The Bulls' 90-79 win over the Hawks on Monday was a bit of dominance mixed with a bit of a stinker. Leading by as much as 21, pulling the starters from a game where Atlanta never really had a chance was nixed by the Bulls being brick-tastic and flat to recover on defense in the third quarter, seeing their lead shorten to five.
The Bulls responded to an ugly start to the game, where they found themselves down 11-6, with a 29-6 run over the final eight minutes of the first quarter. They cruised through to halftime and stayed level early in the third, looking like the starters would get a fourth quarter to rest. But the Bulls bricked 13-of-19 shots and turned the ball over four times, while Jannero Pargo knocked down three 3s and the Bulls failed to recover in transition.
In the halfcourt, though, the Bulls prevented the Hawks from getting just about anything going. On the other end, the Bulls didn't shoot well, but the ol' reliable mulligan game was there. The Bulls scored 18 second chance points on 15 offensive boards and nailed 8-of-20 3s (40%) to make up for an awful day of shooting from the field (38.6%).
Derrick Rose (23 points on 8-for-18, 2-for-4 on 3s, six assists, four rebounds, four turnovers in 34:54) was explosive in his first game in about a week-and-a-half; and he wasn't strapped to a gurney. The first step beat Jeff Teague without a problem and the lift made Zaza Pachulia hack away.
The story was overall great defense. The Hawks never really were able to penetrate well. Josh Smith (17 points on 7-for-21) made great move on the handful of occasions he was able to establish position inside, but never got established as an easy button for rough possessions, even with Carlos Boozer checking him while Joakim Noah was anchoring the paint. As the Bulls easily got to the paint, Smith was a strong attacker with three blocks, making it difficult to convert (36 points in the paint on 18-for-44, 40.9%). Unfortunately for Atlanta, only Smith and Pachulia were grabbing rebounds (19 of the team's 41) and the perimeter defenders couldn't recover after collapsing to close out on shooters.
No matter how you slice it, the Bulls' win over the Kings on Tuesday night was a fun game to watch. There was plenty of comedy to go with hustle. And where the score implies more drama than there actually was, it's reflective of two teams battling to push the ball down each other's throats.
The Bulls offense was about as aggressive as you would want. There was no Derrick Rose (back spasms), but the last thing lacking was speed and explosion. Joakim Noah (22 points on 7-for-11, 6-for-9 at the rim, 8-for-9 at the line, 11 rebounds, four blocks) consistent held the Kings back from getting rewarded for some very strong defense by punishing them for over-committing to the ball. Luol Deng (23 points on 6-for-17, 4-for-5 at the rim, 9-for-9 at the line, 11 assists, seven rebounds) moved the ball and nailed open shots creating off the ball, exploiting those same aspects like, well, an All-Star capable of point forward elements.
Best for the Bulls is that they started this six-game homestand with a bang, not having to stretch too many minutes, in a game without their superstar reigning MVP. Deng played 42 minutes, but that's just how things go -- especially with Richard Hamilton still out, stretching Ronnie Brewer's playing time. Noah played 36 minutes, but Taj Gibson's (15 points on 7-for-8) ultra-aggressiveness and Omer Asik (seven rebounds, +16) prevented him from playing stretches too long in the second half.
Carlos Boozer (16 points on 7-for-14, 4-for-5 within ten feet in 24 minutes) was another highly bright spot, slaying some good on-ball defense. Him an Noah being aggressive off the ball completely changes the Bulls offense into a big boy bunch with reserves to not wear them out. It's difficult to ignore wishing this could be seen every night; and the ways they were using their size, fighting for position, and making moves were ways to play the game that give your the desired results, no matter who's the opponent.
Home sweet home, indeed.
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The Bulls' ninth win in their tenth home game was one of those where they built a cushion, never ran away with the game, but were never really threatened.
Credit the Bucks for coming out strong with a lot of hustle in the Bulls' 107-100 win at the United Center on Friday. They did a lot right in terms of how the players on the court performed. They played with a pace rarely seen by a Scott Skiles squad and attacked the Bulls offense with a Thibs-esque hyper-aggressive help scheme on top of the Skiles-esque glue gun man-pressure. The problem with this modification in Skiles' scheme is that the weak side of the defense just gets too weak. It leaves shooters and cutters open, while big men move out of rebounding position; and the Bulls made the right passes possession after possession, while establishing great positioning in those portions to elongate possessions with second chance points.
