Bulls stay alive by beating Cavs
Asked to reflect on the Chicago Bulls' disappointing season before Saturday's game, coach Fred Hoiberg said the successful home opener against Cleveland felt like 100 years ago.
On that night, you probably could have gotten 100-1 odds on the Bulls missing the playoffs.
The Bulls stayed alive in the playoff race Saturday night by defeating the Cavaliers 105-102 at the United Center, but they still need a miracle.
The Bulls (40-40) will make the playoffs only if Indiana (42-37) loses all three of its remaining games, against Brooklyn, New York and Milwaukee — three non-playoff teams — and the Bulls win their final two against New Orleans and Philadelphia.
If the Pacers beat the Nets at home Sunday, the Bulls will be eliminated before playing their next game.
This result continued one of the more mind-boggling aspects of this season: The Bulls are 11-5 against the six teams with the best records in the NBA, and 7-1 against Cleveland and Toronto, the top two in the East. They've won three of four against the Cavs, who failed to clinch the top seed.
“If you would have told me at the beginning of the year, we would be 7-1 against the top two seeds and on the outside looking in, I would have told you you're crazy,” Hoiberg said. “It's where we are. We had to come out and win. I told them they showed great character by coming out and competing.”
Hoiberg gave a personal player-of-the-game accolade to rookie center Cristiano Felicio, who hit all 7 of his shots from the field and doubled his career high by scoring 16 points. He also played the entire fourth quarter except for the final few seconds.
“I tried to go out there and play as hard as I can,” said the 6-foot-11 Felicio, who grew up in a small town in Brazil. “Tonight was a good night for me. I had a couple layups that got me going. After that, I played as hard as I could.”
If there's any bright spot in this disappointing season, it could be how the Bulls found a couple of pleasant surprises in Felicio, who was signed off their summer-league team, and Justin Holiday, acquired at the trade deadline from Atlanta.
“The kid has a chance to be really good,” Hoiberg said of Felicio. “I'm happy for him. He's getting his chance, and he's taking advantage of it. I never asked him if he played soccer, but it looks like he has. He has great feet; he's nimble. He's got excellent hands and can really catch the ball.”
The Bulls put together one of their most impressive five minutes of the season, going on a 15-0 run early in the fourth quarter. The Bulls had Felicio, Holiday, Aaron Brooks and rookie Bobby Portis on the floor during the entire run, while Jimmy Butler replaced Doug McDermott about halfway through.
The Cavs had all five starters on the floor by the time Butler's fadeaway sent the Bulls ahead 97-84 with 5:51 remaining.
Butler led the Bulls with 21 points. LeBron James hit 13 of 17 shots from the field for 33 points.
The Cavs made a late run, closing within 2 points on J.R. Smith's free throw with 8.7 seconds remaining. Smith rebounded his own miss on the second attempt and the Cavs made two quick passes to get Matthew Dellavedova an open look at a go-ahead 3-pointer and he air-balled it.
Pau Gasol made 1 of 2 at the foul line with 1.6 seconds on the clock and Smith was well short on a 3-point attempt at the final buzzer.
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