Final box score (via nba.com):
Final: Bulls 99, Cavaliers 92. Q4 (0:09): Butler splits free throws the Bulls' lead is 6. It appears the Bulls will win this game. Q4 (0:11): Dunleavy makes a free throw and Shumpert quickly replies with a jam. Bulls lead 97-92. Q4 (0:21): Rose seems to have injured his shoulder. Hopefully, it isn't too serious. Q4 (0:30): The bank is open! Jimmy Butler makes a big shot and the Bulls lead 96-90. The Cavaliers have not lead in this game. Q4 (1:33): Iman Shumpert finishes at the rim and he joins Rose and Butler in the 20-point club. Bulls lead 94-90. Q4 (2:36): Tristan Thompson finishes a lay-up alley-oop off a Dellavedova lob. Bulls lead, 94-88. Q4 (3:25): Gasol makes a jumper and the score is now 94-86, favoring the Bulls. Q4 (4:28): Butler makes a triple and he's up to 17 points. Bulls lead, 92-86. Q4 (5:01): Butler is fouled and he splits the free throws. Bulls lead 89-86. Q4 (5:21): Shumpert knocks down a pair and he's up to 18 points. Bulls lead, 88-86. Q4 (5:21): Iman Shumpert draws a foul and is headed to the line. On the previous play, Derrick Rose hit a big jumper. Bulls lead, 88-84. Q4 (6:18): Thompson can't hit but LeBron James is there to clean it up. Bulls lead 86-84. Q4 (7:39): Jimmy Butler hits big jumper over Lebron, but James comes right back at him with a lefty lay up. Bulls lead, 86-82. Q4 (8:31): Taj Gibson heads to the line after a foul and he splits the free throws. Bulls lead 84-80. Q4 (8:57): Kyrie Irving trades buckets with Taj Gibson, then converts on the and-1. Bulls now only lead 83-80. We have ourselves a game! Q4 (10:03); Iman Shumpert hits his fourth three of the game and the Bulls lead 81-75. Q4 (11:03): Kyrie Irving gets the fourth quarter started with two points at the free throw line. Cavaliers trail, 81-72. With 12 minutes left in regulation, here is the box score (via nba.com): End of Q3: Bulls 81, Cavaliers 70. Q3 (0:47): LeBron James uses his size to score down low but Aaron Brooks hits a triple. Bulls lead 79-68. Q3 (1:35): Jimmy Butler misses the layup in transition but Taj Gibson is there to clean it up. Bulls lead, 76-66. Q3 (2:44): Shumpert hits a triple and Bulls' lead is nowdown to 8 at 74-66. Q3 (3:23): Matthew Dellavedova hits a corner triple and the Cavaliers trail, 74-63. Q3 (4:10): Mozgov scores, Gasol retaliates; Irving scores, Gasol, retaliates. That is becoming a theme in this game. Bulls lead, 74-59. Q3 (5:19): Mozgov finally ends the drought but Rose quickly scores again. Bulls lead, 70-55. Q3 (6:10): Gasol with ANOTHER bucket and the lead keeps growing. Bulls lead 68-63. Q3 (6:42): Pau Gasol gets a rebound off a Derrick Rose miss and puts it back for the and-1. The run continues at 13-0. Bulls lead, 66-53. Q3 (7:16): With a Derrick Rose triple and a Jimmy Butler steal and slam, the Bulls' run is now at 10-0 as they lead 63-53. Q3 (8:12): Butler hits a triple from the top of the key and Derrick Rose adds two more and the score is 58-53, Bulls. Q3 (9:02): Paul Gasol and Kyrie Irving trade buckets and the game is tied at 53. Q3 (10:25): Mozgov ties it up at 51 with an easy bucket at the rim. Q3 (10:58): Tomfey Mozgov draws a foul of his own and he knocks down both. Bulls lead, 51-49. Q3 (11:16): Jimmy Butler draws a foul and hits both free throws. Bulls lead, 51-47. Q3 (11:40): Iman Shumpert gets the second half rolling with a corner triple. The Bulls only lead 49-47. Halftime Box Score (via nba.com): Halftime: Bulls 49, Cavaliers 44. Q2 (0:26): LeBron gets big on Butler in the post. Pau Gasol responds with a long two. Bulls lead, 49-44. Q2 (1:21): The call is no longer a goaltend and the score is 47-42. Q2 (1:21): LeBron James swats Derrick Rose's shot into another dimension but it is ruled a goaltend. Bulls lead, 49-42. Q2 (2:01): Kyrie Irving shows off the handles and he finishes a tough layup. Mike Miller then hits a big triple the Bulls' lead is cut to 3. Chicago leads, 45-42. Q2 (3:14): Kyrire Irving makes two free throws and Rose gets the points back on the other end. Bulls lead 45-37. Q2 (5:37): Jimmy Butler shows off a nice move to get