Cavaliers stop Bulls 115-112
BY STONE LEXINGTON
CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER
Since Thursday night in Quicken Loans Arena, the Cleveland Cavaliers hosted the red-hot Chicago Bulls, which had won seven straight contests. However, as many teams’ streaks have experienced after arriving in Cleveland to face the Cavaliers, Chicago’s winning spurt snapped on Thursday as the Cavs held on for a 115-112 victory. The win pushed the Cavs’ record to 3-0 against the Bulls this season.
“I thought we did some good things,” Cavs assistant coach Larry Drew, who filled in as head coach for an ill Tyronn Lue, said after the game. “We also made some mistakes. That’s just how it is, all NBA teams make mistakes, but we’re going to keep pushing.”
LeBron James led Cleveland with 34 points, six rebounds and nine assists. With his appearance against Chicago, James also became the first player to play in 800 regular season games with the Cavs.
Kevin Love also had a superb outing against Chicago, finishing with 27 points and seven rebounds. Jeff Green (10 points), Dwyane Wade (10) and Kyle Korver (15) all chipped-in double-digit scoring efforts off the bench.
The Cavs and Bulls played a close game throughout. Through three quarters, there were 24 lead changes, 11 ties and neither team had led by double digits to that point. When Korver drained a three-pointer with 10:15 to play in the fourth quarter, the Cavs secured their first double-digit lead of the night, 89-79. The advantage was short-lived, however, as the Bulls retook the lead 92-91 on a Justin Holiday dunk with 7:46 remaining.
Both teams battled back and forth down the stretch. When Bulls guard Denzel Valentine converted a layup with 14.3 seconds to play, Cleveland had a slim, one-point, 113-112 lead. James, though, converted two free throws with 11 seconds to play, and Valentine missed a jumper just before the buzzer.
“The Bulls have improved,” Drew said. “They’re playing some good basketball.”
Lauri Markkanen led Chicago with 25 points, while Valentine added 18 points and five assists.
While the Cavs have won 12 straight home games and are 19-2 since Nov. 11, it’ll be interesting to see what the team looks like when star point guard Isaiah Thomas finally plays his first game with the team. Thomas practiced with Cleveland’s G League on Thursday, but was back in Cleveland Thursday night warming up in the Cavs’ pre-game layup line. He has already been ruled out for the Christmas Day showdown with the Golden State Warriors.
How have the Cavs been so successful without Thomas in the lineup this season?
“We’ve just been doing it by committee, and the players have been doing a good job of putting in the time and effort,” Lue said before the game. “We’ve been playing a lot of guys out of position.”
After draining 12 three-pointers against Chicago, the Cavs have now made at least 10 three-pointers in a franchise-record 22 straight games. Cleveland also scored at least 100 points in its 26th consecutive contest, the longest active streak in the NBA..
POSTED 12/21/2017 21:58
Lake County Sentinel
Photo by Greg Goth
