UMFan83

I don't hate the guy, but there's no excuse for losing this series. And there's really no excuse to get blown out by a team without Irving for three quarters and with LeBron off for most of the night. I won't miss his stubbornness. Hopefully Hoiberg can at least coach a little bit of offense. Pretty sure the Hoiberg thing has lost almost all steam. So is there a current favorite? Also any chance we trade Thibs and get a pick? Thibs record as a coach is outstanding and there was talk of New Orleans having interest in trading a draft pick for him. The biggest frustration about last nights game for me was in the 3rd Lebron had 4 fouls, why didnt they try to force him to foul out. Are you serious? LeBron got his 2nd foul (I believe) early in the 2nd quarter and proceeded to be untouchable for the rest of the quarter. There were 3-4 times I thought LeBron could have gotten a foul called on him, 2 obvious ones and none were called. The Cavs were so unconcerned about LeBron being in foul trouble that when he received his 4th foul midway through the 3rd, Blatt kept him in the game and he proceeded to play the majority of the remaining minutes. LeBron is not going to foul out or even pick up a 5th foul too early in a playoff game. I don't necessarily think refs are trying to not call fouls on him on purpose, but you can be damn sure officials are always aware of how many fouls he has in the game. No one wants to be the ref that forces LeBron to sit from foul trouble and swing a playoff game in the opponents favor and be all over ESPN the next day. /tin foil hat

I don't hate the guy, but there's no excuse for losing this series. And there's really no excuse to get blown out by a team without Irving for three quarters and with LeBron off for most of the night. I won't miss his stubbornness. Hopefully Hoiberg can at least coach a little bit of offense. Wait...Every piece of garbage on the Cleveland roster could have hoisted the ball behind their backs from thirty feet with their eyes closed last night and the ball would have swished through the net and Thibs should be fired for losing that game? I get that they lost to a team that basically had no star power on the floor last night, but everything they threw up there in the second half miraculously went in. It is what it is. Tip your cap and move on. I think the concern is that the Cavs only scored 94 points last night and the Bulls couldnt finish within 20 points of them.

2 of your significant decisions listed are not decisions at all. They've already been made. Thibs won't be back and Jimmy will.

Yup. He might trade solid players for pennies on the dollar to stay under the tax to keep Butler but he will definitely resign him.

Hinrich with 0 points, 0 rebs, 0 assts and a -29 in 20 min.

I remember when Thibs teams guarded the 3 point line really well. Granted the Cavs are inexplicably hitting some tough shots but they are getting a lot of open looks. Just let LeBron get his points and stop throwing help at him. He always finds the open shooter. You have one of the best defenders in the league guarding him. Let him go 1-on-1 and he will get his 30-35 points but won't be able to find their many shooters open Also maybe GarPax will take this as a lesson that they need to surround their stars with shooters. Ok Niko didn't work out (in terms of 3 point shooting), Thibs refused to play Doug/he wasn't ready. But damn you have Dunleavy and then who? Maybe Butler and maybe Brooks. Look at the Cavs. They get James Jones and Mike Miller on minimum deals, and manage to get Shumpert and JR Smith in season, while the Bulls struggled to get any spacing with Dunleavy injured a long chunk of the season, killing the offense with opponents clogging the lane

Are we the only ones seeing this [expletive]? I just have never seen reffing this bad. God I hate bitching about the refs but I mean seriously

God this sucks

it must be nice to be Lebron. When he gets 2 fouls he actually gets more aggressive because he knows he's not going to get another one called on him unless he's really obvious.

Starting to melt down. Win or lose I can't wait for this series to be over im sick of seeing what seems like 75% of their 3s swish in

Good I'm having a hard time not sounding like a homer and ripping the refs. It's obvious they don't want LeBron to have his 3rd foul

That was the greatest week ever. The week before was the first time the Cubs had shown some semblance of vulnerability (lead got down to 1 game going into that series I believe) and they just came out and blew Milwaukee to kingdom come. Lead actually got down to 0. And on the Sunday they were tied, the day before that fateful Brewers series, they fell behind 5-0 against Florida, while at the same time the Brewers were up 4-1. The Cubs ended up coming back and winning 9-6, the Brewers gave up a 7 spot in the 5th inning against the Astros and lost their game and instead of being down a game with no momentum going into the series, they were up a game and proceeded to sweep and have a 5 game lead, never to be relinquished again.

