Chicago Bulls at Cleveland Cavaliers Recap
November 6th, 2008 by Andrew WamboldtThe Chicago Bulls lost yesterday to the Cleveland Cavaliers 107 to 93.
The Cavs gradually built their lead as the game went on, and never gave it up, despite some strong pushes from the Bulls.
Lebron James was the driving force between the great Cleveland offense tonight. Lebron finished 41 points 6 assists and 9 rebounds. To put it simply, the Bulls simply could not stop him. That was with him playing with a tweaked ankle for most of the game as well!
Ben Wallace was big in the win as well. He finished with 14 rebounds, 6 offensive rebounds. Late in the game, the Bulls would get a stop against the Cavs, only to not get the stop because they could not rebound the ball.
Derrick Rose started off the game by scoring on his first 4 shots. Rose struggled offensively after that, just making 3 of his last 12 shots. The Cavaliers focused their defense completely around Rose. Regardless, 20 points and 7 assists out of Rose when the other team was double teaming him and focusing their defense on him.
The Cavs defense focus on Rose allowed Gordon to breakthrough for his first big game of the season. Gordon finished the game with 31 points and 5 assists. Gordon displayed everything you want to see out of one of your top scorers, he shot the ball great, drove to the basket, made great passes to set up his teammates, and played good defense to top it off.
There are not many players in the NBA that can stop Ben Gordon when they have to guard him one on one. He is just too good of an offensive player. While Rose didn’t quite set Gordon up much at all tonight, just Rose being on the court takes a lot of attention off Gordon, allowing him to go to work on the opposing team quite effectively.
Thabo Sefolosha finished with 0 points and Kirk Hinrich finished with 2 points.
This is it for Vinny Del Negro. He gave Thabo himself to prove himself, he gave Hinrich more minutes than he deserved by playing him at small forward. Both players have proven that they aren’t that good. We now know with certainty that neither of those two players will be the long term shooting guard next to Derrick Rose in Chicago. From this point forward, Del Negro should start Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon in the backcourt, and play both of them 36+ minutes per a game.
Rose and Gordon are already showing some good teammate chemistry. Gordon gave Rose a thunderous thump on the chest after Rose made a great play in yesterday’s games. Rose will penetrate and Gordon will shoot. There is no reason they cannot play great off of each other. It is time to play them heavy minutes together and let them begin developing on the court chemistry.
Drew Gooden was decent in yesterday’s game, finishing with 11 point and 9 rebounds. He shot 4-13 for the field though, as he tried to do too much against his old team (probably in response to Lebron’s mocking dance), taking fade away shots at the end of the game and also failed to put in some easy set ups by Gordon and Rose.
Tyrus Thomas only had 1 point, and Del Negro only let him play 14 minutes. Del Negro talked a lot about Thomas, Sefolosha, and Noah when he first came here, and now it seems that all three are on the verge of being barred from playing major minutes.
Luol Deng was solid tonight scoring 18 points on 7-15 shooting. Deng even hit 2 three pointers last night. Unfortunately, Deng did his usual disappearing act in the fourth quarter.
The Bulls next game is against Phoenix on Friday.
Similar Posts:
- Chicago Bulls vs. Cleveland Cavaliers Recap
- Chicago Bulls 86 at Cleveland Cavaliers 85
- Cleveland Cavaliers 117 vs. Chicago Bulls 92
- Chicago Bulls 102 vs. Cleveland Cavaliers 93
- Chicago Bulls vs. Cleveland Cavaliers Recap
Tags: Ben Gordon, Ben Wallace, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Derrick Rose, Drew Gooden, Kirk Hinrich, Lebron James, Luol Deng, Thabo Sefolosha, Tyrus Thomas, Vinny Del Negro
