1 stud and 1 dud for Cavs in their loss to the Bulls on Saturday

Admittedly, heading into Saturday night’s game for the Cleveland Cavaliers at a Central Division foe in the Chicago Bulls on Saturday, I didn’t exactly know what to expect from the Wine and Gold.

The Cavaliers had won their last two games in pretty entertaining fashion versus the Toronto Raptors and at the Indiana Pacers on Sunday and Tuesday night, before losing after a subpar second half performance at the Miami Heat on Friday. The Cavs were and will be without Jarrett Allen, because of a finger fracture, and he’s dealing with a quad contusion, too, but that was a fairly disappointing one.

Even prior to Allen’s injury troubles, though, the Cavaliers were having their share of problems, and on the defensive end, which has mostly been the teams’ calling card this season, they’ve been out of sorts for too many extended stretches in the last 11 or so games. In that span, Cleveland is only 3-8, and the Cavs’ defensive rating, which has been fourth on the season overall, has been just 24th in that span.

Injuries to Darius Garland (lower back soreness) initially post-All-Star break leading to him missing three games and Caris LeVert (foot sprain) not being involved in post-All-Star break play yet hasn’t helped the team, in general, either. But the Cavaliers need to push forward here, and hopefully, LeVert can be back soon.

So, with all of that in mind, while the Bulls did snap a five-game skid in their last game prior to facing Cleveland, with their talent level on the perimeter, and depth, it still looked to be a very difficult contest for the Cavaliers. That’s coupled with then being the second leg of a back-to-back, too.

The Cavs, all things considered, didn’t do necessarily bad defensively, regardless of Chicago not having Lonzo Ball and Zach LaVine, but they fell short 101-91, largely because of offensive woes and ill-advised turnovers.

DeMar DeRozan wasn’t particularly on here; still, he did get some key baskets and/or free throws when they needed those, and had six assists. He was a plus-12, too.

Nikola Vucevic was tough to handle too, and had 20 points and 14 rebounds, and despite having five fouls in totality, Ayo Dosunmu made it really difficult on Garland for stretches, and he had 17 points of his own on 7-of-10 shooting. Alex Caruso had a good all-around game too, with 11 points, four assists and four steals off the bench in his return, and was a plus-9.

From the Cavs’ end, it wasn’t a game to write home about, but there were a few nice performances, even in the L.

In that realm, we’ll highlight the Cavs stud from this Bulls game, and on the flip side, take a look at Cleveland’s dud from Saturday night.

We’ll start with the Cavaliers standout performer.