Yeah I was trying to be level headed for the most part and saying the right things. It's a young team, several players adjusting to the majors, tough schedule, bullpen injuries, etc. There will be ups and downs but as long as the Cubs are improving steadily over the course of the season, we are in good shape.

Yep, they almost had that last year, but instead got LA-NY. If I remember correctly that didn't get good ratings. Average rating of SCF since NBC took over: 2006 (CAR-EDM) 1.8 2007 (ANA-OTT) 1.2 2008 (DET-PIT) 2.6 2009 (DET-PIT) 3.1 2010 (CHI-PHI) 3.4 2011 (BOS-VAN) 2.7 2012 (LA-NJ) 1.8 2013 (CHI-BOS) 3.3 2014 (LA-NYR) 2.8 The NHL has really lucked out by getting its best US markets in the finals consistently over the last several years. I think teams like DET, NYR, PIT, PHI, BOS, WAS, MTL, TOR, CHI give the NHL a sizable ratings boost. Putting 2 together is great. Teams like LA, SJ, VAN, STL give them a moderate boost, and the rest of the teams hurt the ratings. If my theory is true, 10 of the last 14 SCF teams fall in the big boost category, and 3 of the other 4 in the moderate category.

Yes but does that mean he's the best player or does that mean LeBron was half assing it through the regular season after playing 16 playoff series over the last 4 years? The playoff numbers would suggest the former, but gun to my head I think LeBron is still better, but its close. A lot of people don't realize just how great Davis's season was.

You really think somebody else is going to be better than LeBron before he hangs it up? Yes. In about 1.5 seasons he will have played more minutes (regular and playoffs) than Michael Jordan. In about 3 seasons he will have played as many minutes as Kobe if he never plays another minute. He will slow down at some point...in fact he already has. He can still put up peak LeBron performances, but not at the rate he has in the past. If you look at his advanced stats in the playoffs his numbers are lower than they have been in pretty much his entire career.

where did he say the bulls were done up 2-1? I ask because there were no B+B shows in between games 3 and 4.

At least Pau is playing tomorrow

And you guys were worried about this series

God dammit Soler. Sucks because you know those breaking pitches are coming. He might be the worst Cub you want to see up in that situation

Come on Soler

This Harvey fella is good at the baseball

After next year we lose Noah's 13.4m and Hinrich's 2.9m (im assuming hes picking up his players option) but will have added $13m from Jimmy going from ~2.1m to 15m a year (I cant remember if thats the max number). So really only 3m saved, possibly more if Pau doesn't exercise his PO after next year, and possibly less if they spend more money to replace guys like Dunleavy. The key though is the fact that the cap will explode over next year so the Bulls can probably get whoever they want if they can outsell 29 other teams.

[tweet] [/tweet] That's 2 pm CT

Ugh, no, please no. This team is (or should be) too good for 'well, it takes a little of the sting away' or 'what a great series'. This team had a trip to the Finals in their sights and barring 2 straight wins over LeBron (which we've never done in the playoffs), they let it slip away. There's nothing that takes the sting away from that. LeBron is 15-2 in his last 17 playoff series dating back to the 2010 ECF. Beating LeBron is a tremendous accomplishment similar to beating Jordan in the 90s where he went 25-1 in his last 26 playoff series (Jesus that looks sexy typing out). Obviously its a disappointment if we lose the series, we all hope the Bulls can win a championship and I think most at least think we have an outside shot, but its been a great series and 4 of the 5 games so far could have gone either way. This is definitely not the last run for this team...if anything I think they will be better once Niko steps up and we make some moves to improve the role players on this team. LeBron will be 31 next year and has a ton of miles on his legs. I don't care how much of a physical specimen he is, he will wear down sooner than later. The future is bright.