Photo: Nam Y. Huh/AP

Mike Brown was very statesmanlike leading up to this game, saying that he wanted to give the Chicago Bulls the same opportunity for victory (and defeat) as the Toronto Raptors had on Tuesday night. In the end, though, the opportunity to rest LeBron James was just too tempting, and while LeBron sat, the "non-LeBrons" still gave a national television audience quite a game. Mo Williams had his highest scoring game of the year, and the Cavaliers got some solid contributions from a couple of guys who had been buried on the bench recently. Down one with the final possession, both shots came from Anderson Varejao from beyond 15 feet, and that's generally not a recipe for success, as Andy misfired on both and the Bulls pulled to even with the Raptors for the eighth and final playoff spot in the East.

LeBron James sat for the third time this season, but the way the wine and gold played for most of the game, it wasn't as easy to detect. The Cavaliers had no problem scoring, and this was a great opportunity for Mo and Antawn Jamison to get a bunch of solid, primary-option offensive looks. Mo wasted no time in the first quarter, scoring 9 points and handing out 4 assists. But, the Bulls packed quite a punch at the point guard spot last night with Derrick Rose and Kirk Hinrich. Sure, Hinrich plays primarily shooting guard as a starter, but he does back up Rose at times, and with the way the offense ran through him at times, I think he could be considered a point. The defending rookie of the year is always big trouble for Mo Williams to cover, so the real problem was that Hinrich had such a fantastic game after having a few lackluster performances against the Cavs this season. Rose had a double-double with 24 points on 10-of-17 shooting and 10 assists, and Kirk had 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting with 9 of those coming in the second quarter surge that gave the Bulls a lead midway through the quarter.

Another key guy for the Bulls was Luol Deng, who has been in and out of the lineup due to injury. Deng seemed to enjoy being covered by Jawad Williams and Jamario Moon instead of LeBron, because he put on a shooting display from just inside the arc on multiple jumpshots early. Deng also had 20+ points with 22 and 10 rebounds. If Deng can score like that, this Bulls team begins to pack a little more powerful punch. Rose is going to get his, and Noah is going to be tough underneath collecting garbage, but Deng is the guy that can give them a chance to win a couple of playoff games. Speaking of garbage, Noah had himself quite a solid performance too. The devil's poodle had 17 points, 15 rebounds, and 4 assists in a highly active night. The Bulls had five guys in double figures, counting Brad Miller, so their balance was great tonight. On the other end of the spectrum, however, the wine and gold made it incredibly easy for the Bulls to have a field day offensively. The defense at the rim was less than desirable, and the small backcourt of Chicago sliced apart the Cavalier guards. They're going to have to defend better against this team if they face them in the playoffs, because this one was played entirely at Chicago's pace. One of the only shots Chicago has against the Cavs is to try and get the Cavaliers sped up and committing turnovers. This is a pretty athletic team overall, and in the halfcourt, sometimes they really falter.

There were positives, though, with the most obvious one being that the wine and gold nearly beat the Bulls on their home court, with them fighting for their playoff lives, without their and the rest of the league's MVP. Scoring 108 points without LeBron is nothing to dismiss, including getting 38 points off the bench. Two standouts there were Sebastian Telfair and Jamario Moon. That's right, Sebastian Telfair got to finally put on his Cavaliers #3 jersey, and he didn't squander the chance to impress. The 6'0" point guard showed a nice zip on his passes, finding some of his teammates for impressive assists. Telfair's negatives include his jump shot, but he drained three jumpers just inside the arc with his other buckets coming on a driving layup to the hoop. The most obvious thing watching him for 17 minutes tonight was that he is a true point guard, something that the wine and gold can't necessarily claim between their arsenal of Mo Williams, Delonte West, Daniel Gibson, and LeBron James. For that reason, it's clear why Telfair was kept instead of a seventh big in Darnell Jackson. Sure, Telfair's contract was a part of it, but the Cavs have thrown piles of money at things to make them go away, so it wasn't the entire story. D-block was a nice backup big that Mike Brown was high on last year, but he was buried here. Even next year, Varejao, Jamison, Powe, and Hickson are all under contract, so he would be the fifth big at best. I think Telfair has a real chance to stick, because he's done it before with other teams. It would be nice to have a real point guard to go to at times next year. As for the rising Moon, he had his highest scoring output as a Cavalier with 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting to go with his 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block in 28 minutes. Moon has been buried on the pine of late, but he had a real nice game tonight, playing physical and helping lead the second half comeback charge. While Moon is streaky from the outside, he was hitting tonight and when you couple that with his athleticism, he begs to get minutes even in the playoffs.

