The Chicago Bulls outscored the Cleveland Cavaliers by 17 points in the 4th quarter as they lost their fourth straight road game.
This sounds a bit familiar doesn’t it? A collapse in the second half leading to the Cleveland Cavaliers losing a game on the road. This happened twice in a row in Los Angeles and the Cavs replicated the feat in Chicago Saturday.
Cleveland entered halftime with a 73-56 lead and things appeared to be in control. Even after the 3rd quarter the Cavs still led by 15. Chicago held Cleveland to only 14 points in the final quarter as the Bulls scored 31. Everything that went right for the Cavaliers in the first half went wrong in the second. Turnovers, poor shooting, and the Bulls making shots. While some players on the team may know how to win, the team on the whole does not.
Kevin Love, Collin Sexton, Darius Garland lead starters in first half, struggle in second
Kevin Love started out hot, but cooled off in the second half. 23 of Love’s 29 points came in the first half. Love went 10-20 shooting (4-8 3PT) and made all four free throw attempts. Love’s cold spell certainly led to the scoring drought that Cleveland experienced, but he is not the only one to blame.
Collin Sexton also started out hot and finished rather unspectacular. Sexton was taking and making shots and not forcing things in the first half. 17 of Sexton’s 26 points came in the first half. Like Love, his struggles did not help matters later in the game.
Darius Garland scored 13 of his 16 points in the first half, but the story with Garland is turnovers. Garland turned the ball over eight times in the game. This was twice as much as any other player on the Cavs. Garland did finish with five assists, but those eight turnovers are definitely concerning. This appears to be more of an outlier when looking at his performance in January (3.2 turnovers per game).
