LeBron debuts “HRT of Lion” 12s with message to newborn daughter
November 1, 2014GIF: LeBron bear hugs Kevin Love during post-game interview
November 1, 2014
Cleveland Cavaliers: 114
Chicago Bulls: 108
(Overtime)
After a disappointing opening night where LeBron James and everybody played pretty tight, the Cavaliers had an incredibly formidable task on their hands: going into Chicago against their biggest threat in the Eastern Conference and trying to come out with a win. The Bulls are a superior defensive team that is much more familiar with each other at this point, and it was their home opener. The Cavaliers, though it was far from perfect, were much more on point and got several star performances and big plays from multiple contributors as they pulled out the win in overtime at the United Center. You don’t want to overreact to anything this early in the season, good or bad, but it feels good not having to sit on a 0-2 record for three days before heading out west.
12 – Tristan Thompson tied the franchise record last night with 12 offensive rebounds (also accomplished by Michael Cage in 1996 and Zydrunas Ilgauskas in both 2005 and 2006). Thompson’s activity was a huge storyline in this game. He pulled down several key second-chance opportunities in the extra session, and I enjoyed his defensive effort for stretches. My favorite sequence of the night for Tristan? His role in three consecutive misses at the rim in a play involving Pau Gasol and Tony Snell. Gasol backed Thompson down and threw a series of a shot fakes at him, but Tristan recovered to contest once, missed the rebound but contested the second shot hard, then swallowed Snell’s putback effort and forced a jump ball in the scramble. His biggest offensive rebound came in overtime with just 24 seconds left. Up by just two, Thompson went up to rebound a James miss and slam it home as he ran past the falling Taj Gibson. Thompson’s confidence was a sight to behold. Sure, he got sent away a couple of times at the rim but he also took it incredibly strong several other times and played good on-the-block defense. Thompson had 16 points, 13 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocks in 37 minutes (almost double the night before) and Gasol was just 6-of-18 from the field.
36 on 30 – You knew LeBron was going to bounce back in a big way on the road, but I’m not sure I was expecting the type of performance we got out of him. James scored 36 points on 14-of-30 shooting and added 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, and just 3 turnovers after 8 last night. James spent a fair amount of time in the post, taking advantage of when smaller players like Kirk Hinrich were switched onto him. He also seemed much more confident in his jumper. James had a cast of many thrown at him on D from Mike Dunleavy to Hinrich to Snell to Taj Gibson. Snell probably did the best job, but nobody could stop James on this night. He did exactly what I was clamoring for the night before: attack the rim and get to the line. James doesn’t seem to be getting the “star calls” if you will so far from the first two officiating crews, but he did make nine trips to the charity stripe. LeBron also gave us a preview of what this team can look like out on the run. With his 4 steals and the Cavs 21 fast-break points, there were some nice finishes out on the run with LeBron full steam ahead.
29-of-33 – Speaking of the foul line, the Cavs shot the ball excellent there. 25 of those 33 shots came from the Big 3, and Irving, who has struggled to maintain the Price-ian clip of his rookie campaign, was a perfect 10-for-10. They also got nearly twice as many opportunities at the line as Chicago did (33-17).
30 to 26 – That was the minutes breakdown between Matthew Dellavedova and Dion Waiters respectively. Yes, for the second straight night, Delly was chosen by David Blatt over Dion in crunch time and on this night, he actually got more minutes for the entire evening. Some of that was because the team needed someone to attempt to stop Derrick Rose, who was only stopped by an ankle twist in the third quarter. Rose had 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting in 25 minutes, but it was Delly who had the best chance to do anything to slow him down1. Dion didn’t really play terrible (3-of-10 shooting, 9 points, 3 rebounds, 1 turnover), but I just think as the fourth offensive option, there will be some stat-line nights like this. It’s almost impossible to have everybody in your starting lineup humming at the same time. One thing is clear though: Blatt loves Delly. Any notion that Delly would fail to stick in the rotation on a nightly basis seem to be squashed for the moment.
