Game Thread Playoffs - Semifinals - Game 01 - Bulls @ Cavaliers

Bulls bench went 7-12 for 19 points and still sucked.

 

Huge win!

Pau was masterful tonight. What a signing he's been.

Noah is running on fumes, and that's being nice to him. Gibson recovered a bit in the 2nd half I thought.

Rose was making some tough shots. He played a very smart, in control game tonight. Nice passes and a great two man game with Pau. If the jumpers are not falling though..... we'll need to see him get to the line.

Jimmy Buckets is a man. Solid D, some big steals / shots. A true star.

I thought the Bulls got Lebron to take the types of shots they wanted him to. Kyrie played great. He won the duel with Rose but lost the game. I'll take that.

The loss of Love and JR was felt, sure, but we're basically without Noah and I have no pity about another team's injuries after what the Bulls have been through the last several years. Tough luck. Its good to see it not on the Bulls for once.

I'm sure some people will bitch and moan about Mirotic and Snell, but the Bulls destroyed the Bucks by 50+ and beat the Cavs on the road, so they are doing something right.

 

I'm stuck in Erie, PA visiting my mother in law. My wife was nice enough to get tickets to the game tonight, which was a welcome break. Anyway. The atmosphere at Quicken Loans arena is atrocious. There is a steady stream of people yelling at you over the PA to cheer loudly. I wouldn't be surprised if they pipe fan noise into the building. Are timeouts longer in the playoffs too? They felt like it.

As to the game:

-- Kyrie's ability to thread passes to rolling big men is superb.

-- Pau Gasol is amazing, he really is. I don't think that there are such things as underrated players in the sense of players who perform much better than their public reputation. But I do think there are players who are underrated because they are on teams that do not fit them. Gasol may have been one of those guys in LA.

-- I think this was a number of unexpected strong performances for both teams. Dunleavy played out of his mind, and I don't think we can consistently expect the performances Rose and Pau had. The same goes for Shumpert.

-- I still think the Cavs are the strong favorite in this series.

As for the rotations, I'm not going to bitch about Mirotic's minutes. He's seeing things too slowly now. His two minutes tonight were atrocious. I could bitch about Thib's failure this past year to get and keep him acclimated, but what's done is done. And I stand by my feeling that Thibodeau is going to get fired even if the Bulls win a championship, so to me it doesn't really even matter.

Hinrich is a problem though. He was so slow guarding high pick and roll tonight that he was stranding his bigs out of position, with no possibility for help. It mattered too. I think he was one of the main reasons that Cavs were able to close the gap mid-way through the fourth. The cavs went at that mismatch four or five times in a row. I actually think Thibs is going to go back to Snell or maybe even Moore as the person who covers Kyrie when Rose is out of the game. The mismatch was too egregious to continue in a seven game series.

 

Agree with this, it was borderline abusive what they were doing to him.

 

Butler stepped up. Rose scared me with that limp arm after the court collision. Go Bulls (Blazers fan)

 

The Chicago Bulls came in oozing with confidence, unafraid of LeBron James and convinced they could keep their playoff momentum rolling.

Derrick Rose made sure they did.

Looking like the league MVP he was before being slowed by knee injuries, Rose scored 25 points, Pau Gasol added 21 and the Bulls led from the start in a 99-92 victory over the short-handed Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Monday night.

Read more http://espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=400793121

 

Great win.

I don't really understand why James doesn't just go hell-for-leather to the basket on every offensive possession. Every time he takes a jump shot I give thanks for our blessings.