Photo: Joshua Gunter/Cleveland.com

Twenty-four minutes in, the Cavaliers were engaged in a dogfight with just a one-point lead at halftime. But, they tightened up their defense, committed zero turnovers the rest of the way, got significant contributions from their bench, and broke out the dance moves as they essentially put the Bulls away early in the fourth quarter.

Bandaged Bulls: Chicago was without backup point Kirk Hinrich and starting power forward Tyrus Thomas. Rookie Taj Gibson, who started the last time these two played as Thomas was returning from injury, got the start once again. Aaron Gray, whose participation was in doubt, got some playing time in the fourth quarter.

KYP: Know your personnel: Early on, both teams were shooting the ball very well, but it was the way the Cavaliers were guarding the Bulls that was aiding the hot start. Taj Gibson, who loves to shoot jump shots, was given the chance to do exactly that. Taj drained four of his five shot attempts as Hickson seemed content with giving him a cushion. The Bulls guards, Derrick Rose and John Salmons, are great at creating off the dribble, and the Cavaliers allowed them to slice into the paint early on. Salmons did more of the scoring, and Rose did more damage dishing. Rose shot just 3-of-10 in the first half, but he did hand out six assists, while Salmons led the Bulls in the first half with 12 points.

The 10-man, 9-spot rotation: If one thing is clear, it's that Mike Brown considers his rotation ten deep, but he can really only play nine guys with the amount of minutes that LeBron and Mo rightfully consume. Since Delonte has made his most recent re-emergence, the last three games, someone has been left shortchanged. In Dallas, it was Z picking up the DNP-CD when the Cavaliers went small to match the Mavs and Delonte West played exceptionally well. Against Phoenix, Jamario Moon didn't see first quarter action and had just 13 minutes, most of those coming late without the outcome in doubt. Tonight, Delonte West got five minutes in the late first and early second quarters, but he did not get back in, largely due to Daniel Gibson's strong performance. I'm sure West's attitude had something to do with it, considering Brian Windhorst tweeted in-game that Delonte refused to wear the pink shoes for cancer awareness. I feel that Brown may continue to go about this dilemma the same way, rotating the one being shortchanged on a matchup basis. Some nights it will be Boobie, some nights Z, some nights Delonte, and some nights Moon. The one guy I see holding down his minutes ultra consistently is Varejao. His activity and defense is too valuable to not have on a nightly basis.

Baking up a batch of turnovers: The Cavaliers were also quite careless with the basketball in the first half, committing 11 turnovers. Most of them were on unwise cross-court passes or Shaq-to-somebody passes that were nice ideas but the window was too narrow. The Bulls got 14 points off those Cavalier miscues, and it really kept the Bulls in the game. As you can see from the score, the Cavaliers bucked this trend and took care of the ball coming out of the locker room, and the Bulls were in trouble from there on out.

Chicago in bonus, but Cavs get active: The officials tried to keep the Bulls in the game, at least for a two and a half minute stretch in the early third. The Bulls got four quick foul calls in their favor, and they were in the bonus from there on out. But, the Cavaliers used a 14-2 run to give them some breathing room, and LeBron started it with his attacking the basket. LBJ dished out 11 assists in all, and four of them came in that third quarter. The Cavaliers attacked the basket, while the Bulls were content with shooting mostly jumpers in the second half. The fouls piled up for Chicago, and by the end of the game, the Bulls had 25 fouls compared to the Cavaliers' 14 fouls. Also, the Cavalier bigs gave the team a giant boost once again. Anderson Varejao and J.J. Hickson were very active, creating offensive rebounds out of nothing and providing post scoring. Hickson had multiple buckets in the quarter, and finished with 9 points and 4 rebounds. Varejao reached double digits with 10 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 blocks.

DDR fallout: The Cavaliers, LeBron James in particular, were feeling pretty good in the second half tonight. When things go well, we know that LeBron doesn't mind showing everyone how much fun he and his team are having. On a couple of occasions, LeBron broke out some new god-awful looking dance moving, rotating around on one leg with the other sticking out in front of him. On a James trip to the line, Joakim Noah took offense to the "James and the Gang - Celebration" going on. The two jawed as LeBron sank his first free throw, and LBJ made a beeline to the Chicago bench immediately after. James received a tech, and Noah got nothing. Look, I'm not naive enough to think LeBron and the Cavs don't go over the line with their celebrating at times, but to sit there and taunt LeBron.. from the bench.. when you're losing... is the kind of move that only Joakim Noah would think of making. Noah is vastly improved and a way better NBA player than I envisioned, but he is small potatoes compared to James, and he should get over himself. If you don't want them to celebrate, stop them. Shaq also got a technical foul for swinging his elbows after pulling down a rebound with two Bulls chopping at him. I see why the call was made, but it doesn't mean that I agree with it.

Green on the scene: Rookie Danny Green got some meaningful minutes when he checked in for James with just under five and a half minutes left. Green missed two shots, pulled down a rebound, and made two free throws in his time on the floor. Darnell Jackson also got nearly four minutes of action, corralling two rebounds. It's going to be a battle to get Green any quality minutes when the Cavaliers are healthy, but it's a good problem to have. Green seems to do all the little things well, and I think he could be a rotation player right now for a lot of NBA teams. That just speaks to the Cavaliers' depth right now.

Boobie adding dimensions: The guy who performed the best tonight almost certainly had to be Daniel Gibson, but he did it in an unconventional way. The sharpshooter worked on his inside-the-arc game tonight, with six of his seven made shots inside the arc tonight. Boobie used a mix of long jumpers off a fake from three and floaters, including one that went from a pass to a shot in a snap in mid-air. Gibson's defense and floor game is constantly improving as he carves out more minutes on this team. Boobie was largely one-dimensional for his first three seasons, but he is hurting opposing defenses with more than his deadly outside stroke lately, something that can only help the wine and gold.

goes to: Daniel "Boobie" Gibson and LeBron James. Gibson hit 7-of-9 shots, including 6-of-7 from inside the arc, for his 15 points, adding three boards and one assist in 26 minutes. James continues to hand out the assists at a personal best pace. He was 8-of-17 from the field, scoring 23 points, pulling down 6 boards, dishing out 11 dimes, and committing just one turnover.

Team Grade: B+

Cleveland shot 51 percent and had 27 assists on 39 field goals. They held the Bulls to 42 percent shooting for the game, including just 36 percent in the second half, while not committing a second half turnover either. The Cavalier bench continues to shine with their second straight 40-point effort, and the team had four double figure scorers and seven players with eight or more points. But, the 11 first half turnovers, 3-of-10 from the line in the first half, and 17-for-31 from the line overall bring this effort down a bit.

A three-game road trip starts on Sunday afternoon in a matinee with the Milwaukee Bucks.

All for one. One for all.

Kirk

Comments (0)

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment