By Sean Mackey
The Bulls were able to squeak out a win after blowing a 21 point lead against the Cavs Thursday night, winning 108-106. Derrick Rose was sensational (again) scoring 31 points and dishing out 7 assists. Joakim Noah had his usual double-double with 10 points and 15 boards. However, the player of the game award would have to go to Kirk Hinrich who scored 27 points on 9-12 shooting including going 4-4 on three pointers. This game further proves how effective the Bulls would be on a consistent basis if they had a reliable shooting guard every night. With this win, the Bulls cut the series to 2-1.
This was a great game and LeBron James proved that he's pretty much unstoppable again. He hits shots that no one is suppose to make. Chicago built up a 21 point lead coming out of the half and started to make this look like it would be a blowout. Charles Barkley claimed at the half that even though the Bulls were up by double digits, they would blow the lead and the Cavs would win. The Bulls did blow the lead and missed 4 straight free throws late in the game but the Cavs never tied or took the lead during the second half. The Cavs looked visibly annoyed towards the end of the game and switched to a small lineup that had LeBron James playing center for the team. LeBron also was immediately switched to defend Derrick Rose which was in all honesty was Mike Brown scraping the bottom of the barrel of his "coaching" ideas. While Derrick Rose didn't score with LeBron defending him, the damage was already done. The Cavs eventually ran out of time outs and had to throw the ball in from the other side of the court with 3.7 seconds remaining. Instead of getting the ball to LeBron (who is a great half court shooter), the ball fell into the hands of Anthony Parker who missed and the Bulls won.
All and all, LeBron is great, however, I think his team full of spare parts still needs to be better for him to win a title. If the Bulls can figure out a way to beat this team, I'm pretty sure Orlando and L.A. can. They're both teams who have consistent shooters on the floor at all times. Regardless though, LeBron was able to score 39 points, pull down 10 rebounds and dish out 8 assists on the Bulls, stats he could have against any team on any night with 2 broken fingers and one eye opened.
I have a feeling the Cavs are going to try to blow the Bulls out of the water early on Sunday so Chicago is going to need to turn it on for 4 straight quarters if they want to tie this thing. I'm talking to you Kirk Hinrich.
0 comments:
Post a Comment