cavs lose home court advantage to bulls

[mscott59]

chicago looked very confident and shot lights out last night. dunleavey got it started, w/rose, gasol and butler picking up the slack as the game went on. really not surprised... it's one thing to be missing one key player, but losing both love and smith (2 game suspension) was too much to absorb. cavs just did not have enough offensive options on the floor, and james did not play well down the stretch. his numbers were great (19 pts, 15 rebournds, 9 assists, 3 steal, 1 block) except for 6 turnovers, and i think 3 of them were in the last 5:00 when cleveland had climbed within 2 points. irving was very good too pouring in 30... but other than shumpert w/22, the cavs had no depth in terms of scorers. cavs need to find a way to get a split of the first 2 games at home wednesday night, and will be in better shape once smith returns for game 3. i don't think the bulls can continue to shoot 50% from the field and 56% from 3's like they did last night, but they are obviously going to be a tough out.

[mscott59]

May 5, 2015 8:16:37 GMT -5 mscott59 said:

chicago looked very confident and shot lights out last night. dunleavey got it started, w/rose, gasol and butler picking up the slack as the game went on. really not surprised... it's one thing to be missing one key player, but losing both love and smith (2 game suspension) was too much to absorb. cavs just did not have enough offensive options on the floor, and james did not play well down the stretch. his numbers were great (19 pts, 15 rebournds, 9 assists, 3 steal, 1 block) except for 6 turnovers, and i think 3 of them were in the last 5:00 when cleveland had climbed within 2 points. irving was very good too pouring in 30... but other than shumpert w/22, the cavs had no depth in terms of scorers. cavs need to find a way to get a split of the first 2 games at home wednesday night, and will be in better shape once smith returns for game 3. i don't think the bulls can continue to shoot 50% from the field and 56% from 3's like they did last night, but they are obviously going to be a tough out.

well, the buills' shooting touch came back down to earth (40% from the field, 31% from 3) and lebron decided to distribute less, shoot more, drive to the hoop more, and do a better job handling the ball (33 pts vs 19 monday, 5 assists vs 9, just 2 turnovers vs 6), especially out of the blocks (14 in 1st qtr). cavs also found that 4th scoring option as james jones had 17 points and 5 3's off the bench to support irving (21) and shumpert (15). now you need at least one win in chicago to regain control of the series. nice bounce back win.

[Mickey34jb]

May 7, 2015 7:48:20 GMT -5 mscott59 said:

May 5, 2015 8:16:37 GMT -5 mscott59 said:

chicago looked very confident and shot lights out last night. dunleavey got it started, w/rose, gasol and butler picking up the slack as the game went on. really not surprised... it's one thing to be missing one key player, but losing both love and smith (2 game suspension) was too much to absorb. cavs just did not have enough offensive options on the floor, and james did not play well down the stretch. his numbers were great (19 pts, 15 rebournds, 9 assists, 3 steal, 1 block) except for 6 turnovers, and i think 3 of them were in the last 5:00 when cleveland had climbed within 2 points. irving was very good too pouring in 30... but other than shumpert w/22, the cavs had no depth in terms of scorers. cavs need to find a way to get a split of the first 2 games at home wednesday night, and will be in better shape once smith returns for game 3. i don't think the bulls can continue to shoot 50% from the field and 56% from 3's like they did last night, but they are obviously going to be a tough out.

well, the buills' shooting touch came back down to earth (40% from the field, 31% from 3) and lebron decided to distribute less, shoot more, drive to the hoop more, and do a better job handling the ball (33 pts vs 19 monday, 5 assists vs 9, just 2 turnovers vs 6), especially out of the blocks (14 in 1st qtr). cavs also found that 4th scoring option as james jones had 17 points and 5 3's off the bench to support irving (21) and shumpert (15). now you need at least one win in chicago to regain control of the series. nice bounce back win.

LeBron got out of 'chill mode' and got more aggressive to the hoop____needs to do that tonight as well!!

[Mickey34jb]

It was fitting that Lebron made the buzzer beater after getting screwed on the elbowing call and the no-foul under the hoop on his drive. Great series, fun to watch.

[mscott59]

May 10, 2015 22:47:59 GMT -5 Mickey34jb said:

It was fitting that Lebron made the buzzer beater after getting screwed on the elbowing call and the no-foul under the hoop on his drive. Great series, fun to watch.

was driving back from nashville sunday (niece graduated from belmont univ) so i couldn't watch it but listened to the entire game (satellite radio is a beautiful thing). watching the highlights last night, dunleavy certainly dusted off the duke flop that so many blue devils have perfected down thru the years, but lebron did lower his shoulder and i can't argue the call. but he did get mugged (by noah and others) on that last drive and didn't get a call. on the play where he turned his ankle and got call for a charged... missed call there too. w/irving limping, lbj had to shoulder more of the pg responsibilities in addition to everything else, and he struggled there (8 turnovers is awful for anyone, doubly so for him) and it will be tough for the cavs to run the table if kyrie doesn't heal up some. and james struggled from the field too (10-30 on fga's). but smith finally heated up in the 4th and james' greatest quality is that he will keep grinding. that was a clutch, and tough, shot from the deep corner to win it. the cavs overall did not have a good game, but was able to find a way to win and get home court advantage back. that was impressive. btw, i thought mozgov (13 pts, 3 blocks, 9 boards, 4-5 shooting) and thompson (12 points, 5-6 on fg's, 7 rebounds) were outstanding in a very physical game.

[mscott59]

i want to toss out some kudos to former osu star mike conley for his play, with a broken face, in the series vs golden state. the guy has been nothing short of amazing.

[Mickey34jb]

May 11, 2015 8:50:48 GMT -5 mscott59 said:

i want to toss out some kudos to former osu star mike conley for his play, with a broken face, in the series vs golden state. the guy has been nothing short of amazing.

The playoffs are riddled with injuries___its getting to the point where its so physical with the hard fouls that top players are playing hurt, having minutes reduced and even sitting out a game like Gasol did for game 4.

[mscott59]

well, when the cavs were up 92-75 early in the 4th qtr., i was feeling pretty good. when the lead evaporated to 2 and the bulls had the ball late in the game... not so good. cleveland completely stopped running their offense after getting up by 17, and chicago nearly stole a game like cleveland stole sunday's game. but they held on, irving hit some key ft's down the stretch, james played an outstanding game (38 pts, no turnovers!!) and the cavs are 1 game away from the eastern conference finals.

[Mickey34jb]

May 12, 2015 21:52:54 GMT -5 mscott59 said:

well, when the cavs were up 92-75 early in the 4th qtr., i was feeling pretty good. when the lead evaporated to 2 and the bulls had the ball late in the game... not so good. cleveland completely stopped running their offense after getting up by 17, and chicago nearly stole a game like cleveland stole sunday's game. but they held on, irving hit some key ft's down the stretch, james played an outstanding game (38 pts, no turnovers!!) and the cavs are 1 game away from the eastern conference finals.

I was feeling so good about the big lead, I went and took a shower came back to watch them finish and it was a 6pt lead.....Back to Chicago