The Cavs vs Bulls Series

[blommen]

So many things went against us today, LBJ's jumper was ice cold, Shumpert was awful offensively, Love was a non-scoring factor for most of the game... Sure, we hit some incredible shots in the third but we missed at least twice as many wide open ones too that were generated from driving and kicking. If the bulls meet us in the playoffs they are getting stomped.

 

[Sean King 87]

Guys, I think we need to give the Bulls some credit for the fact that we has been playing at not our best today. It will be a difficult series against them, and the faster we'll realise that the better we'll prepare against them. They have a lot of dirty players like Noah, Mirotic and Pao which the refs like to kiss their ass very often, from some unknown reason, and playing at their home is terrible match up for us because they always success to force us into their slow ugly pace.

 

[AZCavs]

There's one team in the East that will be a very tough out for the Cavs and that's Atlanta. Chicago is an absolute mess on the offensive end of the floor and their defense has been disappointing.

Noah talks a big game for a dude who has been a complete disappointment this season. Career lows in FG%, FT%, TS%, and BLK%, and close to career lows (or his lowest production in years) in PPG, BPG, RPG, Total Rebounding %, Free Throw Rate, Offensive Win Shares, Defensive Win Shares, Total Win Shares, Usage Rate, +/-, VORP and probably a few more categories.

Other than that, the Cavs have LeBron James and the Bulls do not. So, Joakim Noah should probably just STFU.

 

[Chris]

I'm still a bit worried that Rose will come back and destroy Irving as he's done before. They were right there at the end without him.

 

[godfather]

Yeah, I think we're getting too ahead of ourselves. We won, we played bad, it was a nice win. But Chicago hung right in with us till the end, and I don't think they played their best game either.

Their offense got really stagnant, and strangely, they barely got Gasol and Butler involved, Mirotic just played like shit, and was featured way too much.

I don't care what anyone says, I think and I'm confident we can beat the Bulls, but I sure as hell rather play the Raptors instead of the Bulls in the second round.

The Raptors are no threat, wouldn't be shocked if we swept the Raptors. I don't see that being the case with the Bulls at all. That series would go at least 6 for us.

 

[Chris]

We can obviously beat the Bulls and would be favored. Just, not terribly comfortable facing them. Would be a tough series for sure.

 

[chuck0609]

the only team i fear in the east are the bulls.. they have athleticism and length at every position and they defend well.. they also believe that they can beat the cavs.. it will be a hard fought series against them..

The CAVs hit three desperation shots today and they were they difference combined with all the threes.

They'll need a more balanced attack in the playoffs one would think.

But the Bulls would be foolish to believe that Blatt is showing them all his cards.

 

[col63onel]

Watching Butler "guard" LeBron in the post was hysterical. LeBron blew by him twice, then basically took the rest of the game off.

In the playoffs, he might foul Butler out by halftime.

 

[brownsbuck6]

That's the thing though.. it was all the Bulls could manage to keep getting the lead under double digits only to see us go on a run and build it back to 12-14 point leads, until the final minute anyway. I give the Bulls at least some credit for having us not playing our best - but the credit goes both ways for that being also true of the Bulls. So, the way I see it, 75% of our best vs 75% of their best equals a game where we are in control for the vast majority of the game, much of that being a double digit lead.

It does seem imminent, sort of how it has all season, that we will have to beat them in a series to do this thing. It's sort of how it should be, after all the Jordan years. They will win maybe two games in this series, and it will be exciting, but we will beat them and shut Noah up. Bring it on.

 

[godfather]

We can obviously beat the Bulls and would be favored. Just, not terribly comfortable facing them. Would be a tough series for sure.

What worries me, still, is their front line. But in the second half, they basically ignored Gasol. When he was extending Mozzy out of the paint early in the game, and making some beautiful passes with guys cutting to the basket, with the paint opening up like the red sea, I said "Oh no, here we go, this is going to be a long game".

But they went away with a lot of that, and just played really bad themselves.

Don't really take anything out of this game. Both teams weren't razor sharp today, we just were the team able to last.

Gasol is a mismatch for us, and can make Mozzy pretty useless on the floor.

I still don't think the Cavs can really defend this team, if they're clicking we just have to out score them. That worries me. We're not going to have games where we are this hot on the perimeter every game.

If it wasn't for our perimeter shooting, we lose this game with the Bulls still playing badly themselves. That worries me.

 

[Chris]

Agreed. The Bulls forum seems to think Mozgov is some kind of anti Gasol, so I dunno. Was tough for me to analyze much from a crappy 8 bit stream.

 

[Ohio]

Bulls are an annoying opponent and nothing more. Not a true threat. Series would go 5, maybe 6. They could easily lose to Washington if they fall to the 4 seed.

 

[tocov]

The main problem is if Gasol is played at the high post, pulling Mozy away and leaving our paint unprotected. In such a case we need Delly and Shump in to take care of the guards, and LBJ to babysit them.
In the post Moz did a great job on Gasol.

The Bulls don't scare me one bit.

 

[Cavatt]

I want to see some better defense. I don't feel like the defense kids as sharp as it was about a month ago. I want to see championship defense and I am seeing some laziness out there.

 

[I'mWithDan]

Bulls fans are delusional. LeBron lead teams own them.

They're trying to justify the game with "Ooooh, would have won if not for those half court shots!"

IMO it's the equivalent of a saying "had we not given up that FG in the 1st quarter, we would have won by 1".

Time and score dictates a lot in any sport. If you erase those points, we play the game very different down the stretch. Just subtracting the shots and saying "we would have won if not for 'x' " is just a lazy argument that I'm not surprised Bulls' fans are making.