Well that sucked. The Cavs came out flat from the jump and looked like a team that was without 40% of their starting lineup who hadn’t played in 7 days. Watching that first quarter you’d have thought the Cavs were about to lose this game by 20. Mike Dunleavy played the best quarter of his life and the Bulls were draining everything that left their hands.
A couple spurts here and there in the second half got the Cavs close but they could never get over that hump. Every time the Cavs went on a run the Bulls would withstand our effort and then go on their own run. The Bulls were Floyd Mayweather and the Cavs were Manny Pacquiao. When the Cavs started hitting and connecting with their shots, the Bulls ramped up their defense and went on runs of their own to close out the rounds. Every time the Cavs would get close and get the crowd back into it, the Bulls would tighten up and respond. We could just never get over that hump and never land that right hand hook. (Not to mention both Manny and the Cavs were screwed over by torn shoulders) This was just like a typical Floyd fight too. No knockout shots, just a close, gross match that was won by the team who played better defense.
Let’s look at the game tape:
(if first quarters didn’t count the Cavs would have won 77-72)
One of the few highlights from the fist quarter was Mozgov stuffing the shit out of Joakim Noah
Kyrie got in on the action as well with stripping Derrick Rose
Kyrie did Kyrie things
I heard Barkley or Kenny Smith say that all Kyrie did this game was make circus shots. Uh, these are the types of shots he makes EVERY game.
When Aaron Fucking Brooks is hitting shots like this it’s just not your night.
I don’t see Derrick Rose making many of these types of shots this series but damn he made them last night
The whole city of Chicago shit their pants when Derrick Rose got a stinger on his shoulder during this play. Kinda sucks when one of your star players hurts his shoulder, huh?
Couple quick thoughts:
– Hey guys let’s defend the Pick & Roll a lil better next game, k? Not really a fan of giving Pau Gasol WIIDDEE open 15 footers all game. If the Cavs can’t get that fixed we may be in for a long series. Either get a hand in his face or put him on his ass.
– Shumpert built off his game 4 performance in Boston and had a terrific game last night. He outscored LeBron and hit four 3s. We’ll need him to be a big contributor on Wednesday in JR’s place.
– Hey James Jones, make a shot, would ya?
– I don’t think Derrick Rose can play at that level every game but if he does…. yikes.
– We knew not having Kevin Love and JR Smith would hurt our three point shooting, but going 7 for 26 and shooting 26.9% is unacceptable in the playoffs.
– How in God’s name is this not an illegal screen on Joakim Noah? The Bulls didn’t score this possession but come on. It’s not a hard foul or malicious but it literally happened right in front of the referee’s eyes. “Get off your knees, ref. You’re blowing the game!” is what I hope some drunk guy in the front row shouted during this game.
– If the Cavs are going to win they’re going to need LeBron to take more than two free throws. Need to see more of LeBron The Aggressor not LeBron The Facilitator
– Gonna need Mozgov to step up BIG next game… defensively and offensively
– Don’t think I’ll need to see Mike Miller in the starting lineup again… Unless he’s hitting every 3 he takes
– In some weird sick and twisted way I think the Cavs losing game 1 is a good thing
- This team needed to face some adversity during a game and this game was full of it.
- Game 1 was more of a “scouting report” game for the Cavs. It was all about how the Bulls would defend our offense without Love and JR and how they would attack our defense. Obviously the whole “Test Pau Gasol and let him shoot jumpers till the cows come home” strategy didn’t work.
- It provided a chance for LeBron to see how the Bulls would defend him. Plus it allowed us for him to have a shit game, get it out of the way, and only be down 0-1.
- There’s NOOO way the Bulls come out hitting shots like they were in the first quarter. Seriously. I’ve watched enough Bulls game this season to know that shot clock beating threes and long jumpers are not the norm for that team.
- We took the Bulls best shot and still had a chance to win at the end of the game.
So here we are down 1-0 with Game 2 on Wednesday and I could not be less worried (you’ll find out soon that we’re big fans of unjustified confidence around here)
And with that said… Cavs in 5.
Bottlegate 