fouling to try and slow the Cavs. The entire final quarter felt like a scrimmage as the lead swelled and the crowd cheered in elation. With just over six minutes remaining in the game Garland hit a gratuitous 27 foot three pointer to restore the lead back to 20, and that probably should have been ballgame. But the crowd wanted more, and the Cavs were ready with an encore. Coming off a botched high screen action by the Bulls, Garland made a leaping, twisting pass to Okoro in the corner, who deftly found a trailing Markkanen to slam the hammer down, leaving his mark on his revenge game against his former club. Garbage time began in earnest with nearly five minutes left in the quarter and was largely an exercise in counting Wade threes (in his return from injury, Wade went three for four to score nine points in about two minutes). Of all the storylines that could have come from this game, the most important one dominated all of the others as a Cavs team facing the most difficult schedule in the league readily defeated a team they were favored to beat. Garland turned in what is becoming a classic stat line (24 points, six assists, three of seven from deep) and Mobley putting up five blocks, the first such Cavs player to do so in a single game since 1984, on his way to a +28 plus minus performance. The Cavs won the game 115-92.

[Editor’s note: not to take a GD thing away from this brilliant recap, but Nate and Chris Francis and Eli recorded a podcast too, and it’s almost as good as Lyden’s recap. Good gravy we have some talented peeps here.]

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