LeBron James says he understands why the Chicago Bulls want to play tough defense against him. What he doesn't understand is why they would want to open their mouths.

View full sizeJoshua Gunter / The Plain DealerLeBron James is more than happy to rise up to a challenge, especially the verbal kind.CLEVELAND, Ohio — Keep talking, Chicago. LeBron James loves it.

“I thrive on adversity,” James said with a grin on Wednesday as the Cavaliers prepared for Game 3 of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs against the Bulls tonight in United Center.

After all, look what happened in Game 2. The chirpy Bulls invited him to take jump shots, which he did — to the tune of 40 points, 15 in the decisive fourth quarter of the Cavs’ 112-102 victory that gave Cleveland a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

James adamantly denied that he told the Bulls bench that he was going to get 40 points on Monday night.

“I absolutely did not say that,” he said. “That’s not a true statement. I was going to take the shot, though. I don’t think it was disrespectful for them to tell me to take the shot. But I feel like I worked enough on my game where I feel like I’m confident to keep on continuing to take those shots.

“I made a lot of jumpers that game, which was good for myself and good for our team.

“I didn’t mouth off at all. I was smiling most of the time. I was just looking over at the bench and giving them that look that I can make outside shots. I understand a lot of teams would love to make me shoot jumpers and keep me out of the paint. That’s what I would do if I was guarding me.

“I wouldn’t talk to me if I was guarding me, though. I would just let me play my game. I wouldn’t talk to me. That’s not a good choice of words.”

Besides advising the Bulls, James also suggested some things the Cavs need to do better in Game 3. He and his teammates were outscored in the paint in Game 2, 56-38. The Bulls also had the edge in second-chance points, 21-7. Plus, the Cavs had 12 turnovers while forcing just four.

“We know we can play better,” James said. “We know what we can control — second-chance points and getting back in transition. We gave them too many transition points and we gave them too many paint points. Those are things we can control. We still won by 10. If we can crack that down halfway, we may bust the game wide open at one point.

“We’ve got to control what we can control. That’s turning the ball over, getting back in transition, not allowing them to get on the break and just trying to clean up our defensive rebounding, which we didn’t do a great job of in Game 2.”

Though the Cavs had 31 defensive rebounds, they also allowed Chicago’s Joakim Noah to get seven of the Bulls’ 13 offensive boards. Noah finished with 25 points and 13 rebounds.

“You’ve just got to give him credit,” Cavs coach Mike Brown said of Noah. “He was extremely active in the last game. We didn’t do as good a job of trying to keep a body on him the whole time.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to keep a body on him a little bit better to take away the second opportunities that he was able to generate and continue to stay in front of him when he drives the basketball. If he shoots that jump shot, contest it and live with the results.”

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: mschmitt@plaind.com, 216-999-4668

Tags: brian windhorst, defense, eastern conference playoffs, game, kirk hinrich, lebron james, moon talk, mouth, series, transition