Bulls sweep season series vs. Cavs, run TNT home winning streak to 20
On the one hand, the Cleveland Cavaliers' loss to the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night deepened their increasingly disconcerting rut. On the other hand, there wasn't much they could've done; they were, after all, up against an unstoppable force.
That unstoppable force is the Bulls, on their home floor, in a TNT game. Thursday marked their 20th straight regular-season win in games played at United Center and broadcast on TNT. That's just nutty, especially considering the Bulls have basically been a .500 team the past two seasons.
But this version of the Bulls lives to confound, and little about how they perform in various situations makes any sense. Despite still being outside the Eastern Conference playoff picture at 36-39, they just completed a four-game season sweep of the defending champs. They're now 7-1 against the Cavs since the start of the 2015-16 season, and 70-79 against all other teams. Before blowing a 15-point lead in the final six minutes in Toronto last week, they'd won 11 straight games over the Raptors. Whatever these Bulls do, be assured it's going to be weird as hell.
It really didn't look like it was going to be their night in the first half Thursday, either. The Cavs' defense showed up, LeBron James was everywhere, and the Bulls found themselves in a nine-point hole at halftime. But Cleveland came out completely flat in the third quarter, and the Bulls slowly took over. Jimmy Butler sliced and diced, Nikola Mirotic started raining threes, the Bulls vacuumed up offensive rebounds, and the Cavs couldn't buy a jumper. By quarter's end, the Bulls had turned their halftime deficit into a seven-point lead, and they never trailed again.
It was a huge win for Chicago, which kept itself in the mix for the East's 8-seed, just a game back of the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat. It was another dispiriting outing for the Cavs, who've now dropped three straight and 11 of their last 18. The loss dropped them back into the No. 2 seed in the East, after they'd pulled back ahead of the Boston Celtics on percentage points by virtue of remaining idle Wednesday night.
The Cavs are now 6-10 in March, with one last game to play in this dreadful month. Only once before had a LeBron James team finished a month with double-digit losses. It was November of 2003, the first full month of his career.