NBA Playoffs Thread

Korver has zero or one FG in six of the last eight playoff games. And that includes nights of 1-7, 1-8 and 1-9.

 

Bulls don't need to panic. They can still win tomorrow and regain home court.

I don't buy the notion that the Bulls have no answer to the Heat's help rotation on Rose. It's there, they just need to figure out how to take advantage. The Mavericks had Dirk taken away Saturday and they moved the ball and scored. Someobody's going to have an opportunity to do the same for Chicago.

As noted above, Korver isn't getting it done right now. He may be the key. He's the kind of player who will go 1-for-9, then 1-for-8, then 8-for-11. If he has that kind of night Tuesday, it's probably 2-2 headed back to Chicago.

Again, the Bulls are in some trouble. But Miami's far from out of the woods yet.

 

Bob,

It doesn't seem to me that Miami is doing anything new in guarding Rose. Just doing it better.

Everyone has trapped Rose on the pick-and-roll. Miami is just quicker and longer and more persistent.

The Bulls aren't a juggernaut, as you say. But they aren't almost a juggernaut or one notch below "juggernaut" (which is what, "leviathan?" ;D ).

Korver wasn't hitting against Atlanta, either. Boozer was mediocre on offense (and continues to be a catastrophic liability on defense).

I guess where we diverge (if we do) is that it just didn't matter, because Atlanta was easier to defend.

Here's the minimum points the Bulls would have needed to win the four games they won over Atlanta: 74, 83, 84, 74.

Maybe I'm just being a fanboi. I was impressed by Miami's defense but I also feel like the Bulls played a BAD offensive game, all on their own.

I know you can't weigh a team's offensive performance in a vacuum. But the Bulls turned the ball over a lot on purely bad decisions and dumb passes. They missed lay-ins and makeable and-1's that had nothing to do with Miami's defense. They fumbled passes (one play -- where Gibson failed to catch a pass he would have dunked easily, leading to a rushed 3 at the buzzer followed by a LeBron 3 in transition in the fourth quarter -- looms large in my day-after recall) and took bad shots.

Both teams play very good defense. Many, many possessions in this series come down to the last eight seconds of the shot clock, when the first few options in a give half-court set have produced no advantage.

Miami has two (and three, with Bosh) masters at finishing a possession in the final eight seconds of a shot clock.

Chicago has one.

That, more than Miami's purported brilliant or suffocating defense, explains why the series stands where it stands.

 

Yeah, this series is over just as much as it was over when the Bulls were up 1-0. But it really will be over with a loss tomorrow night.

 

Korver and Deng have to start hitting from the outside, consistently, so Miami has to respect it. The Bulls also might need to run plays in which Rose gives up the ball quickly, but gets it back at another spot on the floor after running through some screens so he can get some space. Miami is just packing it in beneath the 3-point line, almost daring Chicago to shoot. I also like the TNT crew's suggestion that the Bulls pick up the pace on offense so Miami doesn't get a chance to set its defense, and thus negate the advantage of Rose's end-to-end speed.

Plus, the Bulls have to figure out if there's any way possible to get Anthony away from the basket, or find a way to attack where he isn't. Miami can overplay Rose because the Heat have the equivalent of the hot goalie by the basket.

 

Why don't the Bulls force Anthony/Bibby/Miller/Haslem to beat them? Instead they leave Bosh open. I know Bibby hit 2 big 3s and Haslem has started hitting some elbow jumpers but the Bulls are letting the Heat off the hook by guarding the secondary players. Force the non big3 to score 40+ while doubling the Big3 constantly.

As for the Bulls offense, when its not Rose, its either Deng/Brewer jacking up jumpers or Noah fumbling the ball while trying to "attack" the rim or Boozer throwing up another rainbow jumper; neither are as attractive options as Wade or James or Bosh on a weakside cut.

Still 2-1, series is far from over.

 

Here's a key quote about Westbrook from the TrueHoop blog:

"He’s yet to play a game this series in which he has more assists than turnovers."

I find it hard to believe that you win a 7 gm series with that as your PG's statistical line.

 

I would agree it's not different -- it doesn't have to be different if you have better talent. (Though Indiana's strategy was trapping Rose high, if they didn't use a taller player on single coverage, rather than clogging the lanes, so there have been a few different wrinkles thrown at the Bulls offense.)

And you can say, too, that the Bulls actually aren't playing that differently on offense, at least in terms of sloppiness. Again, citing Indiana, the Bulls were turning over the ball a ton, but Miami, unlike the Pacers, has the talent to take advantage.

And that's what it comes down to: talent. If the Heat play together and play defense, Chicago is not going to beat them, because the Bulls don't have the talent to keep up with the Big Three.

 

The Basketball Gods do not look kindly on teams whose shoot-first point guard preens after a lucky jumper puts his team up by 10.

 

25 turnovers for OKC tonight, nearly twice as many as Dallas' 13. Seems like that's been the story in about every OKC loss this postseason.

That team could dearly use some Jason Kidd style veteran passer/ballhandler in that rotation to steady the ship when those talented kids start going haywire. Westbrook's an unreal talent, but he's not a guy you can rely on to make the right pass or decision when you need it. And I'm not sure he'll ever become that guy.

 

Wow, turned off the game when OKC was up 15 with less than five minutes to play. They LOST?!?!!?!

Serves Clay Bennett right.