No Irving, no chance: Cavs trampled by Rose, Chicago

Associated Press

cleveland

Once Derrick Rose decided it was time, it was time.

And there wasn’t a thing the Cleveland Cavaliers could do to stop it.

The NBA’s incumbent MVP took over in the third quarter, scoring 10 of his 19 points and adding six of his nine assists. He led the Chicago Bulls to their fifth straight win, 112-91 on Friday night over the Cavaliers, who were without rookie guard Kyrie Irving.

Luol Deng scored a season-high 24 points and Carlos Boozer added 13 points and 11 rebounds for Chicago.

The Bulls had to work a little harder than they did on their previous visit to Cleveland.

On Jan. 20, they beat the Cavaliers by 39 despite not having Rose, who was sidelined with a sore toe.

The Cavs came in with a game plan to put the brakes on Rose.

He ran it over.

“The one thing you want to try to get him to do is shoot jump shots, clog the paint,” Cleveland coach Byron Scott said. “But when you’re coming down in transition, he’s just one of those guys who has an unbelievable ability to get to the basket and make shots, even with contact.

“You’ve got to give him a lot of credit. He is a special basketball player. That’s the bottom line.”

Antawn Jamison scored 22 for Cleveland, 0-3 since the All-Star break.

“It’s disappointing,” he said. “Against a team like that you have to bring it for 48 minutes. We only did it for 12. It’s the realization that we’ve got a long way to go.”

Irving has been fighting a flu bug for several days and missed his fourth game. The Cavs sorely missed their leading scorer and playmaker while dropping their fourth straight.

Not feeling well, Irving stayed home from the morning shootaround. He arrived at Quicken Loans Arena several hours before tip-off and shot around on the floor before doctors decided to have him take the night off.

Scott said the 19-year-old picked up “a bug” during All-Star weekend in Orlando “that finally caught up with him.”