CHICAGO: The Chicago Bulls are still alive. So, too, are the Toronto Raptors for the top spot in the East.
The Cavaliers will have to wait at least another day before celebrating homecourt advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs.
J.R. Smith and Matthew Dellavedova each air-balled a potential game-winning 3-pointer in the final seconds and the Cavs lost to the Chicago Bulls on Saturday 105-102 following a furious rally.
Smith caught an inbounds pass with a little more than a second left and turned and fired, but missed everything. Previously, Smith made a free throw to pull the Cavs within 104-102 with 8.4 seconds left and appeared to intentionally miss the second.
Smith grabbed the rebound off his own miss and flipped to Kevin Love, who found a wide-open Dellavedova behind the line. But Dellavedova missed the shot and Smith tried saving it, but couldn’t as the ball trickled out of bounds to return possession to the Bulls.
The sequence capped a furious rally after the Cavs trailed 102-93 with 1:42 left. Kyrie Irving committed four turnovers in the fourth quarter and the Cavs went cold. LeBron James scored 33 points and grabbed seven rebounds, but failed in ending the Bulls’ season for the fifth time in the last seven years.
James has eliminated the Bulls from the postseason in four of the last six seasons and had a chance to eliminate them from postseason contention Saturday, but the Cavs fizzled in the fourth. Now their next chance to clinch homecourt advantage throughout the Eastern Conference will come Sunday night when the Raptors play at the New York Knicks. The Cavs need a Raptors loss to clinch.
The Cavs missed their first nine shots of the fourth quarter and turned the ball over five times before they made their first shot — a 3-pointer by Dellavedova with 3:39 remaining. By then the Bulls had a double-digit lead after the Cavs led 82-79 to start the fourth.
Their first points of the fourth came on two free throws by Timofey Mozgov with 10:47 left, then they missed their next seven shots and didn’t score again until James split two free throws with 4:54 to play.
A 3-pointer by Love pulled the Cavs within 104-99 in the final minute. Love had 20 points and 13 rebounds.
The Cavs began the fourth with a lineup of Irving, Matthew Dellavedova, Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye and Timofey Mozgov. The Bulls pressured Irving in an effort to get the ball out of his hands, forcing a turnover that led to a pair of free throws by Justin Holiday and an 86-84 lead early in the fourth.
It was one of a number of problems for Irving, who had 11 points and eight assists and didn’t commit a turnover until the fourth.
The Cavs led by double figures at four different points in the third quarter, the latest a 76-66 lead on a 3-pointer by Smith with 3:26 left. But the Cavs pulled most of their starters to start the fourth and the game unraveled.
History awaits
With the Warriors closing in on the Chicago Bulls’ historic 72-10 record, James said a 73-win season by the Warriors should they get there won’t diminish the terrific run of the Bulls.
“Records are meant to be broken. That doesn’t mean your record that’s broken anyone is looking less of you. You have rushing records that are broken, you have home-run records that are broken. You have 100-yard dash [times] that are broken. You have all types of records that are broken, but no one ever looks down upon the record that is broken.
“You actually praise it even more. You look back at it like, ‘Wow, they really did that?’ So, having Golden State in a position where if they win three in a row they can break that record, I think it’s pretty cool.”
James’ best regular season finish was 66-16, but that Cavs team failed to even make the Finals.
“That was a really good season for us that year,” James said. “I don’t know if I’ve been on a team that kind of said, ‘Let’s go for the record.’ You just kind of let it happen and see what happens and I was, I guess, six games away from tying it.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs.