Another disclaimer: this isn't going to be fun or interesting. I have very little to say about this game, or the series in general, that I haven't been screaming from the mountaintop all season long. The rotation doesn't make sense. Ball movement is stagnant on offense, especially when JL3 is on the floor. Boozer drags down the defensive rotations significantly. The Bulls need to stop giving a half-assed effort.
Oh, wait, that last one is new. I would love to know why the Bulls are playing some of their least inspired, energetic basketball in the playoffs. Did Derrick's injury take that much out of the sails? Obviously it was a huge setback, but, and I quote Kyle Korver's facebook post here:
Bulls fans. Now is not the time to ask why or to get bitter. Now is the time to refocus and ask "How are we going to win this Championship?" We have the best Team in the league. This season has proven, we are a TEAM and it has taken us ALL to have the best record. Lets focus on whats ahead. This is an incredible opportunity for All of Us to step up and make it happen. We're all gonna have to work harder and smarter. We are all gonna have to believe in ourselves. That we are more than the sum of our parts. We need YOU to believe with Us. We need You to believe for Us. We are going to keep going strong. One quarter, one game, one round at a time. Until its over. That's how we're gonna do it.
What a load of crap. Not that it's Kyle's fault (other than all the unnecessary capitalization). But the percentage of hard, smart basketball has been lower in the last 3 games than any other point in the season. The Bulls have done the opposite of what a championship team would have done.
I blame, as you may have guessed, TT for this. It starts with the coach. You can say all you want it's on the players to be the ones to bring the intensity and heart, but if they don't, it's the coach's job to sit their ass on the bench. Yet take a guess which 3 Bulls played the most minutes today?
Did you guess Boozer, Deng, and Watson? AKA, the three worst Bulls in this series so far?
We are in the darkest timeline. I would love to see what the other timelines look like. Forget the one where Derrick doesn't get hurt, even just one where Taj and Boozer's minutes are flip-flopped, or Mike James plays half the minutes that JL3 and CJ have played. I bet we're up 3-1 in that timeline. (Side note: what the hell is Mike James on the playoff roster for, if not to provide offense from the point and veteran leadership. Those are 2 things the Bulls have been sorely in need of in this series.)
I'm not going to break this game down by percentages like usual. There's blame for everyone. Maybe Boozer would get a little more (they made a big deal about how Boozer was having a good game by looking at the numbers, but the shots he didn't make were bad, and he was his usual terrible defensive self.) But other than Taj, everyone deserves some blame.
After Game 5, which I'm quite confident will be the last game of the Bulls' season, I'll break down what the Bulls need to do in the offseason. Will and I have had some intense arguments this season about whether the Bulls need to make drastic changes, or if they're fine with what they have. I was obviously on the wrong side in this argument. This is not a champion roster, even with Derrick. But this is a discussion for later.
Last note, on the refereeing: yeah, it wasn't great. But there's no conspiracy against the Bulls. If the fix was in, which do you think the NBA wants to see in the 2nd round; a rematch of the best first round series ever from a few years ago? Or Philly-Atlanta (God, I fell asleep just typing that.) Chalk these calls up to incompetency, not malice. And frankly, the Bulls didn't really deserve close calls today. Usually the team that plays harder gets those calls. Today it was the Sixers. Play harder next time, then we can complain about the refs.
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