to the basket. LeBron replies with a long jumper and the Bulls' lead is 41-35. Q2 (6:20): Kyrie Irving is taking the game over, now. He has scored the last 10 points for the Cavaliers after an and-1, two free throws, a triple and a tough finish over Noah. Bulls lead, 39-33. Q2 (7:47): Rose hits a tough jumper over LeBron and Kyrie Irving converts on the and-1 on the other end. Bulls, 37-26. Q2 (8:27): Shumpert throws down a monster slam and the score is 35-23, favoring the Bulls. Q2 (8:40): Aaron Brooks scores two points for the Bulls but Tristan Thompson is fouled on the other end. Thompson Q2 (9:27): LeBron James has scored the last 4 points in this game and he now has 8 points. Bulls lead, 33-21. Q2 (10:14): Kirk Hinrich hits a triple and he has scored the last 6 points for the Bulls as they lead 33-17. Q2 (11:31): Matthew Dellavedova kicks off the second quarter with a put back. The Bulls now lead, 27-17. Here is your first quarter box score (via nba.com): End of Q1: Bulls 27, Cavaliers 15. The Bulls have gotten off to quick starts in the last two games and Kirk Hinrich has played in the first quarter of both of them. This might be more than a coincidence. Q1 (1:30): LeBron James is starting to put the team on his back. This isn't anything new for him. Bulls lead, 27-13. Q1 (2:27): Dunleavy tacks on two more and he is a perfect 5-for-5 from the field for 13 total points. This guy is on fire! Bulls lead, 27-11. Q1 (3:27): A defensive 3-scond violation is called on the Bulls and Kyrie Irving makes the free throw. Bulls lead, 23-11. Q1 (4:25): LeBron James takes and makes his first shot of the game. Bulls lead, 21-10. Q1 (5:04): Mozgov splits free throws and the Cavaliers trail 21-8. Dunleavy has 11 points. Q1 (5:49): Butler scores and Rose hits his second triple. Bulls lead, 18-5. Q1 (6:59): Dunleavy hits another triple--making them 3-for-3 from deep. Shumpert matches and the Cavaliers trail 13-5. Q1 (8:27): Mike Dunleavy makes his second bucket of the game. Rose has also made a triple and the Bulls lead, 8-2. Q1 (10:51): Iman Shumpert scores for the Cavaliers and Joakim Noah follows it with an empty trip at the line. Bulls, 3-2. Q1 (11:34): MIke Dunleavy Jr. has the first three points of the series and the Bulls lead 3-0. Mike Miller and Iman Shumpert will be starting in place of Kevin Love and JR Smith. We are within 15 minutes of tip-off of Game 1. Get your popcorn ready, NBA fans. It is almost time for the match-up everyone has been waiting for: Kirk Hinrich vs. Matthew Dellavedova. The hate is real, and the stage is set for an extremely entertaining Game 1. A Cleveland fan responding to Noah: Here are some of the remarks Noah made about Cleveland a while back: This will be a heated, intense series with a lot of physicality and nasty plays. These two teams have bad blood between each other, dating back to LeBron's first run with Cleveland. Joakim Noah is certainly a hated figure in Cleveland due to his remarks about the city a long time ago. Expect a lot of trash talking, pushing, shoving, and technicals right from Game 1. No question, the Bulls would love to steal one of the first two games on the road, and Game 1 is usually the easier one to steal since both teams are still trying to get a feel for one another. Here are highlights from the fourth and final meeting between the two teams: Another major key will be bench play in this series. The Bulls are a very deep team. In fact, they can go 10 deep if Tom Thibodeau wanted to. With Smith's two-game suspension and Love's injury, the Cavaliers are left with very little depth, especially for Games 1 and 2. They will have to heavily rely on players that weren't part of the regular rotation during the latter half of the season, such as Shawn Marion, Kendrick Perkins, James Jones, and Mike Miller. Though, all three players are experienced and could handle the extra minutes in these big playoff games. Rebounding will be one key in this series. The Bulls come in as the best rebounding team through the first round of the playoffs, but the Cavaliers are not too bad either, ranking