The Cleveland Cavaliers bounced back from their first loss of the season last Saturday at the hands of the Orlando Magic by taking down the Chicago Bulls Tuesday night, 119-112.
It was a win too close for comfort for the Cavs, however, as they had a relatively difficult time against a Bulls team fraught with internal and on-court troubles.
Despite the win, head coach Tyronn Lue talked to reporters, including Nikki Goel of ClutchPoints, following the game and expressed his disappointment over a pair of issues the Cavs had against Orlando and failed to address versus the Bulls.
Just like in the Orlando game, the Cavs trailed by a big margin in the opening quarter. Against the Bulls, Cleveland was behind 38-28, at the end of the first quarter and only started to take control of the game in the second half. Adding to Lue’s frustration was the Cavs getting torched from deep, as the Bulls drained 17 threes after the Magic knocked down the same number of threes against them.
The Cavaliers entered the game second worst in the league with 13.3 3-pointers allowed per game and left with an even worse figure.
Apart from the win, Tyronn Lue found a silver lining with how his bench responded and rescued the Cavs. Led by Jeff Green, the Cavs’ second unit outscored the Bulls’ relievers, 46-34. Green had 16 points, while Dwyane Wade and Kyle Korver each had 11 markers.
LeBron James spearheaded the Cavaliers as usual with 34 points to go with 13 dimes.
The Cavs will look to build another win streak Wednesday in Brooklyn.