Snow creates strange start to Bulls game

CLEVELAND -- There was talk of possibly delaying the start of Wednesday's Bulls-Cavaliers game because of a lake-effect snowstorm that dumped about 6 inches on downtown Cleveland.

Locals who drove to the arena reported clear skies just a couple of miles away, which no doubt caught many off-guard. An hour before tipoff, Cavs coach Byron Scott said his team still was waiting for seven or eight players to arrive.

“It took us like 35 minutes to get here to get five blocks (from the hotel) before the game,” Bulls guard Kyle Korver said. “A lot of us kind of got cut short in our pregame routines. I'm sure a lot of people had a hard time getting to the game. Downtown was a mess.”

Eventually, the game began as scheduled, but there couldn't have been more than 500 spectators inside Quicken Loans Arena at the time, which made for a bizarre atmosphere.

“It was really weird,” Luol Deng said. “I remember, I think in Jersey, they had a snowstorm and they brought everyone from the (upper deck) down. It kind of felt like that a little bit.”

By halftime, there were about 6,000 fans in the seats, so it eventually got louder. The Bulls jumped to a 10-0 edge in the empty arena, then struggled to hold the lead the rest of the night.

“I played in Philly for a few years,” Korver added. “So I played in a couple of those arenas where you've got to kind of create your own energy.”

Scott sees Fame for Rose:

Cleveland coach Byron Scott knows great point guards, having played with Magic Johnson, then coaching Chris Paul and Jason Kidd.

Before Wednesday's game, Scott offered strong praise for third-year guard Derrick Rose.

“He has a great chance to be a Hall of Famer is he stays healthy, No. 1, and if he continues to grow in his game,” Scott said.

“He's just a heck of basketball player. I enjoyed watching him when he was at Memphis. I enjoy watching him now as a pro. It seems each year he has gotten better and that's the sign of a guy that's a professional, works at his craft.”

Boozer sits down stretch:

Carlos Boozer averaged 27 points in his previous two games but couldn't get much done against the Cavaliers and sat out the final 14:43 of the contest. He finished with 4 points and 3 rebounds and struggled defensively against Antawn Jamison.

“The way we were spread out (defensively), I liked Lu (Deng) at the four, just because I thought that gave us another perimeter guy,” coach Tom Thibodeau said.

“It also allowed us to do more switching. That was the main reason for that. They did a good job on him with their double-teams, so it was hard to catch him (open).”