Let's get this out of the way before we start: I don't think there's any type of ref or league conspiracy or anything against the Bulls. It doesn't make sense at all. The Bulls are a MUCH bigger market and fan base, if anything the league should want the Bulls to advance and play the Magic (sorry, win a 3rd game before I believe in you, Hawks), and the Celtics/Heat winner. I think there were some bad calls made against the Bulls (both times Dunleavy went to the line for 3 shots, he wasn't fouled), and some against the Pacers (like when Derrick fell on his own on the way to the rim and they called it on Price). The refs weren't good, but they weren't to blame for this one. Who is to blame?
That God-Awful final play call- 35%
I know it's not fair to give a lot of blame to one play, that wouldn't even necessarily have won the game anyway, but there are so many levels of stupid on this play it's hard to swallow. Let me take you to my imaginary Harris Bank Telestrator.
Deng taking the ball out of bounds, the rest of the Bulls in a diamond shape with Korver at the top of the key, Derrick under the basket, and Noah and Booze on the elbows to set screens. (Go ahead and roll it) Derrick goes under Joakim's screen to the corner, Deng passes it to Jo on the wing. Question #1: Why is Derrick not getting the ball somewhere where he can work with the ball? Is this a play for a quick two, or a 3 all the way? Derrick sets Deng some kind of screen, then tries to get the ball from Noah, but Jones defends it well and now Derrick is sitting 5 feet behind the line with nothing to do, Deng is stuck in the corner, and Boozer and Fredo are hanging out on the other side of the court. Deng comes back, can't get the ball, and curls to the basket (alright, freeze it right there). Deng has the ball at the free throw line. Joakim and Derrick are useless on the near sideline, Fredo is open behind Deng but four feet behind the line. Boozer is wide open in the corner, because Jeff Foster is protecting the basket. Question #2: What is Boozer's purpose in this play? It can't possibly be for him to take a 3, right? He should be around the basket for rebounding purposes. If he was there right now, Deng and Boozer would basically have a 2-on-1 against Jeff Foster. Question #3: What if Rasual Butler was in there instead of Boozer? Foster couldn't leave him wide open (although I assume Vogel might have changed the personnel up in that case) and Deng would have an open lane to the basket. If the plan was to take a 3 the whole time, why wouldn't you have another spot up shooter out there? Hell, even Bogans would have been a good call there. (OK, go ahead and roll it) Deng lets Granger push him to the corner, Boozer takes a terrible 3, game over.
And that's your Harris Bank Telestrator.
Derrick? Or TT?- 30%
Henry Abbott of TrueHoop wrote an interesting piece this week on the topic of rest, primarily as it pertains to the Bulls. As a shooter sometimes you have an off day where everything is just a little off, but in various directions. And sometimes you have an off day where everything is just a little short. That's when you know you're tired. And as every single Derrick Rose jump shotst clanged off the front of the rim, I couldn't help think of that article, and all the times this season Derrick was still in the fucking game when we were up 20 on a team like the Raptors with 2 minutes to go in the 4th quarter. He did it with Luol, too. You can't blame the ankle, this has been happening all series. Derrick is now 5-29 from behind the arc in the series, and I'm willing to bet at least 20 of those 24 misses hit the front of the rim first.
The Bench Mob (except for Fredo)- 20%
Or should we call Foster, McRoberts, Price, Jones, and Dunleavy the new Bench Mob? Our guys have been outscored 128-84. Take away Fredo's points and they only have 45. Taj has been bad on both ends. TBN hasn't been doing TBN things since game 1. CJ has been playing tentative and scared. Big Sexy has been...well he's been about the same. I wonder how much of it has to do with the reduced minutes (especially in TBN's case. He doesn't seem to be in the flow of the game at all anymore, and I haven't seen him sneak along the baseline more than once this whole series.) Either way, this is supposed to be a strength, so they really need to step it up if we're going to compete for an Eastern Conference title.
The Bigs- 10%
Somehow, when all was said and done, the Bulls outrebounded the Pacers by 1 this game? Does that surprise you? It surprised the hell out of me. Jeff Foster pulled down 7 offensive rebounds, some of them with Boozer just standing there watching. And it wasn't just Boozer, he made Kurt and Joakim look bad when they were supposed to be boxing him out as well. The Pacers big men are a class beneath our guys. I will take Noah and Boozer over Hibbert and Hansbrough any day, but we're not really attacking them and making them play good D. Maybe some of that was Derrick's ankle today, but on one of the many Luol drives to the basket in the 4th I yelled at the TV "Why the FUCK haven't we been doing this all game?!?!?" Attacking the basket will always be there, so let's not get away from it in Game 5.
That 3-on-1 with 1:13 left- 5%
I know Derrick wants to accelerate and finish like normal, but he clearly couldn't today. So please, Derrick, recognize that you have two trailers and dish it to one of them. And trailers (Booze and Fredo), maybe let him know you're there. A basket there would have cut it to 5 with over a minute left, and they probably wouldn't have had to foul at all.
Absolved-
Luol Deng- What the hell else was he supposed to do? Except maybe start attacking the basket like that sooner.
Joakim- 21 and 14 and about all our heart, as usual. The silver lining of this loss is that I expect Joakim and Derrick to be so pissed about it they leave absolutely no doubt in Game 5.
Bogans- Bogans did everything he was supposed to do. I would have maybe liked to see them rotate to him a little more, since nothing else was working.
No comments:
Post a Comment