Look At How EXCITED The Bulls Were After Ending Cleveland’s Home-Court Advantage

The Chicago Bulls beat the Cavs at the Q in Cleveland last night, 99-92. They jumped out to a 27-15 first-quarter lead, and never trailed. So it wouldn’t be a surprising if there was a lot of whooping, hollering and general frivolity as the team returned to their locker room following a big road win to start the series.

Nope. Here’s video captured by Comcast Sports Chicago’s Chuck Garfien of the Bulls after the win:

It’s like a library in that hallway. They know they’re a long way from a series win, and the Cavs will be extra motivated to avoid going down 2-0 when the teams square off again on Wednesday night.

Then again, Monday night was the first time in LeBron James’ career his team failed to hold a lead in a playoff game:

Chicago’s comments to reporters after the game, followed the same formula as that stern walk back to shower. One win doesn’t mean anything, and they’re smart to renounce any such celebration after just a single victory.

Here’s Jimmy Butler talking to Joe Cowley at the Chicago Sun-Times about his defense on LeBron, with many crediting Butler for forcing James into an uncharacteristic 9-of-22 from the field:

‘‘I think he missed a lot of shots that he normally doesn’t miss…I think he’s going to be taking the same shots the next game.’’

But didn’t Butler’s defense have something to do with that?

‘‘Obviously, we were contesting everything, but LeBron is LeBron,’’ Butler said. ‘‘He’s going to take and make shots. You’ve gotta hope he misses, like he did [Monday].’

This was about as confident as Butler would get after the game:

‘‘We’re both two NBA players,’’ Butler said. ‘‘His name might be more well-known than mine, but I’m just here to compete. I’m here to play. Everybody knows that LeBron is a hell of a player; I’m not knocking it. But I think I’m a decent player. I think I can hang with the best of them.’’

We agree with his statements after the game, and Butler’s bank shot with 30 seconds left, sealed it for the Cavs, who only trailed 94-90 when Jimmy got his pump-fake on.

Cleveland has to figure out a way to fight over screens because all their switching created a ton of mismatches, like this one after Tristan Thompson switched onto Butler beyond the three-point arc with under a minute to play and the Cavs making a push:

That’s just too much room for Butler to work with against a slower player. Jimmy got stuck in the lane, but kept his pivot foot and faked Thompson into oblivion before getting the high arching bank-shot to fall:

But even after all that, there was no chest-thumping rhetoric following Game 1.

The Bulls looked fantastic in their opening game, playing the Cavs to a standstill after Cleveland looked so flat in their opening session. But nobody knows LeBron’s ability to bounce back after a bad night better than this Chicago squad. James will need to play like the four-time MVP if Cleveland is going to knot this series at one game apiece before heading to Chicago. But if it’s pretty obvious the Bulls will be ready for them.

If you haven’t gotten excited about an Eastern Conference playoff series yet, now’s as good a time as any to start.