Cavaliers talent overcomes slow start to top Bulls 119-112
BY STONE LEXINGTON
CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER
Due to injuries and experimentation, the Cleveland Cavaliers have been forced to tinker with several different lineups this season. It hasn’t necessarily gone as expected.
With point guard Isaiah Thomas expected to be out until January, the Cavs began the season with a lineup of Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Jae Crowder and Kevin Love. When Rose sprained his ankle in the second game of the season, the Cavs inserted veteran point guard Jose Calderon into the starting lineup against the Orlando Magic last Saturday. The Calderon experiment lasted one game after the Magic destroyed the Cavs on their home floor.
Tuesday night, Cleveland rolled out its third starting lineup in four games. James, Crowder and Love remained in the starting five, but they were joined this time by Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith.
Over the weekend, Wade and Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue came to a decision that Wade would be better suited coming off the bench for the time being. It’s the first time in his career he has been relegated to a regular reserve. However, the surprise start in Tuesday night’s matchup with the Chicago Bulls was Thompson’s, meaning James started at point guard.
“Just trying to figure it out and see what happens with both of our point guards being down,” Lue said of his decision to start James at point.
Prior to Tuesday’s game against Wade’s previous team, Lue said his reasoning for starting Thompson was that he didn’t want Love to be in a situation where he’d have to bang with Bulls 7-footer Robin Lopez an entire evening. Love seemed to flourish, posting his third double-double (20 points, 12 rebounds) in four games this season, but an undermanned Bulls team came to play as well.
Chicago hung in with the Cavs for four quarters, but Cleveland’s talent proved to be too much en route to a 119-112 victory.
“With D-Rose out and Isaiah out, it’s tough,” Lue said. “If you don’t have a point guard on the floor, it’s tough to win games, no matter how good LeBron is.”
With Tuesday’s appearance in a wine and gold uniform, James (770 games played) tied Zydrunas Ilgauskas for the most regular season games played in Cavs history. He made the most of the night, totaling 34 points and 13 assists. If not for his early efforts, the Cavs might have been blown out of their own gym for the second straight game.
Less than six minutes into the game, the Cavs trailed Chicago 22-9 and it looked like repeat of the Orlando game. Cleveland trailed 38-28 when the first quarter ended, but the more alarming number is the 38 points allowed to a team of young, inexperienced pups. The Cavs rallied to trail 68-65 at halftime, but it was clear they’d be in a fight the rest of the night.
“Defensively, we got to get better,” Lue said. “When we play teams like this that move around a lot, playing hard, younger guys, we got to do a better job respecting these guys. Until we do, we’re going to get off to slow starts, we’re going to be in dogfights every single night.
“We can’t continue to start games the way we’ve been starting them. Thank God for our bench tonight, which was great, but we got to be better.”
When Thompson threw down a dunk with 8:50 remaining in the third quarter, the Cavs secured their first lead, 74-72. However, by the end of the third, Chicago had reclaimed the lead 92-91.
In the fourth, Chicago trailed 118-112 with roughly a minute to play, but a Justin Holiday missed three-pointer moments later essentially ended the Bulls’ chances.
“All night, we continued to close out short,” Lue said. “They looked at us and raised and made shots. No matter if guys are great shooters or not, if you give guys their shots, they can make shots in this league.
“They’re professionals for a reason.”
Aside James and as Lue mentioned, Cleveland’s saving grace was their bench (46 points), which totaled at least 45 points for the third straight game.
Holiday led Chicago with 25 points, while forward Lauri Markkanen finished with 19 points and eight rebounds.
The Cavs know they’ll need to play better moving forward, starting with Wednesday’s game in Brooklyn..
POSTED 10/24/2017 22:06
Lake County Sentinel
