NBA Playoffs: Chicago Bulls Put Down Cavs, LeBron James In Game 1
NBA Playoffs continued Monday night (May 4), as the Chicago Bulls beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1. The 2015 NBA Playoffs have presented a very competitive series for fans to watch in the Eastern Conference, with the No. 2 seeded Cavaliers going up against the No. 3 seeded Bulls. With an impressive 99-92 victory in Game 1, Bulls point guard Derrick Rose has a leg up on former MVP LeBron James of the Cavaliers. Coming into the NBA Playoffs, many analysts wanted to see Rose and his Bulls playing against James and his Cavaliers.
Rose hit on 11 of 26 shots from the field, finishing with 25 points and five assists. Pau Gasol had 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Jimmy Butler scored 20 points as the starting shooting guard. As a team, the Bulls hit on 50 percent of their shots from the field, including 55.6 percent from three-point range. That shooting accuracy was a big reason that the team was able to steal Game 1 in Cleveland.
As for the Cavaliers, the team struggled on defense but also couldn’t come up with enough big shots when the game was on the line. LeBron James was just 9 of 22 from the field, but he nearly had a triple-double with 19 points, 15 rebounds, and nine assists to his credit. Kyrie Irving had 30 points and Iman Shumpert scored 22 points, but outside of those three players, the rest of the team had just 21 points total.
It was previously reported on the Inquisitr that Kevin Love injured his shoulder in a first-round series against the Boston Celtics. He will likely miss the rest of the 2015 NBA Playoffs trying to recover from it, taking away a huge player on the offensive end for the Cavaliers. It also removes one of their best defensive rebounders, increasing the pressure on James and Irving to perform every night. Missing Love has already been blamed for why the team couldn’t pull out a Game 1 victory at home.
Game 2 in the Chicago Bulls vs. Cleveland Cavaliers series is set to take place on Wednesday (May 6). Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET on TNT, and both teams are going to come at it with a different kind of hunger. The Bulls would love to head back to Chicago up 2-0, even though they have already stolen home court advantage from the Cavs. For the Cavaliers, this has become must-win territory, as they cannot go to Chicago trailing by two games in the series.
The NBA Playoffs continue to be flush with great storylines, and the Chicago Bulls stealing Game 1 of this second-round series will have the analysts talking for a few days. Now even more attention will be paid to this series as Derrick Rose and LeBron James try to will their respective teams into the Eastern Conference Finals.
[Image Source: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images]
