Chicago Bulls vs Cleveland Cavaliers

OK.....after a disappointing loss in Orlando against the Magic, the Bulls travel to Cleveland to face Lebron and the Cavaliers. Just like the Magic, the Cavaliers are considered one of the elite teams in the east only behind Boston and the New Pistons (since Chauncey BBBillups is now a Nugget) and thus will be expected to be a challenging match up. The obvious key to winning this game is to stop Lebron as a primary goal and then and only then go after Z, Mo, Gibson etc. The Cavaliers are known for their explosiveness and thus the Bulls must be able to defuse the bomb.

In order to defuse this bomb the Bulls must: guard the lane, hustle on defense, have good ball movement, and grab offensive boards (as it seems we once again struggle with the primary goal of any basketball game: SCORING).

Key players that need to step up:
Derrick Rose: (he's been good all season)
Luol Deng: (he can't find the basket, he went 0 - 8 against the Magic which was a major factor in why we lost the game. He needs to SCORE this game and guard the hell out of Lebron James..show US WHY, we are paying you all of that money.)
Ben Gordon: (had a good game against the Magic, he'll need to have a game as good or better)
Kirk Hinrich: (he's been playing alot better this season thus far; he's proven that he can still shoot the ball, we will need his shot to show up tonight)
Drew Gooden: (he's been surprisingly good this season. He'll be back in Cleveland, can he show the Cav's crowd what they are missing out on?)

We will need for all of our players to be productive, but those Key players especially.

Tune in on ESPN

8:00 ET
7:00 CT
6:00 MT
5:00 PT

 

OK, I wasn't able to be here for the game, and apparently no one else was either, but it seems like Lou and Gordon pulled their weight tonight, along with Rose. Kirk was pretty iffy, and Gooden was forgettable.

That adds up to loss against a good team at home

 

I didn't see the game either.

From his stats it looks like Tyrus Thomas: got injured after one shot and a few boards, or the coach told him not to shoot the ball and focus on hustle, or got killed on Defense by players...OR...after Thomas got those few good boards he then took an ill advised shot and bricked the shit out of it and the coach told him to get the fuck out of the game....he shot only ONE shot all game....I doubt that Thomas is getting a ton of minutes like that removed permanently....Thomas should focus on jamming the ball right now and not trying to rush into to turning into a Dirk Nowitzki type of power forward; his shot development needs many days and countless hours of toning.

 

Deng was horrible for most of the game, but had like a 3 minute spurt where he looked really good.

We really need to move Gordon into the starting lineup and play him and Rose 36+ minutes a night.

 

Tyrus didn't have the chance to have a shitty game from what I can tell. I realize he's shot the ball poorly, but I'm not quite ready to give up on him yet. He's made a positive difference with his rebounding and altering shots. I think I'd have kept him out there a bit more and tried to let him get through his shooting issues.

Beyond everything, Tyrus seems to be a confidence player. When he's active and into it, he can contribute even if he's not scoring. If we bench him, we might as well give up on him for good though, because he's going to tune everything out.

 

I tivo'd the game and caught a glimpse of the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, it seems like Vinny has discovered small ball. I don't think that is a long term solution, especially when he pulls Deng for Noc and Rose ends up in the corner. It may get them back into the game, but it isn't a winning strategy.

 

Vinny's small ball strategy is to get a mismatch at the small forward spot, give it to the guy who the small forward is guarding, and have that guy take the small forward off the dribble to score.

The problem is that the small forward never guards Rose or Gordon. They always guard Hinrich, who hasn't been able to capitalize on the mismatch at all.