Gasol leads Bulls past Cavs
Apparently, there is a way for the Bulls to find consistent results: Just purchase enough airtime to broadcast every game on national television.
The Bulls were chosen to appear on the season debut of ABC's new Saturday prime-time NBA package, with the challenging task of taking on the Cleveland Cavaliers a day after the team fired head coach David Blatt.
The Bulls carried a comfortable lead through most of the second half and beat the Cavs 96-83 at Quicken Loans Arena. It was a surprising turnaround from Friday's sloppy loss at Boston.
But it was reminiscent of the Bulls' last ABC appearance, when they led wire-to-wire in an impressive victory at Oklahoma City on Christmas Day. Come to think of it, the Bulls are also 4-0 when their games are broadcast on TNT, starting with the opening night win over Cleveland at the United Center.
“We needed it, especially after the last two losses,” Pau Gasol said in his televised postgame interview. “They are a direct rival for our conference. It was a great time, the way we played tonight. Now let's see if we can build on it and have some continuity.”
Consistency has been a problem all season long for the Bulls (25-18), but when they're locked in, they can be pretty good. The Bulls are now 8-3 against the top four teams in each conference, with two of the three losses coming to Golden State.
The Bulls turned things around when it came to sharing and protecting the ball, finishing with 21 assists and 7 turnovers. The previous night in Boston, they had 11 assists and 20 turnovers.
Even though they had no idea what to expect with the Cavs' switch to new coach Tyronn Lue, the Bulls limited Cleveland to 83 points and 37.2 percent shooting. The Cavaliers helped the Bulls by going 9-for-22 at the foul line.
“I think we were very disciplined with our assignments,” Gasol said. “We made them shoot a very low percentage from 3-point line.”
Gasol led the Bulls in the three main stat categories, with 25 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists. Jimmy Butler added 20 points and Taj Gibson, wearing goggles to protect an eye injury, had 15 points and several good defensive plays. Nikola Mirotic finally broke out of a recent slump, finishing with 17 points and 3 baskets from 3-point range.
“That's what we need from Niko,” Butler told reporters after the game. “Hopefully he gets back in that gym and continues to work on his game so we can get that from him every night.”
After opening a 14-8 lead, Cleveland (30-12) went scoreless for the final 6:56 of the first quarter. The Bulls went on a 13-0 run to take the lead and never gave it back.
Mirotic scored 9 points in a 13-3 run that pushed the Bulls' advantage to 72-55 with 46 seconds left in the third quarter. The Cavs never got closer than 8 points in the fourth.
LeBron James finished with 26 points, 13 rebounds and 9 assists, but Cleveland got just 8 points off its bench.
Bulls guard E'Twaun Moore left the game with a right hamstring injury after playing just four minutes.
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