Cavs 96, Bulls 83

That game was pretty much getting outta hand.

It was pretty much a 40-point effort from him. I thought he was flat-out awesome.

all basketball games should only be 3 quarters

Only one who did anything worth mentioning.

They overhelp on every possession to the point of overkill.

The fact it happened today shouldn’t be a surprise, but the Bulls gotta be especially good early to avoid playing catch up the entire game. ‘Cause they’re offense isn’t good enough to play catch up.

and it would be a mistake to think you could play more than a couple of minutes like that

You can play zone for stretches based on lineups or just switching things up to catch them off guard. The problem with the Bulls defense was (1) giving up second chance points, and (2) the offense turning the ball over, putting more pressure on the defense to get stops.

You fix (1) and (2), you have a much better chance in game 2.

Derrick doesn’t have the whining thing in him (yet), so I’m hoping Vinny or Brad or someone else will handle the refs…be it thru the press if they have to.

I definitely agree on the point about Lu. After being suspect in the last few games, I thought his defense was very good, but we desperately need offense from him to have any shot at winning a game.

Cavs were +13 in the first half and +5 on the offensive glass. In the 2nd half the Bulls were +1.

I didn’t see any offensive strategy in the first quarter. The Bulls didn’t seem to have any plan to get anyone going. There wasn’t one man that they were looking to build up. It was just move the ball, screen, and shoot when you’re open. That led to mostly jumpshots that we missed. But they were also jumpshots taken when no Bulls were in the paint.

When the whistles come with the plays, the league is screwed.

so someone else should play.

someone who can shoot get a chance. The book on Kurz is that he’s a shooter (shot over 43% from 3 in the DLeague and 39.5% for the W’s when he played for them).

It’s a moot point, though, because it’ll never happen.

I’d also like it if Pargo never saw the floor in a Bulls’ uniform again, so maybe that’s why I’m desperate for ANYONE else to get minutes.

that would basically mean starting Brad and bringing Noah off the bench seeing as Mike Brown is starting Shaq. That would be a heck of a concession to make. You’re basically telling one of your young star players he’s not good enough. Maybe it’s true, but since this series isn’t really winnable it’s probably not worth it. Better off letting Noah battle and do what he can.

pick and rolling to the basket and brad couldnt figure out whether to hedge on the guard or defend andy, so he did neither and got burned badly.

Now can VDN figure this out? That’s the question…

To be fair, Kirk did take it to the hoop once, got knocked on his ass, and didn’t get a call. A familiar theme for the Bulls in game 1. I agree that Flip should get a few of Kirk’s minutes (and all of Pargo’s) though, 44 is a bit high for anyone not named Derrick Rose.

Hopefully the beating the Bulls are about to take on the interior convinces management that a power forward who can score should be our first priority (Bosh or Stoudemire).

Amen.

Deng MUST score for the Bulls to make this series competitive.

I believe it was VanGundy who said that the Bulls have the fewest scoring threats of any team in the playoffs. I think the Bucks, and Bobcats may rival them in this area, but it was still a valid observation. The Bulls really only have 2 players who can score on a consistent basis, and if one of them (Deng) doesn’t then all you have is a punchers chance that somebody else has a big game and maybe they steal one. If they want to actually ‘push’ the Cav’s in this series Deng needs to exceed his season average.

Defense can only do so much…

Cleveland is a good defensive team and their one goal was to stop Rose, he had the ball in his hand so much. 7 is definitely too many, but it’s not quite like having 7 during the regular season. And I think it was pointed out above, but a lot of those TO came off of non calls by the non existant refs who suck balls

had about 8 more FTA and about 2 or 3 fewer turnovers.

To make up for Richard-Gibson being out there.

East

1) Cavs – Shaq in the post, Williams and Parker are good 3 pt shooters
2) Magic – They are nothing but Dwight and 3pt shooters
3) Atlanta – Horford is a decent post option, Bibby, Johnson, Crawford can shoot threes
4) Celtics – Garnett, Perkins are post options; Pierce and Allen are solid 3pt options
5) Heat – Not much in the low post; they have some 3pt specialists in James Jones and Q Rich, Wright does well too
6) Bucks – Bogut (when he was healthy), Jennings, Salmons and others all shoot well
7) Bobcats – Not much in the low post (Chandler doesn’t count) Augustin, Felton, and Bell shoot 3s pretty well
8) Bulls – No post option, Luol Deng actually has a solid 3pt pct, but he doesn’t take that many, Kirk isn’t terrible

West
1) Lakers – Gasol, Bynum; not much from 3, Farmar is solid and Artest is very average for as many as he takes
2) Mavs – DIRK is both, and Kidd is very solid from the arc
3) Suns – Amare; Nash, Frye, Richardson, Dragic
4) Denver – Nene and Melo; Billups is real good, Afflalo too
5) Utah – Boozer; Williams, Korver, Okur
6) Portland – Aldridge; Webster, Fernandez
7) San An – Duncan; Ginobli
8) Okc – Not much low post; Durant

So we are the worst of the playoff teams by far, although the Bobcats are not great either. Honestly, when we still had Salmons, we are ok in the 3pt shooting department and Deng’s percentage is solid, I’d like to see if it would hold up with more like 5 attempts per game

plan.

There are only a handful of teams and players the majority of the country actually cares about. So, people will continue to complain about their YankeesSoxLeBronKobeCrosbyOvechkinBradyManning fetish, and nothing will ever change. New stars will pop up, and the network will start promoting the hell out of them once the older ones become less prominent.