Bulls focused from the start to take Game 1
CLEVELAND - Inside a sweltering visitors locker room at Quicken Loans Arena, Jimmy Butler was a little uncomfortable with the large crowd of reporters surrounding him. Before talking, Butler ducked into the training room and asked for some Advil.
The headache was understandable. Butler spent 44 minutes chasing LeBron James around the court and still had enough left in his tank to drain a couple of clutch baskets in the fourth quarter.
Butler, Derrick Rose and Pau Gasol delivered strong performances and the Bulls got a jump on the Cleveland Cavaliers by winning Game 1 of this second-round playoff series 99-92 on Monday night.
"His name might be more well-known than mine, but I'm just here to compete," Butler said. "I'm here to play."
All the Bulls showed up ready for this one. They spent the past three days trying to figure out how to recreate the laser focus they brought to the 54-point win in Game 6 at Milwaukee.
Whatever happened, it worked. The Bulls jumped to a 21-7 lead in the first quarter. Mike Dunleavy went 5-for-5 from the field in the first quarter with 3 baskets from 3-point range.
"I thought we were just dialed in," Dunleavy said. "We had that mindset, I thought it worked really well for us in Milwaukee. … Getting off to good starts is really good for us. I thought our mindset was good, our focus was good."
Rose led the Bulls with 25 points, Gasol added 21 and Butler scored 20. Rose suffered a stinger in his right shoulder late in the game but said later it went away quickly and he's not worried about it.
Between the fast start and playing through pain, the Bulls showed some pretty good mental toughness by withstanding a couple of Cleveland comebacks.
The Bulls' lead peaked at 16 points early in the second quarter after Kirk Hinrich knocked down a 3-pointer. The Cavs came back and tied the score twice early in the third. The Bulls had a devastating response ready, going on a 15-0 run with 5 points each by Rose, Gasol and Butler.
Gasol came alive on the pick and pop, scoring 13 points in the third quarter, mostly on midrange jumpers after he set a screen,
"Just keep your poise whenever (the Cavs) take off and score in bunches," Rose said. "When we were making our run, it was all about getting guys in the right spots, reading how they were playing everyone and just trying to make it easy on everyone."
In the fourth quarter, Cleveland pulled within 2 points a couple of times, but the Bulls always came up with an answer. Butler hit a big 3-pointer off a pass from Rose to make it 92-86 with 4:30 remaining.
A Gasol jumper made it an 8-point game, before the Bulls missed a few shots and Cleveland crept within 94-90. This time Butler delivered a double-fake and bank shot in the lane to put the game on ice with 30.6 seconds left.
Here's one issue facing the Bulls now: They've won opening games before against James and gone nowhere. The Bulls won Game 1 against Miami in the 2011 Eastern finals and the 2013 second round. Both times, James and the Heat won the next four games.
"We can't get too high on this win," Joakim Noah said. "We've been in this situation before where we won a big Game 1. When you're in this situation, you can't exhale. They're going to play better the next game. They're going to make their adjustments. We have to make our adjustments and take this Game 2. Stay hungry."
Point guard Kyrie Irving led the Cavs with 30 points, scoring mostly on drives to the basket. Iman Shumpert, starting in place of the suspended J.R. Smith, added 22 points. James finished with 19 points, 15 rebounds, 9 assists and 6 turnovers.
The Cavs also are missing forward Kevin Love, who is out for the playoffs with a dislocated shoulder.
"I have to be better," James said. "I wasn't that good tonight. Eight days off, two of our key guys out. Offensively, we'll be much better in Game 2. There's a lot of things I need to see on film, but I think we played a little bit too fast."
• Get the latest Bulls news via Twitter by following @McGrawDHBulls.