fourth out of the 16 teams. Love has been a huge part of that, though. Guys like Thompson and Kendrick Perkins, who will both see plenty more minutes, will have to fill the void. Thompson shouldn't have a problem doing that as he is one of the best offensive rebounding players in the league. Here are highlights from the third meeting between the two teams: Though the Cavaliers beat the Bulls 3-1 in the regular season series, there is no telling what happens here in the playoffs. The regular season doesn't mean much. Plus, out of the three games the Bulls lost to the Cavaliers, Derrick Rose did not play in one while Joakim Noah did not play in the other. The one game that the Bulls won in the series, Love did not play (does that mean something? Maybe not). The Cavaliers have been off since April 26, earning a week of rest to prepare for their upcoming series. The Bulls have only had a three-day rest. Sometimes rest does good, sometimes it doesn't. There are some teams that lose rhythm, and there are some teams that don't lose rhythm and get the time to heal their sore bodies. The first five minutes of the game will determine if that will be a problem for the Cavaliers. The biggest question the Bulls are faced with coming into the series is which Derrick Rose are they going to get. Rose was up and down during the Milwaukee series, playing like his old self one game then looking like a player who has indeed had multiple knee surgeries the next game. The Bulls know what they are going to get from Gasol and the up and coming Jimmy Butler, but Rose will be the determining factor in this series. Can he contribute largely going up against a much tougher team that has a superstar point guard looking to outduel him? That remains to be seen. It would be beneficiary for the Cavaliers to speed up the tempo against the Bulls to not allow Chicago's suffocating defense to settle in on the half court sets. After all, Cleveland does have one of the best fast breaking players in James, who is simply a monster in the open floor. Irving also loves the open floor and is very crafty around the rim. Forcing turnovers is one way to up the tempo. Here are the highlights from the second meeting between the two teams: This is a matchup between a quick, athletic team and a lengthy, fineese team. The Bulls have size down low with Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah. Timofey Mozgov will be the x-factor in this series as he will try to keep both these big men off the glass and contain them on defensively. However, he will need lots of help from Tristan Thompson, who is a bit undersized for a power forward but very athletic. Though, another key piece the Cavaliers will miss for at least the first two games of the series is J.R. Smith. Smith has been shooting the three-ball at a high rate and has provided Cleveland with timely baskets. In his place, Iman Shumpert will most likely get the start at shooting guard, as he, too, could provide some shooting but most importantly better defense. Going back to the Cavs losing a key piece, Kevin Love has been ruled out of the entire playoffs after undergoing successful surgery on his left shoulder. Will this impact the Cavaliers? They will sorely miss his ability to rebound, pass, and space the floor, but the Cavaliers have enough weapons to help LeBron James and Kyrie Irving as much as possible. Here are highlights from the first meeting between the two teams back on Halloween day: The Cavaliers and Bulls took care of their respective opponents in round one to get to this point. Cleveland promply swept the Boston Celtics to advance but lost a key piece to their puzzle, which I will get into later. Chicago took down the Milwaukee Bucks in six games in a series where they won the first three but lost two straight then closed out Milwaukee with an emphatic 54-point victory. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 1 between the Chicago Bulls vs Cleveland Cavaliers Live score from the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. I will be your host for tonight, Jeffrey Waitkevich.