Bulls just fine with Noah talk

CLEVELAND - If the Bulls would rather center Joakim Noah keep quiet about the people and cities that bug him in life, there has been no evidence to suggest it.

Questions about Noah's anti-Cleveland comments were met with smiles Monday. Nobody really asked about Noah's suggestion that Boston's Kevin Garnett is a dirty player. That's a different playoff series.

"That's Jo, man," guard Derrick Rose said. "He's just trying to win. That's the way he plays. That's the way he talks. Actually it makes all of us play harder because you know every arena he goes to, everybody hates up. It makes us play harder, and we just love shutting the crowd up."

Added coach Vinny Del Negro, "Jo's a free spirit. He's going to speak his mind. He doesn't say anything where he doesn't speak from the heart. Players are going to talk. There's a lot of attention, obviously.

"It gets you guys all riled up and he's sitting back there laughing and having fun with it. Whatever gets him ready to play and gets him going, that's fine with me."

Backup center Chris Richard was a teammate of Noah's at Florida. Asked if he has been following Noah around town for extra protection, Richard shook his head.

"People don't like him. It's been like that since his freshman year of college," Richard said. "People always say stuff from the stands. There's no interaction face to face."

Playoff vet delivers: Flip Murray had a nice game off the bench for the Bulls, providing a much-needed 10 points in the first half. He finished with 14.

Murray has a unique history with the Cavaliers, being directly involved in Cleveland playoffs for four of the last five years - all with different teams.

Murray played for the Cavs in 2006. A year later he played for Detroit and faced Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals. After a year off, he played against the Cavs again last season with Atlanta. Now he's back in town with the Bulls.

Change of strategy: Hakim Warrick said Saturday felt like his first career playoff game, although he did appear in three postseason contests for Memphis during his rookie season.

"It was so long ago," he said. "It feels good to finally get back to the playoffs."

In Game 1, the Bulls seemed to game plan for Warrick. At one point in the first half, they sent out a tall front line with Warrick at small forward. He guarded LeBron James, then tried to post up the Cavs' superstar on the other end, scoring once in two attempts.

In Game 2, though, Warrick didn't play at all. Rookie James Johnson got a call in the first quarter, tried playing James aggressively and got dunked on for his trouble.

Three days in Ohio: Here are some different opinions on the Bulls' three-day stay in Cleveland:

"I'm in the hotel watching film," coach Vinny Del Negro said. "The Ritz-Carlton is beautiful; the food was good. I have no problem with it."

Added backup center Chris Richard, "There's really nothing here to do, so just sit around in the room. It's easy to stay focused. We watched all the (NBA playoff) games. It's playoff time; I think everyone's trying to do everything we can to get focused."