The Cleveland Cavaliers lost 104-88 to the Chicago Bulls Monday afternoon
This may be the absolute lowest point of the season for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Cleveland lost by double-digits to a Chicago Bulls team that previously lost 10 straight games. The other notable streak Chicago broke Monday was this was their first win leading from start to finish. Cleveland’s ineptitude on offense allowed Chicago to finally break the streak of not leading wire-to-wire.
Speaking of the Cavaliers ineptitude on offense the team struggled to shoot the ball all game long. Cleveland converted 35.6 percent of their attempts from the field. Shooting from three-point range was not much kinder, the team only made 22.2 percent of their shots from deep. Chicago managed to successfully make 47.4 and 50 percent of their shots respectively. This speaks more about Cleveland’s poor defense rather than Chicago’s offense. Chicago has the fifth-worst field percentage and ranks 16th overall in three-point shooting. The Bulls are not exactly an offensive juggernaut and the Cavaliers made them look like just that.
Cleveland was without Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson for the contest. Even if the Cavaliers had their full lineup it is not out of the question to think they would probably still end up on the wrong side of things. This roster is far from good and is quite limited offensively.
Why is this the Cavaliers lowest point?
The Chicago Bulls are not a good team. Like Cleveland, Chicago is in “Tank for Zion” mode. A team that is also tanking for the chance to have the number one pick in the draft should not be able to win a game by this margin. Cleveland does not have a lot of games that can be considered winnable, this was one of them and they lost quite definitively.
A better fight was expected from the Cavaliers, but the game was over just as soon as it started. It took over four minutes for the team to score their first points of the game. Rodney Hood, Alec Burks and Matthew Dellavedova combined to go 3-21 from the field, each making only one basket. Hood, Dellavedova and Jordan Clarkson went a combined 0-10 from three-point range.
Just an overall poor effort offensively and defensively led to an all too predictable Cavaliers loss. Their performance was their worst of the season by far. To play this poorly against a team just as bad as they are is troubling. Playing poorly against a good team is expected. Playing poorly against one of the worst teams in the league is unacceptable. Especially considering the Bulls acquired Carmelo Anthony after the game only to waive him shortly afterward. Chicago was used as a way for the Houston Rockets to get rid of Anthony, an honor reserved for the leagues worst teams.
The Cleveland Cavaliers lost to a team that was the instrument to get rid of a player another team wanted to rid themselves with. The loss was not by just a few points, but by quite a large margin. This has to be the lowest point of the season for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
