Cavaliers coach Mike Brown didn’t even recognize his team in Saturday’s 100-84 loss to the Bulls at United Center.
“Give Chicago credit,” Brown said as his squad slipped to 10-16, 2-12 on the road. “They kicked our behinds tonight. I thought defensively we didn’t do much correct in the first half. Our game plan discipline was not good. We were making up coverages as we were going along in the first half and it showed. Chicago got easy basket after easy basket after easy basket or they went to the free throw line in the first half. For us to make up coverages and not follow the game plan and then not be a physical presence, not understand that we need to have some weak side awareness to help our teammates out bodes for disaster.
“We did some things defensively in the first half that we don’t even practice. We’re switching when we shouldn’t switch. We’re not even switching correctly. We’re not helping when guys duck in on the right side. There were a lot of things I saw our team do defensively where you sit back and go, ‘Is this really us that showed up tonight?”’
Andrew Bynum had 19 points and 7 rebounds, while Kyrie Irving added 14 points and 5 assists for the Cavs.
Carlos Boozer had 19 points and 9 rebounds, D.J. Augustin, who joined the team eight days ago, had 18 points and 10 assists, rookie Tony Snell had 17 points and Joakim Noah added 11 points and 18 rebounds for the Bulls, 10-16, 7-5 at home. The Bulls shot a season high 53.6 percent for the game (37 of 69) and a season-high 66.7 percent from 3-point range. They hadn’t scored 100 points since a 107-87 victory over Miami on Dec. 5. They also out rebounded the Cavs, 49-36.
While the Cavs were without Dion Waiters (right wrist tendinitis) and rookie Anthony Bennett (ill), the Bulls started the game without Derrick Rose (torn ligament right knee), Luol Deng (left Achilles), Jimmy Butler (right ankle) and Kirk Hinrich (back).
Brown had warned his team not to take Chicago lightly even though the Bulls had lost four straight and seven of eight games. On the other hand, they are 13-2 in their last 15 games against the Cavs.
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