While each game was periodically slow and occasionally agonizing, in a macro sense, the end was swift and merciful for the 2013-2014 Chicago Bulls. No going home for a winner-take-all Game 7 against the Wizards, or attempting to fend off elimination in Game 6 versus Indiana, just a meager 69 points scored at home in Game 5 of the first round. This was also the first time in the Thibodeau Era that the Bulls didn’t win Game 1 of a series in which they were eliminated. Aside from the time between Sunday night and tipoff on Tuesday, in which a 2-1 deficit with Nene facing suspension for Game 4 inspired tempered optimism, the Bulls thankfully didn’t get our hopes up.

That’s not to say we gave up on them, but the prospects of Chicago making a run to the Eastern Conference Finals were never based out of confidence in the Bulls themselves, but rather that their experience, maturity and culture, in addition to their smothering defense, would be just enough to outlast the decaying depth of decency in the East. It seems like a long time ago now, but before the playoffs started there was serious doubt as to how much impact Nene would have in the playoffs coming off of injury, while the Pacers are one loss away from completing the most baffling collapse in recent memory. Since D.J. Augustin and Joakim Noah rescued their season, I’d hoped for the Bulls to lose in Round 1 so the likes of Noah and Jimmy Butler could simply get a year’s respite from the grind of playoff basketball. I changed my tune a little bit when the Pacers stumbled, and then eventually imploded, but it’s probably for the best that another unexpected postseason run doesn’t mask the major blemishes that currently prevent the Bulls from being on the initial roll call of title contenders. Anything that prevents the Thibs mantra of “more than enough to win with” from absolving ownership and the front office from doing what needs to be done is fine by me.

That motto fits with how the Bulls have won games under Thibs, especially in the absence of Derrick Rose. It’s a relative to the always popular “hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard,” which can be true, but this series showed what happens when the talent does work hard. The Wizards won 44 games, their most since 2004-2005, also the last time they had won a playoff series. It was a great turnaround for a team that hadn’t even won 30 games since 2007-2008, but think about it. That team only won 44 games. Yes, Nene missed a large chunk of games and their backup point guard situation was a flaming mess until trading for Andre Miller, but still. To say that a team with that starting five and quality backups like Martell Webster and Trevor Booker was a disappointment only winning 44 games in this year’s East isn’t unreasonable. I picked the Bulls to win this series because, just as I suspect many did, I thought they would be more dialed in to the intensity of the game and honestly want it more. Even Wizards fans were surprised by how well they came to play.

To absolve the "experts" a bit, this team I just watched for 5 games I did not see more than 5x during the regular season.

— James Straton (@WorldwideJames) April 30, 2014

Washington was locked in, and with that, the Bulls were doomed. 

The Wizards have eight legit players with practically a perfect distribution. John Wall is the star, so dynamic that his movement bends the entire fabric of the defense. Bradley Beal is The Next Great Shooter, except he’s largely already arrived. Trevor Ariza is a spot-up shooter who can handle a bit and is a rangy defender. Nene and Marcin Gortat are an upper tier pair of bigs who complement each other well. Then they have the three pieces every contender needs off the bench: a backup point (Miller), a third big (Booker) and a useful swingman (Webster).

Every Bull other than Noah and Taj Gibson has flaws so glaring that elaborating on them would feel like overkill, and in addition to Taj’s ankle injury late in Game 5, we learned Noah had been dealing with a knee injury for some time now, perhaps explaining his substandard play for much of the series. The Wizards dominated the Bulls because they had more two way players and more difference makers.

The other reason Chicago was such an overwhelming pick to advance was the coaching mismatch. To his credit though, Randy Wittman and his staff were great. They had their team prepared in every way and made the necessary adjustments, such as making sure Mike Dunleavy wouldn’t beat them again after his historic Game 3 performance. Thibs on the other hand was rather underwhelming, though that’s more of a big picture concern, as any adjustments in this series would have been rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

The way the season ended shouldn’t discolor the achievements of the entire season. Noah was a completely deserving Defensive Player of the Year, Taj should have claimed Sixth Man of the Year, and overall, they won 48 games after losing their best player to injury again as well as dealing with the on-court and off-court ramifications of trading away Luol Deng, All-Star, beloved teammate and the franchise’s most tenured player.

With that being said, uncertainty continues to cloud this team. The Rose/Noah/Deng/Boozer nucleus ran its course, and the bridge to the next true contender has only partially been built. The 2012-2013 Bulls had us (and them) waiting for Derrick Rose. Ultimately, the 2013-2014 Bulls, for all their success, have us waiting for change.

The post Series Summary: Bulls Ousted By Wizards in 5 Games appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

In a year full of insane games, with not one but two triple overtime games, Joakim Noah triple doubles and The D.J. Augustin Experience, tonight’s season-saving 100-97 win in Washington takes its place alongside them at the very top (I’ll avoid invoking a certain four-headed national monument).