27 – Those were the combined minutes for free agent acquisitions Mike Miller and Shawn Marion after just 13 the night before. Miller played 12 minutes and took just one shot, failing to really get into the flow of the game. Marion posted 4 points and 3 boards. While it’s great that the Cavs starters have been able to play heavy minutes in the first two games, Miller and Marion are huge parts of a bench that must be used generously. I’m confident that Blatt will find his way through his rotations, but right now, he seems to be relying heavily on his top seven guys. I’m not overly concerned, but I’d just like to see what Miller, Marion, and maybe even James Jones and/or Brendan Haywood can bring to the table in a tight game. This will be a situation we’ll have to continue to monitor.
13-of-31 – The Bulls took a LOT of three pointers. Instead of attacking the hoop, they used post feeds and ball swings to find the open shooters on the perimeter. Kirk Hinrich hit two wide-open threes in crunch time to help erase what was a Cavs double digit lead and force overtime. Mike Dunleavy led the way with four makes, and Hinrich, Rose, Aaron Brooks, and Tony Snell all banged in multiple treys. Meanwhile, the wine and gold were just 3-for-15 beyond the arc (Kevin Love was 1-for-6).
19 to 9 – The Cavaliers won the turnover battle by ten last night after turning it over 19 times themselves against the Knicks. The Cavs seemed to take the extra half-second to make sure somebody was cutting a certain way or continuing to run or whatever the situation was. Nine turnovers against one of the best defensive teams in the league is nothing to scoff at, especially when it was on the road and a 53-minute game.
14-of-32, 45 – That’s Kyrie Irving’s shooting and scoring output in the first two games. I’ve been very impressed with how Irving has seemed to keep on rolling, not taking any step back as he adjusts to more Cavalier weapons. Irving isn’t dominating the ball, but he’s not afraid to get his and attack the hoop. That’s a great balance that I hope continues all season.
We’re going to see these Bulls plenty this season. It was great to win the first round, but Derrick Rose might make it to the end of the game next time, and I’m still hoping to get that bench involved a little bit more. But for now, win number one is in the books before three days off and the Portland Trailblazers on Tuesday night.
- Other than putting LeBron on him, right Ben? But according to Ben, “Not until May.” [↩]
8 Comments
As bad as the home opening loss was to NY this win over Chicago was a nice win. The Cavaliers clearly have a lot of work to do, a lot of chemistry to create but in the end when it counted and mattered the most their talent rose to the top and notched the win. Sure Chicago lost Derrick Rose to a sprained ankle but so what injuries are part of the game and the shoe could have easily been on the other foot.
1-1 with a few days off before the four game road trip continues against a tough Portland team. I like the fact the Cavaliers go on the road after starting at home especially when they have to play Chicago, Portland and Denver in Denver. This should only help build that team chemistry!
that was a great win, and an edge of seat game to boot..whatever got into Thompson, he needs to bottle.
Loved Irving’s assertiveness against Aaron Brooks. We saw in the Columbus game he couldn’t guard him. That continued last night, especially in the second quarter. Kyrie kept going at him. Only thing holding him back was foul trouble.
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That looked much more like we signed up for. Definitely a long way to go to get things humming along effectively, but there will be nights like this that require the sheer amount of individual talent to put us over the top. Nice response, fellas.
Speaking of bottles…Cavs investigating why ball boy behind Knicks bench was caught pouring Gatorade into a Powerade bottle:
https://screen.yahoo.com/cleveland-cavs-launch-internal-investigation-151549285.html
Great game by both teams; the playoff-level intensity from start to finish shows that these squads are already on each others’ minds.
I saw so few negatives considering this was a back-to-back and Chicago’s home opener. The Cavs’ defense was much better. Kevin Love’s mitts grab rebounds like a frog zaps flies and also did a bunch of little things off the ball that win games. He and Kyrie seem totally loose and engaged playing in a tense game and hostile arena (totally cute comment from Kyrie asking whether this is what the playoffs feel like). I was a little surprised that while LeBron is obviously dominant his game looks more earthbound than when he last played here. Maybe no one’s head goes over the rim in the second game in 2 nights. Or maybe now he’s Magic Johnson, which would be more than fine.
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