Why do teams rest when they can at the end of the regular season? Well, if the injuries to Andrew Bogut and Chris Bosh in the past week were not enough for you, Antawn Jamison had his foot stepped on late in the fourth quarter and did not return to the game. It appeared quite serious at first with 'Tawn hobbling to the bench and then to the locker room, but by the end of the game, Jamison was back out there cheering on his team. I'm going to say that this injury even if it is as mild as it appears now will keep Antawn out of the final three games. This is not the time of the season to be taking chances. Jamison had a nice game before the injury with 23 points and 6 rebounds.

The end of the game was thrilling, but just about everything went right for the Bulls. They got an 18-foot spinning sidewinder jumper from dogface, I mean, Noah, to fall, and he also had a putback that was a questionable offensive goaltending possibility. Then, even after missing four free throws to close out the game, the Bulls managed to win and here's why. Down one with the shot clock off, the Cavaliers called timeout and sent out a lineup of Mo, Parker, Moon, Varejao, and Z. The ball had to go to Mo with his 35 points, didn't it? Well, Mo got the ball off the inbound and got a Varejao screen to the left wing where he could have rose up on Hinrich and taken a three. Instead, he kicked it to Andy, and I had a cold sweat flashback to the Finals in 2007. Andy faked the shot and as Taj Gibson danced around him to contest, Varejao thrust his body forward and chucked up one that didn't draw iron. Luckily, the Cavs got the rebound, but Moon missed a should-be follow up and the ball went to Parker. With Z doing the one-two step wide open on the right wing, Andy got the ball again and threw up another brick, leaving the Cavs to foul Derrick Rose with 1.3 ticks left. Rose missed both, but the second one was strategically placed on the front of the rim and then deflected out for the victory. Rest assured, Andy won't be taking those type of shots with LeBron and Jamison in the fold.

goes to: Mo Williams, Sebastian Telfair, and Jamario Moon. Mo had a season-high 35 points on 12-of-24 shooting and 6-of-11 from three point range. Gotti also had 10 assists and 3 rebounds in 35 minutes. Bassy had 8 points and 3 assists in 17 minutes of duty. Moon had a season-high as well with 14 points with 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block as well. I'm going against my general rule of no multiple game ball in a loss given the no LeBron and meaningless circumstances.

Team Grade: C

The grade is also reflective of that as well. The Cavaliers didn't play a whole lot of defense, especially in the first half. But, they shot 48 percent and had just 11 turnovers. Cleveland was outrebounded 44-36 and allowed Chicago to shoot 52 percent.

If you ask me who I would rather see between Chicago or Toronto, my first answer would be "I don't care as long as it's not Charlotte!". After thinking about it for a while, I would then say, "Give me Toronto, especially with Bosh and the facial injury." Derrick Rose can slice apart Mo, and the Bulls gave the Celtics all they could handle last year. The Raptors have little playoff success, and we can outphysical them down low. The only key there is making sure Turkoglu plays as lousy as he has all season. The Raptors hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Bulls with those two all even with four to go. Either way, I think the Cavs could and should dispatch either in five.

Next on the plate for the Cavs is a back-to-back with the Pacers tomorrow night. Expect LeBron, Mo, Parker, and Jamison to all sit out. The only problem is if Delonte or Gibson can't play, the team would be short on guards, incredibly short. I'm going to go with starters of Telfair, Jawad, Moon, Hickson, and Z and a bench of Varejao, Powe, and Green. I'm guessing Brown will have to keep at least a couple of those guys dressed for emergency purposes against the Pacers. Game time is 7:30 pm in the Q.

All for one. One for all.

Kirk

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