The four main takeaways from the game:

1. Mike Dunleavy was essentially the Human Torch. 8-10 from three, he poured in 35 points. He fell just shy of his career high (36). Aside from Luol Deng scoring 37 in the triple OT loss to New Orleans (which seems so long ago), it was the highest output from a Bull this year. He broke the Bulls franchise record for threes in a game. It was the most points by a Bull in a playoff game since Derrick Rose’s 44 point explosion against Atlanta back in 2011. 12-19 overall, Dunleavy was swishing shots all night, and using the threat of his shot to drive and dish to bigs in the interior. Dunleavy came into this game having won one playoff game in his career. He took a discount to play with Rose and a title contender, and while that’s no longer in play, simply put, he saved Chicago’s season tonight.

2. I’m not a believer in momentum, but the Nene-Jimmy Butler stare down (seen above) with 8:28 remaining may have opened the window for the Bulls. After Nene scored, he and Jimmy traded minor pushes. Nene then turned around headbutted Jimmy, who didn’t back down. He continued to escalate the situation, grabbing Jimmy by the back of the head as other players and the referees separated them. Butler got a technical, while Nene drew two and an ejection. Frustrations were bound to boil over, considering the amount of contact allowed by the officials, and though it’s hard to argue it tilted the game in Chicago’s favor (they pushed their two point lead up to seven, but again let it slip away down the stretch), it seemed to get Jimmy going. He hit his first three pointer of the series directly after the incident and his second to break a 91-91 tie to put the Bulls up for good with 24 seconds to go.

3. The refs, as mentioned, let a lot of contact of go. They also contributed to letting the final minute or two turn into a comedy of errors, calling multiple fouls on plays that might not have actually been fouls. The Bulls had a turnover right out of a timeout and Dunleavy threw away an inbounds pass. Tony Snell fouled John Wall in the backcourt as he entered a shooting motion. The Bulls were up five and essentially clinched victory only to give Washington hope. Both sides missed crucial free throws, as Taj Gibson split two different pairs of attempts and Wall missed both freebies when the game was tied at 91. The Wizards added an exclamation point to the absurdity when Trevor Ariza threw away a pass with the Wizards pushing the ball upcourt for a final heave to get the game into overtime.

4. Tom Thibodeau’s minutes management and rotations were significantly better tonight. Jimmy only played 40:32, getting rest in both halves, and it showed. He wasn’t gassed like in Game 2. His threes in the fourth had good lift, he attacked the rim a bit and had a couple aggressive rebounds. Thibs gave Snell a couple minutes in the second half in Butler’s place, even after the rookie missed both his three pointers in the first half. Dunleavy played down the stretch unlike in Game 2, as Thibs couldn’t justify sitting the scorching hot shooter. Also, instead of leaving him for the whole half, he gave Dunleavy a brief break in the fourth. The one quibble might be that Kirk Hinrich, who for the most part played poorly, replaced Augustin, who also played poorly but can at least open up the offense with dribble penetration, but with neither playing well, it’s at least understandable that he’d want Hinrich in to guard Wall.

Speaking of Wall, this looked like the night Washington would get The John Wall Game. He had 11 points in the first quarter and had everything going. He was attacking the rim and hit a deeeeeeeep three pointer. However, he had just 12 points the rest of the night and has yet to have a dominant game this series.

Chicago got strong games from both Taj and Carlos Boozer. The latter had his usual defensive gaffes but with 14 points on 6-12 shooting added to Dunleavy’s output, the Bulls merely trailed after the opening minutes, rather than getting run out of the gym. Taj was his usual hard-working self, dominating most of the second quarter on both ends.

Just as Wall hasn’t been his best self, neither has Noah, who continues to struggle mightily. Jo had just six points and nine rebounds, with as many turnovers (four) as assists. He also went 2-6 from the line. This series might come down to which team’s best player finds his game first. The two All-Stars will get their next chance to get going on Sunday.

The post Bulls 100, Wizards 97: Dunleavy Goes Nova And Jimmy Gets The Last Laugh appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

The quick version of this game: The Bulls got down big, hung on by the hair on their chinny-chin-chin, took the lead and controlled the second half before blowing another lead. Washington called a very poor final play, ending with Joakim Noah and Jimmy Butler defending a Bradley Beal fadeaway. Chicago’s inability to score had them down in overtime, but they came back. With a chance to tie the game, they failed in excruciating fashion (see point #4).

