James scores 37, takes over down stretch as Cavaliers beat Bulls
CLEVELAND -- The Bulls lost to LeBron James back when Ben Wallace and Joe Smith were wearing red and black. They lost again Sunday with Wallace and Smith on the other side.
The two ex-Bulls did some nice things, but had very little to do with Cleveland's 95-86 victory. This was all about James, who abused all of the Bulls' attempts at defense on his way to a picturesque 37 points.
The Bulls can only hope James get promoted to the varsity someday, because right now they are just D-League fodder for the Cavaliers' 23-year-old star.
"We got a heavy dose of LeBron, especially down the stretch," said Bulls coach Jim Boylan. "It seemed like when they turned the heat up on us a little bit, it was difficult for us to get a good offensive flow going."
The struggling Bulls (23-36) have lost four of five and remain 3 games behind New Jersey for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Boylan's squad actually had some momentum late in this game, using a 16-3 run to go ahead 76-68 with 9:55 remaining. Bulls guard Larry Hughes missed an open 3-pointer that could have boosted the lead to 11 points, Cleveland's Wally Szczerbiak drilled a 3-pointer and the ending seemed inevitable at that point.
James hit a driving scoop shot to put the Cavs ahead for good at 85-83 with 3:10 remaining. He scored after dribbling the ball off his own leg and nearly losing it out of bounds.
James tacked on a driving dunk against invisible defenders, then buried a long jumper to make it 89-83 with 2:01 on the clock.
"I just live for the fourth quarter," James said. "We were just able to take the life out of them."
For the record, Wallace finished with 7 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals against his former team. He hit 2 of 6 shots and 3 of 8 free throws. Smith added 8 points.
Wallace did some nice things down the stretch to help the Cavs (34-26). He negated an alley-oop dunk by taking a charge on Ben Gordon as the pass was thrown. He got a steal on the Bulls' next trip by deflecting a Hughes pass.
Wallace's best contribution might have been drawing a phantom foul on Joakim Noah by jumping forward when an offensive rebound went over his head. James unleashed his drive and dunk on the ensuing possession.
"I've got nothing but love and respect for those guys," Wallace said of the Bulls. "They've got a lot of young guys that are going to be impact players before long. They've just got to keep playing. I pretty much talked to everybody, except for Jim (Boylan). I just couldn't get to him."
On the other side of the trade, Hughes and power forward Drew Gooden returned to their former home. Hughes was aggressive offensively, sometimes to a fault. He led the Bulls with 23 points, hitting 8 of 20 field goals.
"Larry's a high-volume shooter," James said. "At times he looks like he's pressing, but that's the type of game he has. He played well."
Hughes missed his final 5 shots and didn't score in the final 10 minutes. He admitted being too hyped up about the game Sunday morning, but said he was able to calm himself down before tipoff.
"If coach is going to play me a lot of minutes, I've got to be aggressive and make the right plays and take the right shots," Hughes said. "I did that throughout the game. Late in the game, I had to make a couple more shots to give us a better chance to win."
None of the Bulls' mainstays did much offensively. Gordon (11 points) hit 5 of 13 shots, Luol Deng (10 points) went 3-for-13 from the field and Kirk Hinrich was limited to 5 points in 20 minutes after getting in early foul trouble.
Gooden was in the starting lineup for the first time since joining the Bulls. He finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
"It was kind of bittersweet to play against my old teammates; guys I've seen grow up," Gooden said. "It was a little sad. But at the end of the day, those guys over there will always be my teammates. I have a lot of blood, sweat and tears in that jersey."