Bulls Send Cavs to 6th Straight Loss, Win 88-83!

By Sean Mackey

The Bulls won their 3rd straight game on Wednesday night when they defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 88-83. Derrick Rose lead the way as usual, scoring 29 points and dishing out 9 assists. Joakim Noah put up another double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds including 2 really big free throws in the last 30 seconds of the game to help seal the win. Antwan Jamison lead the Cavs with 21 points and 6 rebounds. Anderson Varejao also had a great game scoring 17 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

I started watching this game at the beginning of the 2nd half due to me thinking the game was on at 8:00 p.m. instead of 7:00 p.m. The Bulls were up by 6 at that point but quickly lost the lead when Antwan Jamison turned it on. Coach Thibodeau went small most of the game at one point putting Rose at the 2 with C.J. Watson running the offense. Carlos Boozer only played 20 minutes after Thibs decided that he wasn't athletic enough to guard Jamison on the perimeter.

The 4th quarter was pretty exciting with Kyle Korver catching fire and hitting 5 straight shots along with a free throw before throwing up a clanker. It was funny since the Cavs broadcasting crew mentioned that if Korver gets two shots to go that he might not miss. Korver is a great shooter and REALLY needs to be promoted to the starting SG job. Bogans starting and playing only 8 minutes makes zero sense. All coaches are stubborn about at least one stupid thing and this is Thibs' glitch. Skiles' was not starting Ben Gordon, VDN had way too many to name.

Derrick Rose eventually took over the game, weaving in and out traffic and somehow finding openings and getting ridiculous layups. I'm going to have to agree with something Kelly Dwyer said on Balls Don't Lie the other day...Rose may be the fastest basketball player in the league in terms of getting from the 3 point line to the basket. He's simply remarkable and it's great to see him in a sort of MVP mode. Rose made the play of the game when he went up for a layup, was fouled by Mo Williams and willed a shot in. Noah sank two free throws after an offensive foul at the other end of the floor and the Bulls went on to win.

This game reminded me why Anderson Varejao is still my least favorite player in the league. That guy would fall down and try to sell a foul if someone threw a box of toothpicks at him. In one particular instance while going up for a shot, faded away and faked a hit to try to get an and-1 play. Varejao made the shot but no foul was called. The next instance was a few moments later when Noah put maybe 1/2 lb of pressure on Varejao's shoulder going for a rebound and he fell to his knees as if he was tripped. The refs actually bought that call. Play the freakin' game and stop falling down all the time! I do think Varejao is a solid defender and a high energy guy but let's face it, he'll always be a poor man's Noah.

In the end it was great to see the Bulls win a game that they should have won. Building up confidence before a home game against the Lakers is always a good thing. Cleveland has been in a real funk since LeBron came to town and raped their hopes and dreams with a 39 point explosion. I feel bad for the Cavs and would have much rather seen LeBron stay there than go down to Miami but like Noah said, Cleveland does suck. With this win the Bulls improve to 12-8. Chicago is now 2 games ahead of the Pacers in the Central Division after their loss to Milwaukee last night. The Bulls are only 1.5 games away from obtaining the 3 seed in the East trailing the Miami Heat.

The Bulls will be hosting the Los Angeles Lakers tomorrow evening in a nationally televised game on ESPN. The action starts at 8:00 p.m. Chicago has lost 7 straight to the Lakers and haven't had a win against them since December 19, 2006. The Bulls are dodging a big bullet since Andrew Bynum won't be making his return to the Lakers until next Tuesday against the Wizards.

Go Bulls!