As the saying goes, teamwork makes the dream work, and it's emblematic of the Cleveland Cavaliers stealing a 109-95 win on the road against the Chicago Bulls. How Cleveland snuck into Chicago and won without Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, Caris LeVert, Donovan Mitchell and Sam Merrill is impressive.
But it's the perfect example of how their team-first approach helped the Cavs beat the Bulls and form an identity they've been lacking all season long.
From start to finish, the Cavs overwhelmed Chicago with motion, relentlessness, effort and selflessness. Cleveland trusted each other, covered for the next man and never relented against the Bulls. Sure, having 28 assists on 39 field goals is nice, especially without Garland on the floor, but how they imposed their collective will truly stood out.
“Everybody's just sharing that ball,” Craig Porter Jr. said after the victory. “It makes our offense a lot better. Sometimes, when the ball gets stagnant on the offensive end, we kind of get lackluster, and sometimes, we take bad shots.
“But once we get that ball swinging and get each other open and stuff like that, almost anything's possible at that point,” Porter continued.” So that's been another big emphasis for us is to get each other open shots. We assisted on almost probably every basket we got. It's just fun to play that way.”
Cavs storm Chicago
Due to the constant ball movement on offense, the Cavs have made 47.1 percent of their shots over the last five contests.
“We know that with the group that we have, we've got to move it and we've got to create for one another, and the guys took it to heart,” Cleveland head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said.
“They want to do it together, and it's been impressive to watch them play a selfless game where it's not a matter of who gets the shot,” Bickerstaff continued. “They just give it to the right person and let the right person take the shot.”
While Cleveland is humming without a hitch on offense, many things still rely on defense, the core ethos of Bickerstaff as a coach. Over the last five games, the Cavs are carrying a defensive rating of 119.7, which is twentieth in the NBA. Sure, that's not the most impressive metric. But, Cleveland is allowing the least amount of second-chance scoring opportunities, carries the ninth-best interior defense and has allowed the tenth-least fast break points.
“Just grit,” Jarrett Allen added. “J.B. always talks about winning the scrap. That's one of his favorite lines from last year, and I feel like that's exactly what we're doing.”
Without Garland, Mitchell or Mobley, three of their best players, and unexpectedly losing LeVert and Merrill right before tipoff, the Cavs have banded together to show how much of a team game basketball really is. That is this squad's identity right now, and it's been fun for everybody, the fans, players and coaching staff included.
“Just coming together,” Max Strus said. “We're battling a lot of adversity right now with injuries. Guys step up and find ways to win.”
Cleveland showed what kind of team they can be when the pressure is at its highest, and when they eventually get healthier, it'll be something the Cavs can lean on. This win over the Bulls was paramount for the Cavs going forward and it gave them something that was stolen from them after the New York Knicks bounced them in the playoffs last season:
An identity.
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