Cavaliers Preview Game #60

Chicago Bulls (23-35) vs
Cleveland Cavaliers (33-26)
Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH
Sunday, March 2, 2008
1:00 PM EST
ABC/WTAM

R-E-V-E-N-G-E!!! Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Shannon Brown, Cedric Simmons, Ben Wallace, Joe Smith. I don’t know what the record is for most players in a single game who played for the other team at some point in that same season, but this one has to be up there. 6 players will be playing with a bit of a chip on their shoulder. Larry Hughes has played quite well so far for Chicago, shooting almost 50% from the field (huh?). It will definitely be a little surreal watching him play against the Cavaliers, and if he continues to shoot well today against Cleveland, it will definitely be a slap in our collective face. Regardless of the extra personal motivation, this still remains a game the Cavaliers should win, but it will be key to see if the team is able to set aside the personal side of this game and instead can focus on the business side of winning this game.

Projected Starting Lineups

Chicago:

-G Kirk Hinrich (12.9 ppg, 6.0 apg, 1.1 spg, 13.40 PER)
-G Larry Hughes (12.8 ppg, 2.5 apg, .350 3-pt%, 12.55 PER)
-F Andres Nocioni (14.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 1.3 apg, 14.45 PER)
-F Drew Gooden (11.2 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 0.6 bpg, 12.72 PER)
-C Joakim Noah (5.1 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 0.6 bpg, 14.66 PER)

Key Injuries: Thabo Sefolosha (Day-to-Day), Chris Duhon (Day-to-Day)

Cleveland:

-G Delonte West (7.3 ppg, 3.4 apg, .329 3-pt%, 10.33 PER)
-G Devin Brown (6.5 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.0 apg, 10.95 PER)
-F LeBron James (30.2 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 7.5 apg, 30.03 PER)
-F Ben Wallace (5.3 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 1.5 bpg, 12.22 PER)
-C Anderson Varejao (7.2 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 0.6 bpg, 13.46 PER)

Key Injuries: Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Out), Sasha Pavlovic (Out), Daniel Gibson (Out), LeBron James (Day-to-Day)

Team Efficiency Stats

Chicago:

-Off (95.8 ppg, 43.8 rpg, .427 FG%, .741 FT%, 21.6 apg, Efficiency-99.3, Rank-26)
-Def (98.6 ppg, 42.4 rpg, .427 FG%, Efficiency-102.6, Rank-8)

Cleveland:

-Off (97.1 ppg, 44.1 rpg, .441 FG%, .721 FT%, 19.7 apg, Efficiency-102.9, Rank-17)
-Def (97.8 ppg, 40.8 rpg, .458 FG%, Efficiency-103.8, Rank-14)

Game Notes

In the history of the NBA, no divisional rivals have played each other for the first time this late in the year. The previous record was February 24th, which was the date when Charlotte and Indiana faced each other for the first time in 1996. Thus, these 2 rivals will play one another 3 more times after today. All 4 games should be bitter, with all the surrounding issues in these games. The Cavaliers have been quite successful against the Bulls in the post-Jordan era. The Cavs have won 6 of their last 8 against the Bulls and are 16-4 at home against the Bulls in their last 20 matchups in Cleveland.

For Chicago, this has been a disappointing season to say the least. The good news for Chicago is that they still have Andres Nocioni, who has always been a Cavalier killer. It will be interesting to see how their new uptempo style of play matches up against the Cavaliers. The Bulls are currently the #8 defense in the league, but much of that came with Ben Wallace in the middle. Since the trade, the Bulls are now giving up 107.4 points per game. The Cavaliers, on the other hand, have seen their defense drastically improve since the trade, seeing their gap between ppg for and against being narrowed all the way to just 0.7 ppg, while they have finally found their way back into the top half of the league in team defense efficiency at #14. So the impact of Ben Wallace is being felt for both teams. The Bulls biggest problem may be the lack of a true star player. If you look at their roster, it’s a team full of players whose PER’s are hovering right around league average (15.00). Even leading scorer Ben Gordon’s PER is a modest 15.67 on the season. If having too many chiefs and not enough indians can be a problem, the Bulls are showing that having too many indians and not enough chiefs can also pose problems.

For Cleveland, they must find a way to get past the Bulls without their 2nd best player as Zydrunas Ilgauskas will miss this game with a back strain. Rick and myself both questioned early in the season if the Cavaliers were overworking the big man as he was logging huge minutes. Hopefully this isn’t the first sign of his body tiring and wearing down. Anderson Varejao will step in Z’s place. The good news is the Bulls don’t have the kind of size that can pose too much of a problem for the Cavaliers’ loss at center, and furthermore, it creates what could be a fun matchup to watch in Joakim Noah and Anderson Varejao. The two players are very similar in a lot of ways, beyond the big hair. They are both athletic energy players who give a team more intangibles than can be measured in the box score.

Perhaps the biggest key for this game will fall in whether or not the Cavaliers have the mindset to get back on defense, as the Bulls have morphed into a team that seems set on getting out and running in an attempt to take advantage of their young, quick, and athletic roster. The new Cavaliers have been dynamite in half court defense, but have struggled in getting back on fast breaks. On the offensive side of the ball, LeBron has had some monster games against Chicago and I would look for him to keep that tradition alive, as Chicago no longer has Ben Wallace plugging up the middle. Keep an eye out, too, on Delonte West who is coming off back to back solid games. He and LeBron are starting to develop a great sense of chemistry with each other, and it has translated into an improved running game. With West at the point, LeBron has become even more of an explosive threat in the open court. With the Bulls recent struggles on defense, this could be another key to this game.

Vegas Line

Cleveland -5
Over/Under 195.5

From The Outside Looking In

Blog-A-Bull
Chicago Bull
Tremendous Upside Potential
Bull Riding
Bulls Central

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