CHICAGO – The Chicago Bulls had to go up against the best team in the NBA on Tuesday night as the Cleveland Cavaliers were in town. The Bulls played great basketball for 41 minutes, but the final seven minutes of the contest were completely dominated by the Cavs. It was 107-107 with just over seven minutes to go, and the Cavs ended up winning the game 139-117. They closed the game on a 32-10 run.
There's a reason why the Cavaliers have the best record in the NBA; this team is capable of going on quick runs like that at any moment. It looked like this game was going to go down to the wire, but all of a sudden, it turned into a blowout.
“They have size. Like any good team, they have a lot of different ways they can beat you,” Bulls head coach Billy Donovan said of the Cavs before the matchup. “Clearly, they've been an elite offensive team all year long. You just look at the numbers all the way across the board with the way they shoot the ball from three, and the fact they can play inside – and then, the rebounding part. If they're not having a great shooting night, there's other ways that they can play well offensively, and the same thing can be said defensively. They have the ability, with [Jarrett] Allen and [Evan] Mobley, to switch if they need to switch. They can play some zone.”
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Despite their NBA-best 51-10 record, people are still questioning whether or not the Cavaliers can win a championship. Billy Donovan knows that if they continue to play at this level, they will be a tough out against anybody.
“They're very legitimate,” Donovan added. “If you look at their team, they're not a one-trick pony. There's a lot of ways they can beat you. And in the shooting, just as a team, the thing that's amazing is they shoot above-the-break threes better than 19 teams in the league do from the corner. So, they have a high-level shooting team that can come and go. They also offensive rebound really well, and they can get to the free-throw line. So, they can generate other opportunities to score if they're not shooting it great. I think [De’Andre] Hunter defensively adds a lot for their team on the perimeter. As I mentioned earlier, defensively, you have to have different things that you can do just based on matchups, who you're going against.”
After the loss to the Cavs, the Bulls fell to 24-38 on the season. However, both the Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets lost on Tuesday as well, so Chicago still has a 2.5-game cushion between them and 11th place.