The Bucks were without Andrew Bogut, putting more pressure on Drew Gooden to anchor the paint, largely creating Milwaukee's deficiencies in the paint. Brandon Jennings did all he could to prevent Derrick Rose from areas of the court, but the help just wasn't there and -- well -- it's Derrick F'N Rose, FFS:
Rose came out with ferocity and had me not questioning his turf toe, scoring a season-high 34 points on a highly efficient 14-for-24 shooting and getting to the line for ten charity tosses (He bricked four, but whatever). Only three assists, but Milwaukee made it difficult for him to not reward them for half-assing their efforts to close his driving lanes -- relative to the effort necessary to make Rose over-hesitate and start jump passing tot he wrong team.
Oddly enough, it was the Bucks who benefitted from the faster paces of the first and fourth quarters in the halfcourt. The Bulls simply responded by using their size to attack loose balls and their speed to run up the floor, accumulating fastbreak points. When you look at the Bulls' 25 second chance points on their 20 (!!!) offensive rebounds and 56 points in the paint to the Bucks' 42, it's reasonable to wonder why the Bulls didn't win by more.
It was almost the curse they encountered by the combination of running the floor after the Bucks' wealth of bricks (39-for-92, 7-for-24 on 3s, .462 eFG%), slowing them down on following possessions. There were moments where Ronnie Brewer and Carlos Boozer were tossed in just too many directions by Jennings' speed. So even when the help was aggressive, the recovery suffered and sloppy fouls were accumulated by Boozer and Brewer just had too much on his plate to close-out on much taller shooters.
Despite torn ligaments in his left wrist, Luol Deng could return as early as Sunday, when the Bulls face the Heat in Miami, Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting.
With speculation of surgery after the season, there isn't cause for concern that Deng will now suck until he has surgery, as it's his non-shooting hand. But while the injury is so fresh, this injury is being taken lightly if such a swift return is seriously entertained.
That left wrist is needed to max out to do all of those things that Deng does to 'glue' the team together. It's needed to fight for rebounds, establish position off the ball, create space on the dribble drive, attack passing lanes, and set effective screens.
On top of that, how is anyone comfortable with Deng checking a 6'9", 275-pound freak of nature playing the most aggressive basketball of his career in LeBron James on Sunday afternoon?
Derrick Rose is "telling people he plans to play on Monday" when the Bulls host the Nets at the United Center, K.C. Johnson reported, adding:
As for Rose, he told teammates on Friday in Cleveland he planned to play and didn't. So the morning shootaround could determine if he can play on his sprained big left toe.
In the four games missed by Rose last week, C.J. Watson, John Lucas III, and Mike James combined for 95 points, 40 assists, and 15 turnovers (23.8, 10, and 3.8 per game), shooting a .544 eFG%, according to Basketball-Reference.com. Watson's led the way with three starts, 31.0 MPG, 16.5 PPG, 6.0 APG, shooting a .598 eFG%, averaging 10.3 shots per game and nailing 81% of his 21 trips to the line.
Derrick Rose sprained his toe during last Tuesday's win in Minnesota, but has missed three of the five games since. He remains day-to-day after missing the MLK Day matinee in Memphis and the following night's game against the Suns due to a potpourri of conditions -- soreness in the big left toe, a "negative reaction" to painkilling medication, and a "sinus cold", K.C. Johnson reports.
Rose has missed just eight games in three-plus seasons. He said Monday he has an "old-school mentality where I don't want to miss any games."
Only Rose and Chris Paul have the Kobe-esque 'fight-to-win competitive edge', according to Kobe Bryant -- as combination of Rose's personality and abilities that are never questioned. Unlike Kobe and Paul, Rose doesn't have that overwhelming wealth of versatile basketball talent, but the three all lack the bodies to sustain the wear, tear, and beatings of NBA seasons. All three are forced to max out every strength in their game every night to pull out victories.
The Rose-less Bulls were beat pretty soundly in Memphis on Monday afternoon. Not that surprising a result, though maybe the degree of beating was, especially on the boards.
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Sam Smith credits some lucky shooting from Memphis, though even he admits that was only part of the problem. Having point guards like Lucas, Watson, and Josh Selby out there no doubt added to the turnovers being so high for both teams. That, and playing at noon.
