*Exhale*
The Cavs don’t suck. LeBron isn’t over the hill. Coach Blatt does know what he’s doing. The Cavs aren’t “the 2013 Knicks.” We’re not getting swept. We can defend a pick and roll. Joakim Noah IS still ugly.
Needed that one last night and the Cavs came out with a fire lit under their asses from the opening tip. In a game where the Cavs never trailed, LeBron basically did everything a mortal could accomplish on a basketball court; Kyrie Irving dropped a quiet 21 points; DELLY was 1 point and 1 assist away from a double double; James Jones had 17; and Iman Shumpert continued his fantastic run in the playoffs adding 15 and playing tenacious D.
Let’s look at the game tape
The Cavs jumped out to a 38-18 lead after the first quarter.
When this face makes an appearance it’s a wrap
The best part of the night (aside from the bludgeoning of Chicago) was Kevin Love sitting with his teammates on the bench
LeBron sent Jimmy Butler out of Cleveland with his tail in between his legs
Everyone knew Mike Dunleavy wouldn’t be able to keep up his hot shooting from the first game but no one knew it would be this bad
Spicoli somehow got courtside seats for the game
Maybe the prettiest play of the night. He makes it look so damn easy.
The Bulls DOUBLE TEAMED Tristan Thompson so he couldn’t get an offensive rebound. Interesting strategy by Coach Thibs.
Delly oop. Tristan slam.
Couple quick thoughts:
– Love Coach Blatt’s adjustments this game. Inserting Tristan Thompson into the starting lineup was a helluva call and he had a lot to do with the 38-18 first quarter gallop. Numbers never lie.
– The whole “Derrick Rose kinda stinks on 1 day of rest” thing was in full force last night. Every game till game 7 is on 1 day of rest so let’s hope that theory holds true to form.
– Freaking Delly was 1 assist and 1 point away from a double-double. If Matthew Dellavedova is getting double-doubles in the playoffs then this Cavs team will be very very hard to beat.
– The Cavs skit shown on the humongotron was incredibly dumb. It wasn’t malicious of any sort but it was just stupid and unfunny. I hope no one gets fired because some people were offended on Twitter. Just be less tone deaf and be a little better next time, k guys?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGHAxbSEBZs
– Man I loved seeing Kevin Love out there. I really miss the guy.
– Aggressive LeBron is the best LeBron. He needs to be in that mode every night if we’re gonna win this damn thing.
– Man I hope Thibs keeps giving Joakim Noah meaningful minutes. The dude has been completely irrelevant so far this series. 4 points in 2 games for Noah is music to my ears.
– I see the people from Chicago are already starting to chirp about Derrick Rose’s lack of free throws. Don’t be surprised to see Rose go to the line a lot in game 3.
– Really good article by Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com on Kevin Love
– Guess who’s back, back again, JR’s back, tell a friend
-Joakim Noah gave a fan a little love tap last night. It’s hilarious how much space LeBron and Cleveland occupy in his head
– There hasn’t been one single lead change this entire series. Pretty odd.
– Last night’s game was a perfect example of why James Jones is on this team. Don’t expect 17 points from him every game but we’ll need him to hit big shots throughout the playoffs
– I think it’s pretty clear that looking at “PerfectBooties” on Instagram is the recipe for success for this team
Bottlegate 