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Bulls rally from 17 points behind in second half, win
By Brian Windhorst
Beacon Journal sportswriter
Published on Friday, Apr 04, 2008
CLEVELAND: This has been a two steps forward, one step back sort of season for the Cavaliers.
Thursday's events fit right into that file, a night after breaking their road losing streak with a quality win in Charlotte without LeBron James for the stretch run, the Cavs came home and coughed up a 17-point lead in a 101-98 loss to the woeful Chicago Bulls.
A victory would've put a headlock on the No. 4 seed and homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Instead the Cavs' first game with their entire set of rotation players turned into a classic bad loss and another injury reared its head. James battled back spasms for much of the second half, which seemed to zap his effectiveness in the stretch run.
That and a healthy heaping of payback from old friend Larry Hughes, who had, perhaps, his best game with the Bulls in his old home arena even as the crowd booed nearly his every move.
The irony was that in the end, the Cavs actually did everything right. On an out-of-bounds play with 3.4 seconds left, Delonte West fired a cross-court pass to James. He naturally drew a double team, but Cavs coach Mike Brown had drawn up an antidote: James dished to a wide open Daniel Gibson, the third-best 3-point shooter in the NBA.
But Gibson missed, and the Cavs (42-34) left taking blame and congratulating the Bulls (30-45), who had been on the verge of being eliminated from the playoff race.
Gibson's miss far from defined the game. The Cavs struggled to deal with the Bulls' drive-and-kick offense in the second half and were unable to convert two key offensive chances before the last shot.
With 2:30 left, Ben Wallace, who returned after missing two games with back issues, missed a wide-open dunk that would've put the Cavs ahead by four points. It looked so certain that the Cavs' sound crew had already fired up the Big Ben chime that is routinely played after his baskets. It was aborted mid-dong.
Then with less than 15 seconds left, James attempted to give the Cavs the lead with a driving layup but came up short. The Cavs pro
tested that he was fouled as Thabo Sefolosha and Joakim Noah converged on him, but there was no whistle.
''I got hit on the elbow and left it short,'' James said. ''But that wasn't the reason we lost the game.''
James' assessment was correct. He finished with 33 points but scored just one point in the fourth quarter, a time when he usually dominates.
Sometime during the third quarter, though, James' back tightened up. As he rested at the start of the fourth, he went to the locker-room area to be stretched out by a team trainer and was unable to sit during timeouts late in the game due to the lower back soreness.
''It was pretty bad . . . it was tough to do things I wanted to do,'' James said. ''I know tomorrow it is not going to be too good. Hopefully I can get it better for Saturday.''
Meanwhile, Hughes was feeling no pain. He scored 25 points with nine assists and eight rebounds. In the second half he was brilliant, making 8-of-10 shots and adding five assists. He had been shooting just 36 percent from the field since being traded from the Cavs to the Bulls but finished 11-of-17 on Thursday. He paired with Ben Gordon, who had 24 points off the bench and the Bulls' last five points, to devastate the Cavs' defense.
The Bulls piled up 29 assists and shot 63 percent in the second half.
''You've got to give Larry a ton of credit for playing the right way to get them the win,'' Brown said.
Dribbles
Lance Allred's second 10-day contract expired after the game. The Cavs will likely sign him for the rest of the season today. He has only played in two games but does have value to the team as a practice player. By signing him they would retain his rights for next season, which would give them a chance to test him in summer league and training camp. . . . Gibson continues to struggle as he returns from his ankle injury. He did not score and is just 4-of-17 shooting in four games since coming back.
Brian Windhorst can be reached at bwindhor@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/cavs/.
CLEVELAND: This has been a two steps forward, one step back sort of season for the Cavaliers.
Get the full article here.
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