Written by Demetri Inembolidis

---

On a night when the Cleveland Browns made strides to improve their outlook, the Cleveland Cavaliers went into Chicago and did exactly what they needed to do to help theirs.  Byron Scott rested Kyrie Irving who has essentially locked up the Rookie of the Year award.  The Cavs lost by a final score of 107-75 and were thoroughly outmatched.  

Antawn Jamison played his final game for the Cavs.  Jamison was brought to Cleveland by Danny Ferry over two years ago in order to bolster a roster that had the best record two years in a row.  By the time it was all said and done, he played the majority of his Cavaliers career on a lottery team.  Jamison took 18 shots, made 4 of them, scored 12 points and looked like a high school senior on his last day of school in the process.  Antawn Jamison maybe got a raw deal in Cleveland.  He came here expecting one thing and got another.  He will be remembered for scoring a lot of points and taking a lot of bad shots.  He was a consummate professional in Cleveland off the court, but he will not be remembered as the “One that Got Away.”  

Anthony Parker also played what will probably be his last game for the Cavs.  Parker had an invisible 19:52 of playing time.  He was signed as a free agent in 2009 in order to provide some length around the perimeter so the Cavs could match-up better against the Magic  Just like Antawn Jamison, Parker came to Cleveland expecting one thing and found himself as a veteran leader on a lottery team.  

Antawn Jamison was not the only Cavalier to play as if he didn’t care about this game.   Overall, the team shot 32.2% from the field and only had 8 assists.  The only player who clearly played hard was rookie Tristan Thompson.  In his final game of his first year. Thompson scored 13 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.  The Bulls big men present a difficult match-up for a rookie and Thompson held his own.  

The Bulls went through the motions and still won by 32 points.  Once again, they played the Cavs without Derick Rose and they did not miss a beat.  The Bulls may not win a championship or even get out of the conference, but the Bulls are a very well-coached and deep team.  

Chicago moved the ball very well.  The Bulls had 29 assists compared to their 9 assists.  As I mentioned earlier, the Cavs only had 8 assists.  Whenever a team has 21 more assists than their competition, they are probably going to win by a lot of points.  The futility did not end on the offensive side of the ball.  Chicago had 60 rebounds compared to 38 for the Cavs.  Considering how much more efficient the Bulls were offensively and how many more rebounds they had than the Cavs, it is impressive that Cleveland lost by 32 points.  

Despite the wishes of many Cleveland fans, the Cavs missed the playoffs and an opportunity to play the Bulls in the first round of the playoffs.  The Bulls are a deep team that play very well as a cohesive unit.  It doesn’t matter if Derrick Rose is hurt when John Lucas III can come off the bench and score 25 points on only 16 shots.  In fact, the Bulls missed Derrick Rose for a large portion of the season and clinched the first overall seed.  In the meantime, Cleveland stumbled their way to the finish line and are tied with the New Orleans Hornets for the third worst record in the NBA.  The 2011-2012 Cavs were clearly not a playoff team.

Marinate on that for an offseason.