Photo: Tony Dejak/AP

If you wonder why LeBron tends to settle for jumpers at the end of games, even at the disgust of Cavalier fans (myself included) at times, tonight is a prime example. LeBron drove, got contact from Luol Deng and Joakim Noah, but he lost the ball with no foul call and the Cavaliers dropped a very winnable game in front of a home crowd that has now seen them lose twice in four games, as much as they lost at home all of last year. Here's a summary of some of the team's causes for concern.

Whirlwind start for Wild Thing: Anderson Varejao got more than his fair share of open looks in the early going as the Bulls defense keyed in on James and O'Neal. This isn't surprising, and even when Andy is successful, it's not going to stop the opportunities for #17. Wild Thing was 4-for-5 shooting for 7 points, his only miss a reverse dunk that went wrong. He also added 7 boards in an incredibly active first quarter.

Like an ocean: The Cavaliers started just 3-of-11, but they then went through a stretch where they hit 8-of-9 shots to close the quarter, Andy's missed dunk being the only blemish. LeBron was a large part of that with 11 first quarter points on 5-of-7 shooting, adding 2 boards and 3 dimes.

J.J. = Jittery & Jumbled: J.J. Hickson played one of the worst stretches of NBA regular-season basketball that I've seen in a long time last night. In just 3 minutes and 18 seconds, he managed to miss four shots, getting absolutely PACKED once, committing a turnover (and nearly several more), and the team came away with a (-3) while he was in the game. Hickson has seemingly lost all the positive momentum that he had going for him in the preseason, and you can bet that Mike Brown now most likely has him in the doghouse, without food or water and with the door padlocked. With performances like that, somebody, anybody, on this roster deserves a look, as much as I want to see J.J. succeed.

Lunar Eclipse?: That's the only explanation, because Jamario Moon's time has been waning for several games now, to the point that he recorded his first DNP-CD of the season tonight. In a game where the bench was pretty disgusting (except for Daniel Gibson), Moon couldn't even get off the pine. Delonte West shot just 1-for-5 in nearly 27 minutes, Anthony Parker logged 35+ minutes, and Mo Williams was just 4-of-13 shooting in his 33 minutes. With number like that, Moon deserves a look, especially since he was brought in to provide a spark off the bench, something Cleveland dearly needed and didn't get tonight. Look for that playing time to start waxing tonight against the Knicks, where there are Stretch Fours Galore.

Early 2nd qtr shakeups: In a surprise spin of Mike Brown's "Wheel of Rotations", the coach went without LeBron James, Mo Williams, AND Shaquille O'Neal to start the second quarter, choosing a lineup of Gibson, West, Parker, Hickson, and Ilgauskas. Now, after J.J.'s nightmarish showing, MB quickly went to Shaq, but Mo sat out for the same stretch that LBJ did, nearly five and a half minutes. The early second is Mo's time to shine, not sit back on the sidelines and crack jokes with LBJ. Coach Brown, you've got a good thing established there, why go away from it?

Take it easy, LBJ!: LeBron gave Cleveland fans two frightful moments in the second quarter tonight when he went out of control into the crowd, risking injury on hustle plays. The first was on a breakaway, where I thought Kirk Hinrich cut LBJ off a little bit and sort of directed him toward running underneath the basket. James then continued off the dropoff, where he twisted his left ankle on the nearly 1-foot drop to the seating area. The next occurred on a play where West was beat, knocked the ball ahead, and James attempted to save the ball underneath the Bulls' basket. He hurdled into the third row of the seats, where unfortunately there was  no one to cushion the blow. James landed on his side, but it looked like he may have tweaked his shoulder on the replay. I admire James's hustle, but he's got to think longterm, and him sitting on the sidelines for us is nothing but a death sentence.

Getting the RUNaround: Look no further than this stat for the loss tonight: The Cavaliers gave up runs of 6-1 to close the 1st, 8-0 to close the second half, and a 9-3 run to start the fourth. The Bulls are a team that live on runs like that, and the Cavs played right into their hands in that facet. Brown has got to use his timeouts better to nip those runs in the bud.

Abnormal rest pattern: Another change in Brown's rotation was that he started the fourth quarter with LBJ, but sat him from 9:30-5:18 in the fourth quarter. I just cannot wrap my mind around that one. It's bad enough to have to rest him in the fourth, but for 4 of the last 9 minutes of the game! To me, Mike Brown is taking wins secondary to getting comfortable with his team right now. While I understand that, it's going to end up costing us 2-4 spots in seeding rather than just one as I had hoped before if we don't shape up... and FAST.

Every Rose gives the Cavs thorns: Derek Rose was relatively quiet for the first 36 minutes, but he came alive in the fourth, and the Cavaliers had no answer defensively. Rose pretty much scored or assisted on every bucket in the fourth quarter, and the Cavs tried to no avail to switch defenders from Mo to West to LeBron. The pick and roll with Rose and Miller did the wine and gold in with Shaq on the floor. If you think Z is bad on the pick and roll, Shaq isn't too far behind, and Brad Miller was clutch in the fourth.

Swallowing the Whistle: It's tough to blow the whistle at the end of the game, officials don't want to decide the game, and that's why LBJ didn't get the call. It was good defense by Deng to force him away from the basket and towards Noah, but I feel Noah committed the foul following through after he was initially straight up against James. The officials went to replay to determine it went off James as well, which I feel also could've been incorrect. It looked as if the ball grazed Noah's elbow after it came out of LeBron's hands. In the future, LeBron needs to assume he's not going to get the call and just try to finish strong. If you watch that play again, his first goal was drawing the foul and not finishing the hoop. That needs to change, because LeBron may get a lot of calls, but at the end of the game, it's all fair game, and the defense gets the benefit of the doubt.

goes to: Anderson Varejao, who got the team going early, finished with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, adding 13 rebounds while playing solid defense throughout the evening.

Team Grade: D-

Combine the aforementioned runs, just 41 percent shooting, 12 turnovers, and 1-of-18 shooting from the bench (minus Gibson), and you've got a recipe for disaster. Make no mistake, the Cavaliers had a good chance to win this one, but they certainly didn't deserve it.

The Cavaliers head into a media circus on Friday night when they hit Madison Square Garden to take on the New York Knicks. The Cavaliers need this one to get back on the right side of the .500 mark.

All for one. One for all.

Kirk

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