Ohio State No. 1 in way-too-early CFB Top 25; Joey Bosa No. 1 in 2016 draft?
May 5, 2015Cleveland Browns Most Expensive Ticket in 2015 Comes When They Host The Ravens
May 5, 2015The Cleveland Cavaliers trailed by 12 points at the end of the first quarter in Game 1. They let Mike Dunleavy score 13 points in the first quarter on 5-of-5 shooting. LeBron scored 19 points and had 6 turnovers for the game. They were out-rebounded. They attempted eight more three-pointers than the Bulls but made three fewer. The Bulls led the game wire-to-wire. The Cavs lost.
…And?
They lost. Fine. It’s a seven-game series. You can lose one and still be in it. That’s the point. It isn’t March Madness. Yes, it’s worrisome to lose at home. Yes, it sucks to lose Game 1. Yes, the Bulls looked very good and the Cavs looked very not good. It’s not optimal, but it’s fine.
The Cavs need to figure some things out. They need a plan for defending high pick-and-rolls beyond switching into a “Hey Tristan go defend on the perimeter while Delly holds it down in the post” situation. Tristan did very well in that role, mind you. Jimmy Butler hit a shot over him to put the Bulls up six points with 30 seconds remaining that all but clinched the game, but TT contested it about as well as he could, and he guarded Butler and Derrick Rose credibly throughout.
Unsustainable is a word that you might hear a lot about this game. Again, Mike Dunleavy started 5-of-5, including 3 triples. Iman Shumpert did his best J.R. Smith impression, taking 10 threes and scoring 22 points. The Bulls, particularly Pau Gasol, shot outrageously well from the unfashionable midrange (which WFNY’s Kyle Welch discussed as well).
But that’s about it as far as unsustainability goes. Most everything else was reasonable. Kyrie Irving scored 30 on 10-of-23 shooting. The Bulls shot 10-of-18 on threes, but Dunleavy’s hot start skewed that a bit. Neither team got a huge performance from a reserve, save for moments like Aaron Brooks draining a 30-foot pullup three. Players on both sides largely played as one would expect.
Pau Gasol had 21 and 10, but he was left wide open at the elbows all game long, and that’s a shot he can hit. While Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson were more likely to roll to the rim after setting a screen, Gasol was content to hang outside and knock down jumpers. The Cavs need to do more than switch on pick-and-rolls to keep him in check. This may be David Blatt’s first significant playoff adjustment as an NBA coach, and the incisive drives of Rose and Butler make the task that much more difficult.
Derrick Rose scored 25 points. That may seem surprising given his medical history and generally human nature compared to his MVP-winning glory days, but he’s done that a few times in this season’s playoffs. In the first round against the Milwaukee Bucks, Rose scored 23 in Game 1 and 34 in Game 5. He can still turn it on.
The good news for the Cavs is that he can’t keep it on like he used to. Take away those two good games against the Bucks, and he scored 14.3 points on 33 percent shooting in the series. He committed 26 turnovers in six games. He might go off again, and the Cavs will be in trouble if he does, but remember that he came back from a knee injury less than a month ago.
Delly’s minutes were a concern, but David Blatt didn’t have many other options on the bench. Mike Miller? I mean, maybe. He scored three points and looked like he had molasses in his sneakers. There are some things in his favor — he’s a vet, he’s smart, and he’s played with LeBron plenty in his career — but he just doesn’t look like he can hang physically, even against Mike Dunleavy. James Jones is largely in the same boat. He had two wide-open looks against the Bulls but saw both rim out. He can still knock them down okay, but his playing means that he’s guarding a Bulls big, and that spells trouble on the boards.
Shawn Marion? Again: maybe. He would have recorded a six trillion — that is, six minutes played followed by all zeroes in the box score1 — were it not for one personal foul committed.
Marion can’t shoot, and without Kevin Love, either Tristan Thompson or Timofey Mozgov has to be in at all times; playing Marion with one or both of them jams up the Cavs spacing, especially without Smith. The Bulls bigs are good enough to give Marion problems inside, and he doesn’t quite have the quicks to stay with a wing like Jimmy Butler. Marion still brings things to the table, but this series may be the wrong meal for him.
Among the biggest issues of the game was the relatively ordinary performance of LeBron James. Relatively is the operative word here — he had 15 rebounds and 9 assists to go with 19 points. He committed too many turnovers, and a late jump-pass gone wrong was particularly bad,2 but 19, 15, 9, and 4 steals is hardly terrible.
The thinking seems to be that with Love out for the playoffs and Smith out for one more game, LeBron has to do more, and that’s fair. He’s averaged better than 25, 6, and 6 for his career. The bar has been set high by virtue of his own performance. His work on the boards was great, especially since he played more power forward, but the Cavs need him to score in a major way.
I gotta say, though — if one of the chief concerns from Game 1 is that LeBron James didn’t score enough? If that’s one of the major problems? I think the Cavaliers are in decent shape. The guy has averaged better than 28 points per game in his playoff career. He’s been here before. He’s won two titles. He’ll get his.
One more thing to consider:
The last two times the Bulls played a LeBron team in the playoffs, they won Game 1, then proceeded to lose four straight & lose in 5 games.
