Can Bulls continue playing at high level?

CLEVELAND - There is plenty of room for anxiety on both sides of the Bulls-Cavaliers playoff series.

The Bulls can never feel comfortable when LeBron James is on the opposing side. When he played for Miami, the Bulls twice won Game 1 of a playoff series, then dropped four in a row.

For Cleveland, which hasn't experienced a pro sports championship since the 1964 Browns, there could be a familiar sense of bad luck creeping in. During Game 4 of the Cavs' first-round series against Boston, they lost Kevin Love to a shoulder injury and J.R. Smith to a two-game suspension.

Looking back at the Bulls' 99-92 victory in Monday's Game 1, a couple of choices by Cavaliers coach David Blatt didn't work out very well.

First was the decision to start veteran guard Mike Miller in one of the spots vacated by Smith and Love. Miller guarded Mike Dunleavy, who went 5-for-5 from the field for 13 points in the opening quarter, helping the Bulls build a 21-7 lead.

The other was deciding to double-team Derrick Rose off the pick-and-roll. Obviously, the Cavs wanted to keep Rose out of the lane, but he made the right passes and the Bulls got plenty of open looks, particularly Pau Gasol, who scored 13 points in the third quarter.

So the key questions heading into Wednesday's Game 2 are what adjustments will the Cavaliers make and can the Bulls get off to a blistering start for the third game in a row.

"This is what you live for, to go up against the best, be in the playoffs, on the road, backs against the wall," Jimmy Butler said Tuesday. "I think we'll be all right."

James made it clear he thought the Cavaliers' inability to stop the Bulls' pick-and-rolls were about strategy, not confusion. Looking back at Gasol's run of open jumpers in the second half, the two Cavs defenders never hesitated in attacking Rose on the dribble. They did the same thing when Aaron Brooks was in the game.

"It wasn't miscommunication," James told reporters Tuesday. "Some of it was some of our game plan and some of it was we could've gave a better effort. But it wasn't too much miscommunication at all."

Blatt is a first-time coach in the NBA, but he has two decades of successful experience in Europe.

"There are 12 different ways to defend pick-and-roll," said Blatt, a Massachusetts native. "I think against really good teams, it's hard to use the same tactic throughout a game unless you're just having spot-on success with it. Sometimes you have to adjust or sometimes with different players you have to play it a little bit differently."

As far as lineup changes, the Cavs have limited choices, since Smith must sit another game. Oak Park native Iman Shumpert came through with 22 points in Game 1, but Cleveland didn't get much from anyone else beyond James and Kyrie Irving.

The Bulls did not practice Tuesday. Rose said his right shoulder felt fine after he suffered a stinger late in Game 1. During the first-round series against Milwaukee, Rose put up better numbers when he had more than one day between games, but he's not looking at trends.

"I can't go into the game with that thought in my mind," he said. "I'm only thinking positive thoughts and just having a lot of confidence in my game.

"You've got to have confidence coming in here, coming into this city, where their fans are great, they're everything to this city and you know it's going to be really hectic in there next game."

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