Chicago Bulls vs. Cleveland Cavaliers: Postgame Grades and Analysis
LeBron James scored 26 points, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving had double-doubles, and the Cleveland Cavaliers hammered the Chicago Bulls, 108-94, at Quicken Loans Arena Monday night.
The Cavaliers led wire to wire and were up by as much as 25. According to K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune, it was the second game in a row that the Bulls, who were without Joakim Noah (ankle) for the third straight contest, hadn't led:
As you can imagine, Chicago head coach Tom Thibodeau was not too enthused. Per Johnson:
Cleveland head coach David Blatt was thrilled with his team's defensive effort, per the Cavaliers' official Twitter feed:
| Derrick Rose | C |
| Jimmy Butler | C- |
| Pau Gasol | D |
| Taj Gibson | B- |
| Kirk Hinrich | F |
| Rest of Team | A- |
| LeBron James | A- |
| Kevin Love | B- |
| Kyrie Irving | B+ |
| J.R. Smith | A |
| Timofey Mozgov | A |
| Rest of Team | B- |
Chicago Bulls
Derrick Rose: C
Even if Derrick Rose did not play extremely well, he was one of the only Bulls who showed any signs of life in this game.
Although Rose missed his first seven shots, he stayed aggressive and ended up making five of his last seven attempts. That included a stretch during the third quarter in which he made three consecutive three-pointers.
Prior to those triples, Rose made some out-of-control drives to the basket and simply took some bad angles. It looked like he was forcing it.
On another note, Rose felt like there was an effort problem from his team, per Johnson:
The floor general finished with 18 points off 5-of-14 shooting. He committed only one turnover.
Jimmy Butler: C-
Jimmy Butler is a probable All-Star and a fringe MVP candidate. However, he was not on his "A" game Monday night.
Butler scored 20 points, but a solid chunk of that came in garbage time. He shot only 6-of-16 from the field and was unable to make any sort of consistent impact on either end of the floor in the loss.
As a matter of fact, Butler was a game-worst minus-24.
He missed a bunch of mid-range jumpers and could not get into the paint all night.
Butler added seven rebounds and three assists to his totals.
Pau Gasol: D
Pau Gasol's renaissance was put on hold against the Cavaliers.
The big Spaniard was absolutely brutal, going 4-of-14 and missing numerous easy shots around the rim. He appeared bothered by the size of Timofey Mozgov throughout the evening.
Gasol ended up with 11 points and 11 boards.
Taj Gibson: B-
Taj Gibson was one of the lone bright spots for Chicago.
He brought some energy on the defensive end, blocking five shots and battling on the interior.
Gibson also achieved a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. He did not shoot all that well, however, posting a 4-of-10 clip.
Kirk Hinrich: F
You really hate to give out a failing grade, but it's hard to make an argument against it for Kirk Hinrich after this contest.
In 27 minutes, Hinrich went scoreless, missing all four of his field-goal attempts. He did log three rebounds, but he did not register a single assist (not that that was necessarily his fault, as Chicago couldn't buy a bucket in this one).
Rest of Team: A-
Aaron Brooks scored 16 points off 5-of-9 shooting off the bench, draining a pair of triples. However, it was not the microwave type of performance that we are accustomed to seeing out of Brooks, as his numbers had minimal impact on the outcome.
Tony Snell definitely deserves some props, though. The second-year player has been struggling all season, but he tallied 12 points off a 5-of-7 clip. He buried two treys and also collected four boards. Perhaps this could serve as a confidence-builder for the youngster going forward.
Nikola Mirotic was nearly invisible in his 15 minutes, mustering three points.
Cleveland Cavaliers
LeBron James: A-
This was just another night at the office for James.
The two-time champion recorded 26 points off an efficient 12-of-23 clip Monday, doing a solid job of not getting sucked in to settling for perimeter jumpers (although he did fire up a couple of air balls from the outside). Instead, he attacked the rim and was successful.
LeBron added five rebounds and four assists.
It wasn't all great for James in the victory, though, as he did commit six turnovers. That knocks his grade down a peg.
Kevin Love: B-
This was a strange evening for Love, to say the least.
He struggled mightily with his shot, going 3-of-13, but he was able to sort of make up for it by living at the free-throw line. Love went 9-of-10 from the charity stripe and twice was able to draw fouls on three-pointers by pump-faking his defender into the air.
Love also did a solid job on the glass, pulling down 12 boards, five of them coming on the offensive end.
He scored 16 points in 30 minutes.
Kyrie Irving: B+
While Kyrie Irving did not exactly light it up with his 7-of-16 outing, he did a very solid job getting his teammates involved.
Irving dished out 12 assists, something we are not necessarily used to seeing from the shoot-first point guard.
He also made some pivotal shots as the Cavaliers put some distance between themselves and the Bulls in the first half.
The Duke product finished with 18 points and chipped in four rebounds.
J.R. Smith: A
J.R. Smith had an efficient game Monday night. Yes, you read that right.
Smith shot the ball very well, going 7-of-11 from the floor and making six of his seven three-point tries. What's more, he hit a key triple with 6:28 remaining to squelch a Bulls rally.
Of course, he took a couple of questionable shots, but he was feeling it, so why not do a heat check?
Smith scored 20 points in what was one of his better games as a Cavalier.
Timofey Mozgov: A
You had to love what Mozgov brought to the table in the win.
The 7-footer posted a double-double with 15 points and 15 rebounds and was a clear rim deterrent throughout the night. He did a phenomenal job of contesting drives by Rose and stonewalled Gasol a couple of times near the basket.
Mozgov added two blocks to his line.
These types of performances are what Cleveland expected when they traded for the former Denver Nugget, and Blatt said as much postgame, per ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin:
More outings like this from Mozgov would be huge for the Cavs.
Rest of Team: B-
Tristan Thompson was not effective in terms of shooting the rock, going 3-of-10 and having four of his shots blocked, but he made a nice impact on the glass, grabbing 10 rebounds (six offensive).
Shawn Marion only scored two points in 17 minutes, but he snared four boards and played some solid defense, doing a nice job of playing the passing lanes and collecting a pair of steals.
That was about it from the rest of the Cleveland squad.
What's Next?
Things don't get any easier for the Bulls, as they will host the streaking (and now healthy) San Antonio Spurs Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET.
Meanwhile, the Cavaliers will look to continue their recent stretch of strong play and also get a little payback against the Utah Jazz in a 7 p.m. ET home matchup Wednesday night. Remember: The Jazz beat Cleveland on a Gordon Hayward buzzer-beater earlier in the season.
Hey, maybe the Cavs can catch the Bulls in the Central Division? Blatt did not rule out the possibility, per McMenamin:
The Cavaliers are 4.5 games back of Chicago.
