Bernstein: This Bulls-Cavs Series Is Drunk
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) Awful basketball can be awfully entertaining sometimes, which is what that was Sunday and has been in general between these Bulls and Cavaliers.
Half of the meaningful players seem to be either missing or hobbling, far more than half of the shots are caroming off rims and bouncing over the backboard, officiating is haphazard both ways and the teams seem to take turns disappearing for long stretches.
And still, enough star power and drama are there for it to all be big and fun.
The 86-84 setback in Game 4 was a painful loss for the Bulls, who had every opportunity to step on the Cavaliers' neck. Twice Cleveland coach David Blatt found ways to try to hand control of the series to his opponent: first by nearly calling a timeout he didn't have, which would have given the Bulls a go-ahead free throw, then by drawing up a final play for someone other than one of the best basketball players of all time.
But Tyronn Lue grabbed Blatt before officials could see his request, and then LeBron James overruled his bumbling coach, demanding the ball. Like Jimmy Chitwood did on the big screen and Michael Jordan once did against this very same franchise in real life, he came through. And instead of staring into the abyss, the Cavs are on the solid ground of a best-of-three with two games at home.
Blatt should have been left at the airport, fired by James before his astonishing incompetence costs them anything further. That James so casually offered details of his emasculating veto is sufficient evidence that they are better off without Blatt than with him at this point, letting Lue act as James's bench proxy.
Too often in this series, the action moves spastically up and down and around the floor, and we wonder just what the hell is going on out there with any of it. These games are drunk.
Kevin Love is out, Pau Gasol is still questionable for Game 5, Kyrie Irving can't move due to an injured foot, Iman Shumpert is slowed by a groin strain, something is up with Taj Gibson's knee, Joakim Noah has one good leg and James now has an ankle sprain to deal with as he confronts the constant physical pressure from the indefatigable Jimmy Butler.
Derrick Rose has been good except when he's been bad, which pretty much sums up everybody else, too. James stands and jab-steps while his teammates stare at him, the red-faced Timofey Mozgov fouls and flails and yells, Noah throws the ball toward the hoop like a grenade and Irving minces around in pain. Some of the connected sequences so far seem to make no basketball sense.
And still we end up where we've been, on the edge of our seats and out of breath.
Good luck figuring out what this is, this second-round series between what is left of two good teams. An all-time great battles a former MVP trying in each possession to feel out what he still can do, the lineups and rotations around them changing by the minute. One coach is probably soon out of a job because his bosses don't like him or his methods, the other because he's an idiot.
It's all here, now, though, whatever. Awfully unpredictable, too.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. Follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.
