Chicago Bulls' 96

CHICAGO, Illinois -- In the end, it didn't come down to Kyrie Irving and Derrick Rose after all. It didn't matter that Andrew Bynum made his first start for the Cavaliers.

What doomed the Cavaliers on Monday night were two things that will cost a basketball team every night -- second-chance points and turnovers.

The Chicago Bulls had 16 second-chance points and scored 29 points off 20 turnovers to run off with a 96-81 victory over the Cavs at the United Center.

'If you add those two together, that's almost 50 percent of their points,'' Cavs coach Mike Brown said as his team fell to 3-5, 0-5 on the road. 'On the road versus a good team, if you give up 50 percent of your opponents points in turnovers and second-chance shots, it's going to be hard to win.''

The first-even matchup of Irving and Rose wound up as a draw statistically, with each player scoring 16 points. Irving had 12 in the fourth quarter, but it was Rose's team that came through down the stretch.

With the Cavs trailing, 81-76, Irving missed a 15-footer and Taj Gibson grabbed the rebound. Rose, who limped off at the end of the game with what coach Tom Thibodeau said was a minor right hamstring injury, raced down the court for a layup that pushed the Bulls lead to 83-76 with 3:39 left. Some uneven two-man action by Irving and Anderson Varejao resulted in a 24-second turnover. Mike Dunleavy made two free throws on the other end and then, after a long 3-pointer by Irving missed, Dunleavy hit a 21-footer and Chicago's lead was back up to 87-76 with about two minutes left.

'When we hit adversity tonight, we didn't handle it well,'' Brown said. 'Chicago got up in us and tried to take us out of our stuff. A four-point game, six-point game we hit some adverse situations and it was tough for us to handle. Mentally we didn't do a good job. Physically I didn't think we did a good job trying to execute stuff.''

But Brown thought Bynum played well. He finished with season highs in minutes (21), points (11) and rebounds (6).

'We don't know how to play with a guy like that,'' said Brown, adding that Bynum starting would be a day-to-day decision. 'I thought almost every time he touched it on the block, something good happened. The easiest shot that we had in the whole game was when the ball went to him and he kicked it to Dion [Waiters] for a wide-open 3 on the weak side. But we don't understand that yet. Hopefully we will soon.''

Bynum was asked if starting changed his game.

'I think it changes for the players around me,'' he said. 'That's just something we're going to have to go over in practice. I'm not too familiar with all the plays they put in and vice versa...I think we have a good practice plan for [Tuesday]. We'll work a lot on the offensive end. We were a little bit stagnant today, especially with me being out there.''

Word of Bynum's possible start began to circulate at the morning shoot around, when Brown hinted at lineup changes and Irving made reference to ''a new five.''

When pressed about moving Bynum into the starting lineup, Brown said, 'I feel like I prepare for a lot of different things, but a lot of it is going to be on gut feel. When my gut feels it, I'll do it.''

Asked if he'd start a guy who had been limited to 15 or 20 minutes, Brown said, 'I don't know. I could. It doesn't matter. Just whenever I get the right feel I'll start him.''

Apparently that right feeling struck about 45 minutes before the game. Brown declined to tell reporters of his decision 90 minutes before the game, and the list of starters they turned into the Bulls 45 minutes before tipoff had Anderson Varejao listed as the starting center, though the Cavs warned the Bulls there could be changes.

Indeed, when the Cavs starters were announced Bynum ran out for the first time since May 21, 2012, when the Lakers faced the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals. He played the first 10 minutes of the game and had 7 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist. he made 2 of 4 shots and 3 of 3 free throws. When he left the game, the Cavs trailed the Bulls, 16-14. But they trailed after the first quarter, 20-17.

With Bynum sitting out the entire second quarter, the Cavs struggled to find any rhythm with their new rotations and fell behind by as many as 12 points. Brown finally resorted to the three-guard lineup of Irving, Dion Waiters and Jarrett Jack that had been so effective down the stretch of the double-overtime victory over Philadelphia on Saturday at The Q. that group got the Cavs within 43-36 after a 3-pointer and an 11-foot jumper by Waiters. But a driving layup by Jimmy Butler gave Chicago a 45-36 lead at halftime.

But with Bynum back, the Cavs seemed steadier in the third quarter and they were within 64-60 heading into the fourth quarter. Thompson had eight points and four rebounds, while Waiters added six points and Bynum contributed four points, three rebounds and two blocked shots for the Cavs, who shot 57.9 percent (11 of 19), held the Bulls to 35 percent (7 of 20) and owned a 10-9 advantage on the boards.

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