Although Taj Gibson will be missing two weeks with a sprained MCL, the Bulls looked like they might have enough manpower to weather the last-place Cavs. Early on, Kirk Hinrich provided the spark the Bulls had been missing with him out, an indication that the script was set in motion. Then, everything after the first quarter happened.
The offense was all right, but the defensive hustle was severely lacking. One of Stacey King's keys to the game was 48 minutes of intensity. I didn't see it. That allowed the Cavs to gain enough confidence to share the ball and find the best possible shots with it. They were more than happy to score off turnovers late and there were quite a few of them as the game reached its waning moments. Although the game was close throughout, it never felt like the Bulls were going to get the lead back once they lost it for good. That shows the lack of confidence people have in this team right now.
With Irving out, rookie Dion Waiters picked up the slack by scoring 25 points. Shaun Livingston followed him with 15 and recent acquisition Wayne Ellington had 13, including a three-pointer to beat the buzzer in the third quarter. Luke Walton also turned heads by playing solid offense and defense in the last two minutes. I'll let you make your own jokes to end this paragraph.
Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng had solid offensive games, scoring 27 and 26 points respectively. Yes, Boozer's defense was suspect at times, but he always seemed to find the right shot. Deng, on the other hand, lost favor with the crowd when he put up a contested jumper with time still on the shot clock in the final minute. I expect better from the two-time All-Star.
Kirk Hinrich wanted to prove his importance to the offense and did just that in his first game back from injury. 11 points and 11 assists accomplished his mission. Without him, we might be talking about another low-scoring effort from the Bulls. But that only magnifies the recent problems they've had. No one on this team can create their own shot except Derrick Rose and that's starting to surface. I'll save my gripes on that for another night. I'm more concerned about letting a young Cavaliers team gain the confidence it needed to end their post-LeBron skid.
It isn't clear whether tonight's game was more an indication of the yearlong problem of dropping home games to the league's bottom feeders or their February slump. Whatever it is, I didn't like what I saw during the last 36 minutes. Failing to grab rebounds, giving Cleveland second chances and overall lackluster play on the defensive front spelled doom. The conditions were right for a victory and it didn't happen. This is a team that thrives on hustle. If it's not there, nights like tonight happen.
Are they distracted by the recent Derrick Rose hoopla? Have they gotten too comfortable with their past dominance at the United Center that they have trouble with motivation there? I don't know, but they better get their act together before they fall further down the playoff ladder. You want home-court advantage, don't you? Whether or not Rose returns, at least put on a good showing. Or does the ghost of Norm Van Lier need to pay our boys a visit?
A national TV audience will get another look at this team Thursday against the Philadelphia 76ers. Maybe that kind of spotlight will break them out of the doldrums. Hey, if having your point guard return isn't cutting it, maybe playing on TNT will. This drought has to end sometime, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment