LeBron James left the floor early again. He didn’t have to explain himself this time.
James, accused of quitting on the Cavaliers by walking off the court too early in his previous game, scored 19 points and had a season-high 12 assists to help Cleveland dismantle the Bulls 113-94 on Thursday night.
Drew Gooden added 20 points in three quarters, Anderson Varejao had a career-high 15 and Sasha Pavlovic 16 points in a season-high 25 minutes for the Cavaliers, whose bench went 21-of-30 from the field and helped Cleveland bounce back from an overtime loss on Tuesday to the Atlanta Hawks.
Following that game, James took some heat for strolling toward the Cavs’ locker room while there were still about 10 seconds left. The Cavaliers were down by nine points at that point, but that didn’t seem to matter to critics who felt James should have played hard until the final horn.
Against the Bulls, James took a leisurely walk to Cleveland’s bench with 5:12 left. By then, the Cavs had built a 24-point lead and coach Mike Brown decided to give rookie Shannon Brown some playing time.
“We played well as a team,” James said. “We didn’t just get stagnant on offense like we did in the past. It was flowing like water.”
Cleveland shot 57 percent and led by as many as 18 in the first half and 24 overall. The NBA’s best rebounding team also outboarded the Bulls 47-30.
Kirk Hinrich had 20 points and 11 assists and Andre Nocioni 15 for the Bulls, who trailed by only 12 entering the fourth.
“They pretty much had their way with us,” Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. “They went right through our defense, and we couldn’t get anything going. We couldn’t stop any part of their lineup.”
“Everybody saw it,” Ben Wallace added. “We didn’t come out with enough energy. When you play like that, bad things happen.”
For those keeping score at home, that’s three lackadaisical performances and two blowout losses in five games for the Bulls, a disturbing trend for a team that relies so much on energy and effort.
“It’s more than disturbing,” Skiles said. “I don’t really have the word for it. When we’re ready, we’ve been a very good team. … But I didn’t feel like we were very competitive right from the beginning.”
The Cavaliers recorded assists on 38 of 45 field goals, a staggeringly high total that spoke to the ease with which they shredded the Bulls’ defense. “As much as we work on our defense, to be that bad in a game . . . isn’t right,” Skiles said.
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[ AP, TRIBUNE ]