After a brief reprieve, the fact that Boozer and Noah didn't play 4th again while the Bulls staged a rally is still an issue. And it is, really. Funnily enough, another coach on Monday, Flip Saunders, invoked the Bulls benching strategy as a positive. It's a nice option for a good and deep team like the Bulls, but that it's borne out of necessity from poor play from Boozer (though he started out OK in the 1 quarter I saw Monday) and Noah is the actual issue. And we should have higher standards than the Wizards.
But back to that another day (maybe tonight!). The story is Derrick Rose's toe injury that he played through the weekend but wouldn't allow him to go in Memphis. Rose in his own words:
Rose tested his sprained big left toe during warm-ups and replied "6 or 7" when asked to rate his pain on a 1-10 scale. "Almost every game, I jam it," Rose said. "The way that I play and push off, it hurts. I'm kind of irritated. I want it to go away. But it always finds its way back."
KC Johnson reported that Rose is having bad reactions to the pain medication which is hampering his ability to recover, and the Bulls may hold him out for Tuesday night's home game against Phoenix.
Nick Friedell suggests that with the relatively easy upcoming schedule, it may come to management stepping in with a new recovery timetable that involves missing more games. As we know, Rose himself is Mr. Tough Guy and says that it's "his decision" whether to play or not.
(I believe such pieces like that are meant to make Rose seem admirable, how he 'fumes' at sitting and is willing to risk further injury to play the next game...but it also makes him look kinda silly.)
I don't even quite trust Thibs to make the call, since it sounds like if Rose says he's available to play, Thibs considers him fully 100% to handle a full workload. Against Toronto on Saturday night the Bulls had a 13-15 point lead for the entire final 6 minutes (again, against Toronto) and Rose played the entire time.
The good and timely news from Monday is that CJ Watson not only returned, but played well. Thibodeau had originally said that Watson couldn't return until the Bulls had a practice/shootaround so Watson could test his elbow, but reportedly Watson played some 3-on-3 on Sunday. And I wouldn't be surprised that seeing Rose not playing had Thibs reconsider his guidelines. Everything looked good for Watson though, and it's very fortunate that if Rose needs to miss more time that he's there to pick up some of those minutes from John Lucas III.
Oh, and you can go through all those links and nobody seems to know anything on Rip Hamilton. Rumor had it he was a shooting guard acquisition for the Bulls this offseason, but I'm trying to find confirmation.
The Bulls handled the Raptors in a 'was there ever any doubt' fashion at the United Center on Saturday night 77-64. Contrary to your initial assumptions, they didn't play under NCAA clock rules.
But if you were watching, you would have the Bulls opponent look very much like an NCAA team -- full of energy but not very skilled, playing zone defense, and a lot of zone defense. The Bulls' defense was strong, but not as great as the 64 points allowed implies; more like Toronto was as bad as their 13-for-29 (44.6%) at the rim and 2-for-8 (25%) from 3-to-9 feet makes you smack your forehead with your palm.
[For more on the Raptors, Raptors HQ should have plenty to say.]
The Andrea Bargnani-less Raptors zone began very statuesque, as opposed to one that was rotating with the ball. The Bulls countered this by flooding sides of the halfcourt and easily finding open players at all ranges. When Derrick Rose (18 points on 7-for-20, 11 assists, three steals, zero turnovers) made move to get reads, it was clear, the zone was meant to be frozen and ready to collapse on Rose; and he found his teammates in spaces like an elite point guard does.
In the second quarter, Toronto's zone shifted more with the ball to force the ball outside and the Bulls couldn't answer this with anything but jumpers and heavily slowing down the game. This made the game dependent on rebounding and better finishing at the rim. The Bulls' are most dominant on the offensive glass, but were only 4-for-11 on second chance attempts [.pdf] on 12 offensive rebounds, keeping the score as low as it was; but when it worked, the Bulls peeled off a game-clinching 9-2, 7-0, and 9-1 runs between the 6:56 mark of the third quarter and 5:09 of the fourth.
Most important, the Bulls were actualized in their deficiencies, as Tom Thibodeau remarked after the game, "We've have one practice since Christmas."
They only had five turnovers and forced the Raptors into a ridiculous 34 shots at 16-to-23 feet from the basket (11-for-34, 32.4%), while only taking 20 themselves (6-for-20, 30%). They stayed patient to allow each other to find the highest percentage space in the Raptors' zone as possible, never quitting on basket cuts. They only shot 52% (13-for-25) at the rim and 6-for-12 at 3-to-9 feet (50%), but didn't let the pace of the game or the Raptors' intentions slip them into foot-self-shooting rhythms of camping out on the perimeter.
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