Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
Coming off of a controversial loss Tuesday night, the Bulls entered Cleveland with a vengence, the guys played hard all night and started off fast paced leading in the first quarter 27-11. The Cavaliers have a history of struggling to bounce back in a game after big early leads. Since we are talking history right now; historically the Bulls have powned the Cavaliers winning the last 10 regular season meetings in a row. It’s really fun watching the men in the middle Joakim Noah and Anderson Varejao go at it in these match ups. These guys are truly two of a kind from their styles of play, to hairstyles, and how much heart and energy they supply their teammates to feed off of.
OFFENSIVE GAME BALL: Anderson Varejao – 11 Pts, 15 Reb, 3 Ast, 3 Stl
Tonight I am giving the offensive game ball to none other than The wild boy of the Cavaliers, and possibly Joakim’s long lost brother: Anderson Varejao. Andy has been keeping the Cavs alive all season. Despite their terrible record at 3-15 , Coach Byron Scott is very proud of this guy and always compliments his play after every game. Tonight Verejao has stuck it to Jo all night, he put was 4-16 from the field, 3-4 from the line. He grabbed up 15 rebounds, handled three assists; 3 points were scored off of those assists. Andy also managed 3 steals and scored 11 points himself. All while battling Joakim all night.
DEFENSIVE GAME BALL: Joakim Noah – 13 Pts, 15 Reb, 5 Ast, 1 Stl, 2 Blk
The defensive game ball belongs to our very own wild boy and my personal favorite bunhead of the century: Joakim Noah. Noah went to work in his all time favorite city tonight (I am saying that with as much sarcasm as possible). Joakim put up double double figures, 13 points and he scooped up 15 rebounds. He does that so nonchalantly, like he does it all the time. Well this season that is something he is very consistent of night after night Noah pours his heart and all of his energy on the court, providing on the offensive end and he is never shy when it comes to providing us that heavily preached Thibs zone defense that we all love and opponents fear. Joakim thrives off of negative energy, we all know the citizens of Cleveland aren’t exactly cool with Jono so he put on a spectacular defensive and overall performance tonight.
OVERALL GAME BALL: Marco Belinelli – 23 pts, 1 stl, 3 reb
Tonight’s overall game ball goes to the Italian Stallion Marco Belinelli. Marco made his second consecutive start in a Bulls uniform tonight and he certainly did not disappoint. Last night’s performance against the Pacers was an absolute slop fest he could not find his groove, to be fair the entire team and the Pacers played very sloppy basketball the entire game. Marco made up for lost times tonight; in his 150th career start he proved to us all that he deserves to start more often. Belinelli scored 23 points, he was 7-15 in the field, 2-8 from behind the arc, almost perfect at the line knocking down 7 out of 8, and not to mention his three rebounds and one steal. Marco was a great offseason pick up for the Bulls, we desperately needed another solid shooting guard, coming off the bench Marco lacks execution; but tonight starting his second night in a row he really provided a solid yet clutch performance, he was our top scorer tonight. I think if Belinelli really gets into the groove of starting he will have no problems finding his spark off the bench as well.