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Bulls had a plan for James, but hot shooting buried it

The Bulls have seen two extremes at the start of their playoff series with Cleveland.

In Game 1, LeBron James scored 24 points and got plenty of help from his teammates. Two days later, James was more of a one-man show, scoring 40 points. The Bulls hung close until the final minutes of the fourth quarter, but lost and return home trailing 2-0 to the top-seeded Cavaliers.

One thing the Bulls didn't do much was try to get the ball out of James' hands. The strategy was to stay home and force the Cavs superstar to take jump shots, which he drained repeatedly while scoring 15 points in the fourth quarter.

"When he's that hot, we try to make him shoot over the top the best we can," coach Vinny Del Negro said. "The problem with LeBron is, with his size and strength, when he goes by you, not only can he get to the basket, but then you collapse on him and he finds players with his vision."

The point is, James passes so well, there is no good answer for how to stop him. Cleveland did a nice job of adding some options by picking up Jamario Moon, Anthony Parker and Antawn Jamison since last season.

Meanwhile, Luol Deng was in a tough spot, trying to get a hand in James' face defensively.

"Those are shots you want him to take," Deng said after the contest. "He is tough to defend the whole game. You don't want him going to the rim, but when he shoots like that, he is tough to stop."

Hopeful homecoming: Looking at the start of the series, the Bulls were outscored by 14 in the first quarter of Game 1 and by 10 in the fourth quarter of Game 2. In the other six quarters, the Bulls have outscored the Cavs by a point.

So the Bulls took that as an encouraging sign heading into Game 3 on Thursday at the United Center. They did not practice Tuesday.

"If anything, we're motivated and we think we can win, especially on our home court," Joakim Noah said. "We have some tough fans, too. So it will be exciting to play in front of our home crowd in 'Chi.' We're looking forward to it and just playing in the moment, enjoying the competition and trying to win against one of the best teams in the world."

Bull horns: The Bulls haven't dropped a playoff series in fewer than six games since 1988, when they lost to Detroit 4-1 in the second round. - Ex-Bull Thabo Sefolosha, now with Oklahoma City, got 2 first-place votes for defensive player of the year and finished eighth. - LeBron James on his monster dunk over Bulls rookie James Johnson in the first quarter of Game 2: "I knew I got around him and I didn't believe he was going to jump. But once I saw him out of the corner of my eye, I decided to jump a little higher."