Cavaliers VS Bulls (game 3)

Final Score: Bulls win 99-96



Bulls lead series 2-1

I have to say, the officiating wasn't that great in this game. LeBron fouled Butler on that 3. Butler traveled on the reverse layup. LeBron fouled Derrick Rose with about 4 seconds left as he knocked it out of bounds. But the ending was great. I saw Derrick Rose put up the last shot. Then I exploded. "OH MY GOODNESS!" I yelled about 23 times. I'm sure the whole neighborhood was all like, "what's happening over at Aaron's place." "someone probably dunked it." Yeah, well guess what. That wasn't a dunk people. That was a game winning shot. But the game winner wasn't the only thing that won that game. It was everything that the Bulls did leading up to that. Let's take a look at what the Bulls did to have that game tied to those last 3 seconds.

Well, Derrick Rose got to the free throw line and he had a great game overall. He scored. Jimmy Butler did great too. Also, Derrick Rose kept Kyrie Irving to 11 points and 3-13 shooting. That is great. Joakim Noah didn't score or shoot well, but he did great on rebounding and defense. That's all you can ask from him. The whole team did a great job of limiting the Cavs to 39% shooting from the floor. Nikola Mirotic had a great game as he had 12 points and 8 rebounds but his defense was the biggest thing. He had a defnsive rating of 88.4. That is great. Aaron Brooks is still struggling and he really needs to pick it up on offense. He shot 1-7 from the field and 0-4 from 3-point range. They also controled the rebounds as they had 54 while the Cavs had 39.

The Cavaliers have a lot to change. With Kevin Love gone, they don't have a big to really spread the floor. Tristan Thompson and Timofey Mozgov seem to clog up the paint and it becomes harder for guys like Kyrie Irving and LeBron James to make shots in there. They obviously could use Love right now. Especially against a match-up like Pau Gasol. LeBron needs to calm down a bit and stop taking too many shots. He was just 1-7 from 3 point range. And let's face it, LeBron isn't the best 3-point shooter. He just needs to get his teammates involved more. Not to mention, LeBron had 7 tunrovers. J.R. Smith had a great game. He shot 4-8 from 3-point range and 2 of those were in the last 2 minutes. Clutch. One thing that the Cavs did great was forcing the Bulls to shoot contested shots. The Bulls shot a total of 63 contested shots! They only had 27 uncontested. That is great contesting by the Cavs. The Cavaliers need Love. If this team even beats the Bulls, they need him for the next round, because without him, they will have lots of troubles.

Cavaliers VS Bulls (game 2)

Final Score: Cavaliers win 106-91



Series tied 1-1

Is this a rewind. Deja vu? I think it could be. The Bulls always seem to win game 1 then lose the next 4 when they play LeBron in the playoffs. Well, it could be a coincidence. And here how the Bulls can make it so the rewind doesn't happen.

The Bulls need everybody to perform much better. Let's take a look at the individual performances of all these players.

• Pau Gasol: 11 points, 3 turnovers, 4 rebounds, and 3-8 from the field
• Joakim Noah: 4 points, 4 shot attempts, 0-2 from the free-throw line
• Jimmy Butler: 18 points, 2-7 from 3pt range, 1 assist, -26 plus/minus advantage
• Derrick Rose: 14 points, 6-20 from the field, -13 plus/minus advantage
• Aaron Brooks: 4 points, 1-8 from the field, 0-4 from 3pt range

And those were the worst. They can't have that. They can't afford it. Kirk Hinrich played great shooting 3-3 from the field and 2-2 from three point range. He was only played for 12:18 minutes though. That is just disappointing. You obviously need to play him more. Some things need to change for this Bulls team.

This Cavs team was amazing. Yes, LeBron and Kyrie had a combined 54 points but I want to focus on Iman Shumpert and James Jones. Shumpert had 15 points while he shot 4-7 from deep. James Jones had17 points off the bench as he shot a surprising 5-9 from 3-point range. However, James Jones didn't win them the game, he just kept them in it. The team had a plus/minus advantage of -1 when he was on the floor. So he obviously just helped them stay in the game. If he wasn't there though, the Cavs would have lost the lead because their bench would have played so bad. Again, I'm still waiting for this Cavs team to play Marion more. He is very skilled and they need to use him. Other than that, this team is playing great. If they win their next 3, I will start thinking that it is impossible for the Bulls to win a playoff series against LeBron.

Bulls VS Bucks (game 5)

Final Score: Bucks win 94-88



Bulls lead series 3-2

Bucks are not out. Don't count them out. Jason Kidd knows what he's doing. He won a series last year with the Nets. Let's breakdown what the Bucks have to do to win their next two games first.

The Bucks played great. Michael Carter-Williams played probably his best game ever. He had a near triple-double with 22 points, 9 assists, and 8 rebounds. What stood out the most though was on the defensive end. The PG had 3 blocks and 1 steal and kept Rose to just 13 points. They could clean up the turnovers a little bit as MCW had 4. In this game it just seamed like the Bucks just wanted the ball. Everyone on the team averaged over 4 MPH. The other thing is that when the bench was on the court, their offensive pace stepped up.

I hate how everyone is saying Derrick Rose is looking like an MVP candidate again. He had 2 semi-good games in the playoffs. All the others were somewhat okay. Let's put it this way. If Kevin Durant had a 13 point night shooting 0-7 from three point range, would that be an okay night. No, that would be a horrible night for him. Rose couldn't do anything right and he had 6 turnovers. So stop criticizing MCW for having 4. Next was Nikola Mirotic, Tony Snell, and Aaron Brooks who showed minimal effort on the court. The whole reason to have a bench is so they can produce while your starters are resting and can bring effort. They need to show some more effort out there next game if they are to win. It was just a poor game for the Bulls. They have to change something here and soon.