Chicago Bulls vs. Cleveland Cavaliers: Instant Analysis of James vs. Wade

Here’s the instant reaction of the Chicago Bulls’ first meeting with the defending world champion Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night in Chicago.

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Thanks to the Chicago Cubs coming back from a 3-1 series deficit in the World Series last month, Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James had pay up on a bet with Chicago Bulls star Dwyane Wade.

The bet was that the loser of the World Series had to wear a full uniform of the winning team before the first meeting between the two future Hall of Famers on Dec. 2 in Chicago.

Well, the Cubs won in seven games and Wade won the bet that James paid in full on Friday night before tip-off.

As for the actual basketball game between the two division rivals, that actually happened after the fun.

First quarter

The pace between the two teams was frantic; something that favors the Cavaliers. The Bulls were able to score 30 points in the opening frame, but they gave up 33 points to the defending champions, including a trio of makes from 3-point range for the always entertaining J.R. Smith.

Scoring 30 points and controlling the paint offensively was a good look for the Bulls, but you can’t let the best team in your conference shoot 63.6 percent in an entire quarter. That’s a recipe for losing.

Second quarter

The Bulls won the second quarter, 29-27, and if it wasn’t for a late-quarter trip to the line for Kevin Love (who had a horrible first half with a 1-for-7 shooting performance), the home team would’ve taken the lead into the break.

Taj Gibson’s perfect shooting night continued (albeit, with a little help from a poor foul call on Love on a missed dunk) and he finished the first half with 18 points (!) on 8-of-8 shooting (!!), while the Jimmy Butler-Dwyane Wade duo chipped in with 21 first-half points.

Also, this happened in the half:

Rondo didn’t play well defensively in the half, but he was noticeably active on the offensive end, which was part of the reason the Bulls looked good offensively in the first half.

(That, and the Cavaliers looked really disinterested in protecting the rim whatsoever. 50 of 59 points the Bulls scored in the half came in the paint.)

During halftime, this guy showed up, too.

Third quarter

The Bulls flew quickly out of the gate with a 17-8 start in the first half of the third quarter. After Robin Lopez hit a hook shot over his left shoulder to make it 76-68 Bulls, it meant that all five Bull starters had reached double figures.

(At that point, the Bulls bench only had six points, which is … not great.)

What is great: Dwyane Wade hitting 3-pointers in LeBron James’ face.

With 2:57 left in the quarter, the Bulls had 60 of their 81 points in the paint (7 came at the free-throw line). They were also 2-of-12 at this point from 3-point range, but still led it, 81-73.

The last few minutes showed a bit of LeBron being LeBron, but the deficit was still 88-80, as the Bulls took an eight-point lead into the final frame.

Fourth quarter

You didn’t think the Bulls would just put the game away early in the fourth quarter, did you?

You didn’t? OK, good … because you would’ve been wrong if you did.

In the first four minutes of the quarter, James dominated the ball for Cleveland and the Cavaliers made a 9-4 push that forced Fred Hoiberg to take a timeout with 8:29 left.

(Disclaimer: Jimmy Butler wasn’t on the floor guarding LeBron James, hence the mini-surge from the Cavs.)

Over the next 4+ minutes or so, the game went back-and-forth. Every time it looked like the Bulls were going to pull away — like, when Rajon Rondo wrapped up his first triple-double as a Bull and then hit a 3 — James and the Cavs would answer and stay in the game.

But, the Bulls basically everything from their starters on Friday night. Everyone but Robin Lopez played some heavier minutes in the first of four games in five nights, but the Bulls worked for it down the stretch.

Things also got weird. Really weird.

How weird? This weird.

Yeah, Nikola Mirotic stole the ball from LeBron James in crunch time, and then had a big block on Kyrie Irving to force a shot-clock violation inside the last two minutes.

Stuff got weird, the Bulls made the plays they had to, and hung on for a 111-105 victory over the defending world champs.

Never ever question whether or not the Bulls can beat a LeBron James-led team on national television.