The first game of this series didn't go how the Cleveland Cavaliers were hoping it would. Their star player wasn't the guy they needed him to be. Their other star had a great game but wasn't able to keep them within striking distance. The Chicago Bulls ate them alive with a bigger lineup and the spare parts of Cleveland just didn't have the same punch as the injured big man with his arm in a sling. All of a sudden, the Bulls controlled the series and the Cavs were supposed to be scrambling.
In Game 2, we saw a different LeBron James and we saw a different supporting cast for the Cavaliers. They went with the bigger lineup and ended up beating the Bulls on the offensive and defensive glass. They shredded the Bulls' defense with 12 3-pointers as a team. They took care of the ball and ended up cruising to a 106-91 victory after their impressive 38-18 first quarter. They still don't have home court advantage in this series anymore, but they looked like a team that is working toward snatching it back.
Here's what we learned from Cavaliers-Bulls Game 2.
1. THIS IS THE LEBRON JAMES WE NEEDED TO SEE
Following Game 1 of this series, in which the Bulls seemed to control all aspects of the game not named Kyrie Irving, LeBron James told reporters he didn't have a good game and needed to be better. It was true. Even though he accumulated a pretty good stat line, we all know LeBron is capable of doing that in good games and bad games because of how much he does. However, his aggressiveness just wasn't there and he took too many jumpers and too few free-throw attempts. That wasn't going to fly in Game 2 if the Cavs wanted to avoid going down 0-2 heading back to Chicago.
The LeBron we saw in Game 2 was the exact LeBron everybody was saying would need to show up for the Cavs to salvage a split. From the start of the game, James attacked the Bulls' defense and made them look like a drill involving orange cones. He kept getting to the basket. He collapsed the defense and kicked out to Iman Shumpert for big consequences to the Bulls helping off LeBron's teammates. LeBron was a bully against Jimmy Butler and Mike Dunleavy, almost daring them to match his strength and quickness.
He finished with 33 points (on 13-of-29 shooting and 7 for 9 from the line), eight rebounds, five assists and two steals. He was a plus-31 with him on the court, as he dominated a Bulls team that didn't bring the proper energy to put the Cavs in a huge hole. He'll need to keep playing that way though the rest of the series.
2. SHOULD THE BULLS BE CONTENT WITH GETTING THEIR SPLIT IN CLEVELAND?
After a great Game 1 victory, the Bulls being perfectly content with going back to the United Center with a split in Cleveland is fine. The goal is obviously to win both games, but if you take that first game from the home team, then you've accomplished putting all the pressure on your opponent for the next two games. However, you want to provide more resistance than what the Bulls gave to the Cavs in Game 2 because it just didn't look like they had a huge desire to grab both games in Cleveland. This can be a normal thing in basketball, but you want to see them put up a better fight.
Jimmy Butler had a nightmare of a game trying to contain LeBron, and while he ended up with 18 points in the contest, he had a really bad game overall. Derrick Rose showed his inconsistency on offense once again as he made only 6 of 20 from the field. His 10 assists was a nice buffer for the bad shooting, but that ultimately ended up being useless because the Bulls struggled so much as a first unit. Pau Gasol took as many shots in Game 2 as he made uncontested attempts (eight) in Game 1. The effort just wasn't there and while the Bulls have still put pressure on the Cavs to regain control of the series in Chicago, they didn't show any control of their own when it comes to the second round.
3. HOW DO THINGS CHANGE WITH J.R. SMITH COMING BACK?
The Cavaliers decided to go with a much bigger lineup to start out Game 2 and it worked. Tristan Thompson was a monster on the boards (12 rebounds, six offensive) and he did a great job of sticking with Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol on the court. Iman Shumpert and James Jones had big games shooting the ball to help fill the role of J.R. Smith and Kevin Love for stretching the floor to give the Cavs proper spacing and counterpunches when the Bulls tried to take away the middle.
Game 3 will see the end of Smith's suspension for his hit on Jae Crowder. Now we get to see how David Blatt implements him into the lineup. He'll clearly be starting, but do the Cavs keep the big starting lineup and move Shumpert to the bench? Do the Cavs try out the smaller lineup to begin by starting LeBron at the 4, Shumpert at the 3, and Smith at the 2 while bringing Thompson off the bench to feast against second units? Assuming Shumpert's injured groin doesn't become a problem, the Cavs now have a lot of different looks and options to throw at the Bulls and see how they adjust.
Game 3 will be Friday in Chicago with the Bulls trying to regain control of this series after getting a 1-1 split.
SERIES SCHEDULE, RESULTS
Game 1 -- Mon May 4
Chicago 99, Cleveland 92
Game 2 -- Wed May 6
Cleveland 106, Chicago 91 -- Series tied at 1-1
Game 3 -- Fri May 8
Cleveland at Chicago, 8 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Game 4 -- Sun May 10
Cleveland at Chicago, 3:30 p.m. ET (ABC)
Game 5 -- Tue May 12
Chicago at Cleveland, 7 p.m. ET (TNT)
Game 6 * Thu May 14
Cleveland at Chicago TBD
Game 7 * Sun May 17
Chicago at Cleveland TBD
