Point guard battle goes in favor of Cleveland

Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

In the first matchup of these two heavyweights, the Cavaliers were able to take round one from the Chicago Bulls by a final score of 107-98.

The stars of this battle came from the one-guard position: Kyrie Irving and Derrick Rose.

Irving put up 28 points and had eight assists, while his counterpart upped him with 30 points, five rebounds and three assists. Both players provided some flashy moves and most importantly, provided us with a glimpse of what this matchup has been hyped up to be over the last two years. This is only the second time they have matched up against each other, but the first time where they showed their talents.

Anderson Varejao provided some much-needed offense tonight, putting up 22 points and grabbing eight rebounds. Varejao was able to make up for Kevin Love's poor scoring performance, where he was held to just nine points on 2-10 shooting from the field. What he lacked in scoring, however, he made up for in rebounds, where Love grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.

As a team, the Cavaliers shot 48 percent from the floor, extremely good against a tough Bulls defense that held opponents to 43 percent shooting last year. Cavs also did a good job of limiting the Bulls on the offensive end, holding them to 42 percent shooting. Cavs also out-rebounded the Bulls, 47 to 40.

Head coach David Blatt said earlier this week that he was gonna treat this game as a regular season game, as far as minutes go. Blatt held true to that tonight, as LeBron, Love, Irving and Dion Waiters each played at least 31 minutes tonight, with Irving playing a team-high 38 minutes.

Three Things:

1. Please let Anderson Varejao stay healthy.
We have talked countless times of how the Cavs need some help on the interior. Most of that relies on Varejao's health, as he has missed 166 games in the last four seasons. He has shown this preseason his effectiveness as an NBA player. He's a perfect fit for Blatt's offensive scheme, can rebound with the best in the league and is the best interior defensive player on the Cavs. Varejao will be a pivotal piece to a Cavs title run, but only if he can stay on the court, rather than on the end of the bench.

2. Bull-Cavs will be FUN.
Before LeBron took his talents to South Beach, the Cavs and the Bulls were one of the best rivalries in the NBA. With LeBron back in Cleveland, the rivalry will be renewed with some more star power involved. Two polarizing teams; the Cavs with a superior offense and the Bulls with a punishing defense. Both of these teams are projected to finish as the top two teams in the Eastern Conference and each game will predict to be a battle. They are expected to play four regular season games, but much fun will seven more games in the playoffs sound?

3. Who will step on D?
It's understatement to say that Derrick Rose lit up the Cavs tonight. He scored 30 points in 24 minutes and blew by his defender multiple times in the first half. Blatt tried Irving, Dion Waiters and Matthew Dellavedova on Rose to no avail. We've known about Irving's ability on defense, but if he doesn't step on that end of the court, guys like Rose will be circling their schedules waiting to light up Irving on defense.

Statline of the night: Kyrie Irving. 28 points, 7 assists, 2 rebounds. 10-19 on field goals.

It was a great night for point guards, as both Irving and Rose played extremely well. This is only the second time that they have played against each other due to injuries to both, but this was the first in which they both played well.

What's next: Oct. 22, on the road against the Memphis Grizzlies.