Cleveland Makes Experience Count In Win Over Chicago

Posted by Matt Loede under NBA Game Analysis

Flexing their muscles against one of the younger teams in the league, the Cavs led by LeBron James won their second straight on Wednesday night, topping the Chicago Bulls 107-93 at the Q. James was on his game, and was aggressive against the smaller Chicago squad all night long. He ended the night with 41 points, this despite playing on a sore ankle after hurting it in the second quarter. He also had 9 rebounds, 6 assists, and was 15-for-16 from the line.

Delonte West had 16 points, and Zydrunas Illgauskas added 15 points and 10 boards. Ben Wallace was scoreless for the second straight game, but that was just fine, as he punished the Bulls all night with his hard play and ended with a game high 14 rebounds, 8 defensive and 6 offensive, keeping plays alive for the Cavs, who move to 3-2 with the win.

Chicago has a nice young team, but they really lack size, and the Cavs used that to their advantage all night. It was amazing to watch youngsters like first pick of the draft Derrick Rose of the Bulls get schooled time and time again by the “take it to the hole” play of James and his teammates. The Cavs shot 33 free throws, getting to the line even when they didn’t hit shots.

Rose is going to be a solid player in this league, as the rookie had 20 points and seven assists. Off the bench for the Bulls Ben Gordon, who was the talk of being moved this off season, had 31 points to lead Chicago, who falls to 2-3. The Cavs had 44 points in the paint, to just 24 for Chicago, and 23 fast break points and 13 second half points.

With the amount of depth for the Cavs, it’s easy to see why Mike Brown does like to go to the bench quite a bit, and Wednesday night he used mostly three players – Anderson Varejao, Wally Szczerbiak and Daniel Gibson. Those three players quietly combined for 18 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists.

The Cavs will get a day off on Thursday then come back to the court on Friday to host the Indiana Pacers at 7:30pm.

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