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) May 5, 2015
Yes, that includes LeBron’s days in Miami, and thus it should make us all feel gross. Yes, Cavs have dug themselves a bit of a hole. Yes, they need to put down the shovel and climb out ASAP.
That’s all fine. It’s Game 1. It’s the playoffs. You don’t win without getting your hands dirty.
- The concept was created by former Ohio State basketball walk-on Mark Titus. [↩]
- Never jump to pass, kids. [↩]
19 Comments
Game 2: Small lineup, run and gun. Lebron starting the 4 spot, working from the post and creating (instead of hoisting from the perimeter). TT off the bench. Delly running point and Kyrie at 2 spot. Jones subbing in, and Miller and Marion to rot on bench.
Iman Shumpert did nothing and I mean nothing wrong to warrant him being sent to the bench. Mike Miller on the other hand can retire now and just sit on the bench as far as I’m concerned. Right next to Marion as you said.
I go KI, Shump, Jones, LBJ and Moz to start. Hopefully they watch the tape and see that if they stay with their own men instead of switching the Bulls aren’t as effective especially Dunleavy. Rose and Gasol are the main players Butler is a complimentary player. He makes his $$ off of the other two. The real problem is Chicago can bring in more guys who can at the least contribute something. Brooks, Mirotic (who barely played), Gibson and Snell are all better then the guys the Cavs can bring in off the bench with Love & Jr missing.
I feel like the week off took some of their momentum away. The Bulls just came off of a 6 gamer (granted, game 6 was garbage), but they were still fresh with tempo. Once the Cavs realized it wasn’t practice anymore, I felt like they played very well, considering JR/Love. I think now that they’re back up to speed, they’ll have much more competitive games and will still likely take the series. Not worried yet.
Agree with all of this, Will.
Only thing I’d add is that Noah appears done, cooked, only capable of beating Mike Miller for position or a loose ball. Maybe he’ll re-animate some when they play in Chicago but he’s hurt or old or something.
J.R. cost us this game – if he’s out there there’s more Lebron drives and some Bulls fouls, Shumpert comes in defending tiring Bulls’ starters and the fourth quarter features wide, wide open 3s taken by Smith and Kyrie rather than LeBron trying to create open looks with overly flashy passing that becomes turnovers.
wow – those FOX guys are annoying.
for me, this was an adrenaline game. I said yesterday that i saw the Cavs losing the first game. 8 days off – no rhythm. I fully expect the Bulls to look tired and slow in the next game. They may start out hot for a few minutes but the game will wear them down.
Good point on Noah. Even when healthy, he’s never been a real scoring post-up threat; he looks to draw help and kick out more than score on his own. If Jones/Miller/Marion/whoever is defending him, I imagine the Cavs would be happy to let him go 1-on-1 instead of Butler, Rose, or Gasol.
I’d me more concerned about KI & LBJ wearing down because as much as they had to play last night they’ll probably have to play even more tomorrow. I am expecting to see Perkins in one of these games coming up. I sure wish Anderson Varejao could play because this is the perfect series for him.
Not to repeat myself but it cannot be underscored, highlighted and underlined more: David Griffin has his work cut out for him this summer.
Jimmy butler a complimentary player? Yeah you clearly don’t know basketball.
Marion could defend him easily. Now if only he could find a way to get one more bucket or rebound than a dead man, problem solved.
I like Jimmy Butler but he’s not Chicago’s #1 threat he’s not even their #2 threat. He is a very good player who will only get better but thanks for your opinion on my opinion.
It was surprising to me how poorly the Cavs defended. The Bulls pretty much got the shots they wanted; so it’s no wonder they made over 50 percent of them.
I’ll never understand NBA officiating. It seemed an automatic, quick whistle whenever the Cavs contested a Chicago drive; but never a foul when the Cavs got hammered when driving to the basket.
Probably bias on my part, but no fouls called on Jimmy Butler – CMON MAN!
While it didn’t show up in the stats, it seemed that when Marion and Delly went in, in the 2nd, it helped stabilize the Cavs with at least a little bit of solid D. The offensive end is another story, but I thought it helped to settle the game down and they started to get back into it. Thought they started the game at practice/scrimmage/pick-up speed, not game speed. Energy and effort definitely ahve to improve.
All the Cavaliers except KI but especially LBJ need to be more aggressive. Timo for as big as he is sure seems to have issues in close unless it’s a lob where he can dunk. I don’t know why we don’t see him taking 10-12 foot shots he actually has a pretty nice shot from what little I’ve seen of it.
Or better yet, when Timo does grab an offensive board why does he not go back up strong for the dunk? Every offensive board he grabbed, he looked to pass back out to the 3-point line.
I don’t know as soon as he brings the ball down he’s in trouble. He also can’t catch a bounce pass to save his life. I thought JJ Hickson had bad hands, yikes. I know this summer he’d be working on catching bounce passes.
I disagree that he’s in trouble. I agree that when he comes back down there are many hands above him, but going back up strong would result in free throws at worst, which he is very good at for a big.
Whenever he has the ball waist high or below he struggles and that includes when he rebounds in traffic. He brings the ball down gathers then attempts to go back up and it often doesn’t work out.
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