In a meeting of teams that began the week with the worst records in the NBA, the Bulls and Cavaliers faced off in which is being referred to as “The biggest tank battle since World War II”.
The NBA realized this was a must-see game, which is the reasoning behind slotting them in the highly coveted Noon tip-off on Monday. They wanted to make sure that all 37 people watching wouldn’t miss a single air-ball or ferocious display of defense.
The Bulls entered the game at 10-36 riding a juicy 10-game losing streak, while the Cavaliers, a much more experienced organization with tanking, respectively at 9-38. The first sign that the Cavaliers had an upper hand in this battle, well, lets just quickly take a look at the depth charts for the game.
The Cavaliers have clearly revolved the team around their star player, 2016 NBA champion and official “Chef Curry Stopper” Matthew Dellavedova. The reality is that they are one more major star like Zion away from having the complete roster, having the city of Cleveland trying to remember who that kid from Akron was again. The Bulls on paper look like they have a decent squad, maybe lower seed playoff potential at best. But with constant turmoil and inconsistent play, the organization is right back at the bottom tier of the league.
You hear about “must win” games a lot around sports, whether it be a rival, a game with serious playoff implications, etc. This game was certainly not one of those, in fact, one could argue that this was a “must lose”. However, we did not treat it as such and came out of the game with a convincing win 104-88.
As I stated before, the Cavaliers are pros at tanking a season. They did it pre-Lebron, post-LeBron, and now post-post-LeBron again. They realize who their main competition is in the league, and the Bulls are falling right into the trap. Chicago is currently 3-0 in the season series, with the 4th and final matchup of the year being played on January 27th. The players should think long and hard about the ramifications of their immature and thoughtless actions. I want them to be dreaming the night before, not pleasant and adventurous dreams, but rather it filled with Zion Williamson dragging his nuts all over Lauri and WCJ, and I want it with him in a Cavaliers uniform.
It really is a scary thought that we might allow the next Shaq-Kobe duo happen right in front of our eyes. Delly-Zion would take the league by storm and the organization to unparalleled heights. So once again, all that is being asked, is that we do not repeat last year, and fail at sucking and get the 7th pick of the draft. We need to lock in and focus on the big picture for this organization.
Instead of cueing the music for the #TankForZion campaign, I will leave you with a foreshadowing of what could be the entire fanbase after draft night getting the 7th pick.
