On Wednesday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers played a complete game against the Chicago Bulls. Cleveland never trailed in this contest and routed the Bulls 121-105 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Cleveland led by as many as 33 points and was led by the backcourt of Collin Sexton and Darius Garland. Sexton had a game-high 30 points, and Garland had 25. The two combined for 55 points and 11 assists on Wednesday night.
Cleveland went into this game without their head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, who did not coach against the Bulls due to personal reasons. Assistant Greg Buckner stepped in for Bickerstaff on Wednesday night and got his first NBA win as a head coach.
These two teams last played on Saturday night in Chicago, where the Bulls defeated Cleveland 106-96. In that game, Chicago outscored Cleveland in the first and third quarters by 17 points.
According to Buckner, the team told him that they were going to play well against Chicago, and they did.
“Luckily for me, we played Chicago a couple of games ago that left a nasty taste in their mouth,” Buckner said. “They all came to me and said, ‘We got you today, coach. We’re not going to allow them to come on our court and take care of business,’ and that’s what they did, especially defensively in the first quarter. It may have been the best defense we played all year for an entire quarter.”
The first and third quarters have been an issue for Cleveland this season, but it was a different story on Wednesday night. Cleveland led by 22 points after the first quarter and outscored the Bulls by 10 in the third quarter.
“They proved that they can do it, both quarters,” Buckner said about the team playing well in the first and third quarters. “Normally, we’ll do one quarter or the other. so they proved they can do both quarters.”
Sexton was happy with the team’s ability to bounce back.
“It was a good one as a team to show that we can bounce back from the last Chicago game, where they pretty much got out on us and got a really good start,” he said. “It shows that we can play like that; we can move in the right direction.”
This was a good bounce-back win for Cleveland. The Cavaliers, who are now four games behind the Wizards for the 10th and final spot in the playoffs, begin a three-game road trip on Friday night against the Hornets. After Charlotte, Cleveland has the Wizards and Raptors. Two teams that are ahead of the Cavaliers in standings, so this a big stretch. We’ll see how they respond.
Notes:
-Lauri Markkanen led the Bulls with 16 points. Chicago was again without their leading scorer Zach LaVine, who missed his fourth game due to health and safety protocols.
-Earlier in the day, the Cavaliers announced that they had signed Mfiondu Kabengele to a second 10-day contract. Kabengele has played in three games with the Cavaliers after signing his first 10-day contract with the team on April 10.
-The team also announced that former first-round pick Dylan Windler underwent successful left knee surgery. According to the team, Windler will be out indefinitely.
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