GT: Chicago Bulls @ Cleveland Cavaliers

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<p align="center"><font face="Verdana">March 2 @ 1:00pm EST

Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH

abc</font></p>
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<p align="center"><font face="Verdana" color="#b90456">Cleveland Cavaliers

(33-26)</font></p>


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<p align="center"><font color="#EE1C24" face="Verdana">Chicago Bulls

(23-35)</font></p>


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<h4 align="center"><font face="Verdana">Projected Starters</font></h4>
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<font face="Verdana" color="#b90456" size="2">PG Delonte West SG Devin Brown



SF LeBron James PF Ben Wallace C Anerson Varejao</font>



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<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="#EE1C24">PG Kirk Hinrich SG Larry Hughes



SF Luol Deng PF Tyrus Thomas C Joakim Noah</font>



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<h4><font face="Verdana">Season Stats</font></h4>
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<td class="strong"><font face="Verdana" color="#b90456">Points</td>
<td>97.1 ppg</font></td>
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<td class="strong"><font face="Verdana" color="#b90456">FG%</td>
<td>44.1%</font></td>
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<td class="strong"><font face="Verdana" color="#b90456">3pt%</td>
<td>36.1%</font></td>
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<td class="strong"><font face="Verdana" color="#b90456">Rebounds</td>
<td>44.1 rpg</font></td>
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<td class="strong"><font face="Verdana" color="#b90456">Assists</td>
<td>19.7 apg</font></td>
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<td class="strong"><font face="Verdana" color="#EE1C24">Points</td>
<td>95.8 ppg</font></td>
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<td class="strong"><font face="Verdana" color="#EE1C24">FG%</td>
<td>42.8%</font></td>
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<td class="strong"><font face="Verdana" color="#EE1C24">3pt%</td>
<td>35.2%</font></td>
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<td class="strong"><font face="Verdana" color="#EE1C24">Rebounds</td>
<td>43.7 rpg</font></td>
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<td class="strong"><font face="Verdana" color="#EE1C24">Aassists</td>
<td>21.6 apg</font></td>
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<h4><font face="Verdana">Season Team Leaders</font></h4>
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<td class="strong"><font face="Verdana" color="#b90456">Points</td>
<td>James 30.2 ppg</font></td>
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<td class="strong"><font face="Verdana" color="#b90456">Rebounds</td>
<td>Ilgauskas 9.6 rpg</font></td>
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<td class="strong"><font face="Verdana" color="#b90456">Assists</td>
<td>James 7.5 apg</font></td>
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<td class="strong"><font face="Verdana" color="#EE1C24">Points</td>
<td>Gordon 19.6 ppg</font></td>
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<td class="strong"><font face="Verdana" color="#EE1C24">Rebounds</td>
<td>Gooden 8.4 rpg (9.3 w/ Bulls)</font></td>
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<td class="strong"><font face="Verdana" color="#EE1C24">Assists</td>
<td>Hinrich 6.0 apg</font></td>
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<h4><font face="Verdana">Key Matchup (SF) - <font color="#b90456">LeBron James</font> v <font color="#EE1C24">Luol Deng</font></font></h4>
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<font face="Verdana"> v

For me, this is fantastic, my favourite player against my country's star player. Club vs Country. A brilliant matchup. LeBron James essentially has it all, but sometimes takes too difficult shots, and only really turns his defense up in the Fourth Quarter. But who can blame him? You only have so much stamina, right? Luol Deng is a player with less power than LeBron, but that does not mean he can't dominate a game. This should be a great matchup between two great players, and I want them both to do well. After all, who doesn't want their club AND their country to do well?</font></p>
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<h4><font face="Verdana">Keys to the Game</font></h4>
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<font face="Verdana" color="#b90456">[*]Win the Battle of the Boards - This could be more difficult than it looks on paper; the Cavs have Ilgauskas missing and Drew Gooden is reeling them in for Chicago. I expect Gooden to spend a lot of time matched up with Varejao when it comes to rebounding, as they each know each other's style well.
[*]Shoot well - The Cavs have a distinct lack of offense tonight with their starting frontcourt averaging just 15 points per game between them. Wallace and Varejao can't be counted on the produce large numbers of points in a game. It is therefore essential for Guards such as Delonte West and Devin Brown to shoot the ball well to keep the Cavs in front.
[*]Exploit Gooden - As Cleveland fans are well aware, Drew Gooden will have a few defensive lapses through the course of the game. It is essential to exploit these, as they will give the Cavs quick and easy points. The ability to do so could be the difference between a close game and a comfortable win.</font>
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<font face="Verdana" color="#EE1C24">[*]Keep the game below 100 - When their opponents score 100+, the Bulls are 4-23. With that statistic in hand, little more needs to be said; the Bulls need to keep the score down, or face losing.
[*]Contain LeBron - With a lack of offense on the inside for the Cavs, I expect to see a lot of double teams on LeBron, perhaps leaving one man to cover both AV and Wallace. The Bulls will still need their fair share of luck in order to contain LeBron, but they need to spend most of the game in a double team to do so.

