I'm temporarily turning this into a Chicago Bulls blog - Game 1 Bulls Win

At least until the end of the playoffs. This is also the only time of the year I will be analyzing winning rather than losing.

The Bulls won 99-92 to take a 1 game advantage in the series. They won the rebounding battle (albeit only slightly), and shot 50% from the field. They were ridiculous from three, making 56% of their shots, but were horrible from the line (56%). They held the Cavs to 42% shooting and only 27% from three. Kyrie had 30, and LeBron almost had a triple double, but overall it was a good defensive effort. They had a couple great runs, one a 15-0 run in the third quarter, like this contested Derrick Rose three pointer. It's great that he's hitting his threes, but he's got to attack more.

The Bulls looked pretty good in game 1. They played very well for a few stretches, but also played very poor defense for a couple stretches. Now, I understand that when you're playing against LeBron and Irving, that they'll have stretches where they take over the game, so the important thing is to weather the storm and pile on the points when you get a chance. Basically, clean basketball. No stupid mistakes. And taking advantage of all of your scoring chances. There will also inevitably be bad calls. Again, weather the storm and keep doing what you've been doing. And especially, no live ball turnovers. LeBron kills when there are live ball turnovers. I think in this game, there were only a handful. Luckily, the Bulls only committed 10 turnovers, after averaging 17 turnovers against the Bucks. Here's Thibs getting overly excited about a call.

They had great success with Pau Gasol on the pick-and-roll, and the Cavs didn't do anything to adjust to it. So he had about 10 wide open shots from the top of the key. When he's making that shot, you have to show rather than trap the ball handler. Good on him. He's a pretty consistent shooter from that location. I say, keep giving it to him if the Cavs won't show. Mozgov is uncomfortable when outside of the key, so keep doing it. Here's Gasol taking one of his many open shots.

Iman Shumpert had a big game in the absence of Earl Smith, Jr. He will have to play well again in game 2 for the Cavs, as Smith is out again for the second game. He was a good third option, but the rest of the Cavs, other than LeBron and Irving, didn't play too well. Mozgov had his moments. Actually, LeBron didn't play that well either. He had a lot of turnovers and ended up settling for a few jumpshots towards the end of the game. Keep him out of the paint, and make him hit his shots. If he makes 10 threes and he beats you that way, so be it. I thought Mozgov played really well while he was in, but for some reason Blatt didn't play him much in the second half. Again, the bench played quite poorly. They scored a total of 9 points (and if you include Mike Miller, those 5 players scored 5 points). Here's LeBron, not looking so happy.

Mike Dunleavy played extremely well in the first half. And the fact that he was on the floor in the second half made the Cavs have second thoughts about doubling off of him. Joakim Noah didn't score a single point. He had a couple chances, but missed. Again, you don't need him to score, but you need him to defend and pass well. He had some really good, crisp passes, and played pretty good defense. Though, when you're asking him to check a three point shooter, it's a little tougher for him to have an impact in the paint, where he makes the strongest impact. Derrick Rose appeared to have hurt his shoulder towards the end of the game. We'll see what happens. Hopefully it's just a stinger. But we'll see. He did play quite well though, at least offensively. Defensively he's always been meh. Here's Derrick taking it to the rim, as he's done so successfully in the past. He's gotta keep doing this.

Jimmy Butler played very good defense on LeBron. You might think that this is ludacris since he had almost a triple double. But when playing the Cavs, if you can contain LeBron somewhat (you can never stop him), you give yourself a chance. But he was forced into a bunch of bad turnovers. Incredibly, he also had 4 fouls, which is very out of character. He had some good drives, as expected. He'll probably tighten up his game for Game 2. Now, when this happens, you'll have to try to contain the rest of the Cavs. Again, if LeBron or Kyrie are not "on", who's going to score? This time it was Shumpert. But what about the next game? Do you trust Mozgov? I think by default it has to be Shumpert. Mike Miller should not be starting. James Jones should not be playing. Shawn Marion had a cameo, but he also should not be starting. That's what happens when you're shorthanded. Until JR comes back, they'll have to make due. Tristan Thompson did play quite well, though. And Kyrie had his way in the paint. Interestingly, LeBron didn't play much defense, as he usually didn't guard a Bulls offensive threat. This will probably change in Game 2. You gotta keep making him work on defense now. Here's a picture of a 50-50 ball. You gotta get to as many of these as possible.

So for Game 2 on Wednesday, the keys are to make sure that Irving or LeBron are put into positions where they are more apt to make mistakes. They'll get theirs in points, so you'll have to exploit them whenever possible. If the Cavs still don't show on Gasol, keep giving him 18-foot jumpers. And make sure that someone else doesn't step up, whoever it is. Try to limit Shumpert. Make sure Mozgov doesn't make a huge impact. And try to keep Thompson off of the glass. Maybe we'll have a Perkins sighting. And keep going down low, where you have a size advantage. Try to exploit their lack of size, and try to win the rebounding battle again. Here's a Game 1 Twitter wordmap produced by the blog LVantData. Please read that other blog as well, since there's good stuff there.

This series is going to be extremely exciting, so watch with great interest. I'll write about each game right afterwards, like this, so you can all keep up to date. On Tuesday, the Blackhawks try to go 3-0 against the Wild in their second round series. So it's an exciting time for Chicago sports. #SeeRed!!!