[*]Come out strong after the break - The Cavs are notoriously poor in the third quarter, and the Bulls must take advantage of this. If they can come out strong after the break, they could put themselves into such a strong position that even LeBron James can't catch them in the Fourth Quarter.</font>
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<h4><font face="Verdana">The Cavs since 2003 v Chicago</font></h4>
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<td colspan="2"><font face="Verdana">The divisional rivals have met 16 times. The Cavs average 95.7 points per game, and have won 10 of the meetings, whilst the Bulls average 92.2 points and won the remaining 6 games. LeBron James has never misssed a game against Chicago, and averages 27.6 points, 6 rebounds and 6.8 asissts against them.</font></td>
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<h4><font face="Verdana">Prediction</font></h4>
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<font face="Verdana">This ought to be a fiercely contested matchup between these two rivals in the Central Division. It should be interesting since Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes know the Cavs' system and tendencies, whilst Ben Wallace and Joe Smith know similar information about the Bulls. This will be a case of who can outguess who, but I think LeBron's dominance will mean the Cavs prevail, even without Ilgauskas.</font></p>


<font face="Verdana" size="4"><font color="#b90456">102</font> - <font color="#EE1C24">93</font></font></p>
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I don't think they'll be angry at the Cavs, but they will want to show them what they're missing

 

I didn't really mention enough in there, but I had like 15-20 mins to do it, and I was feeling lazy

 

Wow. The Bulls are playing terrible. Just terrible. What kind of offense have they been running? Are they even running an offense?

They need a real coach, haha

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (pegs @ Mar 2 2008, 01:39 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Wow. The Bulls are playing terrible. Just terrible. What kind of offense have they been running? Are they even running an offense?

They need a real coach, haha</div>

I need a :stab knife into eyes: smilie.

 

You ain't kidding about that. These guys are such a freaking mess. Boylan is an awful coach. I held out a little bit of hope for the first couple games after the trade, but the last few games have been a clinic in stupid coaching and stupid play.

1. Slamming your players in the media.
2. Hughes and Gordon talking out of turn in the media
3. The players seemingly doing whatever the hell they want on the court with no one, player or coach, exercising any leadership.
4. Talking a good game about consequences and then following through with nearly the exact opposite. "Hey, players need to earn their minutes! Next thing we see, Kirk is back starting despite generally stinking it up and Tyrus Thomas is loosing major minutes after playing fairly well.

The bad old days are here again.

 

Tyrus is playing well. He made a few bad passes and all his moves look out of control, but he's made shots, somehow.

 

Larry Hughes is bringing some effective slashing to the Bulls that we haven't had in years. I know he's overpaid, but I can't say I don't like what he's bringing to the offensive side of the floor so far.

Just as soon as I'm ready to say I like the Gordon/Hughes backcourt, Gordon turns it over to Sideshow Bob not far after half court and Bron gets an easy dunk.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (darius miles davis @ Mar 2 2008, 02:02 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Larry Hughes is bringing some effective slashing to the Bulls that we haven't had in years. I know he's overpaid, but I can't say I don't like what he's bringing to the offensive side of the floor so far.

Just as soon as I'm ready to say I like the Gordon/Hughes backcourt, Gordon turns it over to Sideshow Bob not far after half court and Bron gets an easy dunk.</div>


Gordon's been horrible the past few games. I'm not sure what to think...

 

Hughes and Gordon has a really strange effect on me. Watching them I understand that they nicely complement each other and they generally keep things close. But they also generally don't look good doing it. It's bizarre.

 

Halftime... I better hit the showers. Hopefully the Bulls don't hit the showers at halftime like they did in Washington the other night.