There’s a kajillion different talking points about this game. Of them, there are five that are the most important:

1. The refs were awful. They sabotaged Washington for a while, until they kept screwing over the Bulls, and then they played “fair” blowing calls equally. Both suffered crucial poor calls down the stretch and in overtime. Joey Crawford and his crew were Warriors-Clippers Game 1 level atrocious, but neither side could have blamed them. If Washington lost, it would have because they went 16-28 from the free throw line. If the Bulls lost, which they did, well…more on that shortly.

2. Bradley Beal was amazing. As so many expected, he rebounded from a shaky Game 1, pouring in a game-high 26 points on 9-20 shooting, 4-7 from three, adding seven rebounds and two assists. The Bulls were shockingly poor getting out to shooters, especially in the first half. Some was due to being more aggressive with help, but the scattered transition defense was alarming, uncharacteristic and inexcusable.

3. For the Bulls this was “A Tale of Two Point Guards.” D.J. Augustin, with a team-best and playoff career-high 25 points, won them this game. On the verge of getting blown out in the first half, Augustin’s shooting rescued Chicago time and time again. Going over 40 minutes for just the fourth time this year, D.J. ran out of steam a bit, especially with Washington shifting Trevor Ariza onto him, but the Bulls should have finished this game off and D.J. got them there. He also had seven assists, three more than any other Bull.

4. If D.J. was the best of times, then Kirk Hinrich was the worst of times. Fittingly, the 2013-2014 Bulls season probably came down to Hinrich at the line for two free throws (only probably, because hey, they’re the Bulls and scrap and fight and all that stuff that I believe they’re really about because I’d hate to live life as a cynic, and once you’ve seen Nate Robinson resuscitate your season in a triple OT win, after which Jo basically wins Game 7 on one foot, the door has to be left open just a smidge). A polarizing figure for his occasionally stabilizing defense, increasingly solid shooting and derptastic offensive decisions, no Bull has caused more vacillating opinions this year. He missed both free throws, with the first being the most crucial. He was awful after replacing Mike Dunleavy in the fourth quarter to round out Thibs’ usual finishing lineup. Plus/minus can be deceiving (Beal was -1), but Hinrich was a game-worst -13. Every other Bull was between -5 and +3. But overall, Hinrich’s flaws (well, most of them) aren’t his fault and it isn’t his fault he’s on the court, which leads to…

5. Thibs. (WARNING: This is the part where I say really nice stuff before criticizing him.) He’s great. One of the best. You look at this roster, with Augustin leading the team in scoring after getting cut and joining the team midseason, and realize it won 48 games. Sure, that’s in the East, but by comparison, this Wizards squad has WAY more talent than the Bulls sans Derrick Rose (not even counting Luol Deng because it was Chicago’s choice to trade him). That these Wizards only won 44 games in the East is the biggest indictment imaginable of Randy Wittman. After Gregg Popovich, Thibs is in the discussion for best coach and is certainly in the top five. He revolutionized NBA defense, etc, etc.

But I can’t resist feeling like his decisions cost them this game and are hurting them in the series. Consider:

-Hinrich replaced Dunleavy at the 5:39 mark of the fourth quarter. They scored four points in the rest of regulation. Their offense was an absolute mess. Dunleavy was bad again in the first half, but he doesn’t even have to be hitting shots for teams to respect him. He has a reputation as a great shooter, whereas teams often float off of Hinrich to cause trouble elsewhere. Thibs didn’t even put Dunleavy in on that final possession, down two with a handful of seconds to go. The Bulls have one good shooter and Jimmy and Kirk were giving them nothing offensively. If Thibs can’t control himself and quit his addiction to the “scrappy” guard (he’s far from the first coach to lean on a veteran backup-type), the front office needs to not bring him back even at the minimum and take the issue out of his hands.

-As for Jimmy, he was absolutely gassed. His shot has sucked all year, but he makes up for it in Tony Allen/Gerald Wallaceish ways, cutting off the ball, offensive rebounding, lobs, that sort of thing. But to free Beal from Jimmy, Washington runs all sorts of action, whether it’s around a parade of screens, or Beal faking cuts and reversing to get a handoff from a screening big, as detailed in yesterday’s breakdown. Jimmy is always game to go all 48, as he did tonight plus overtime, but just because he can doesn’t mean he should. Tony Snell has given them legitimately good minutes in this series. This isn’t Thibs having to cover for not having another option. Jimmy needs a breather at some point. Having Jimmy out there doesn’t help if he’s too tired to contribute.

-MORNING EDIT: Forgot to add that Nene (8:39) and Beal (6:59) each picked up their fifth fouls in the fourth. Both exited after their respective fouls, with Beal coming back at the 5:15 mark and Nene 15 seconds later. Beal played the rest of the game including overtime and Nene didn’t foul until the final Hinrich play that wasn’t even a foul. The Bulls did a poor job of attacking when they could have fouled them out or gotten better looks because they didn’t want to foul out.

-Thibs is all about trying harder. Every interview question, no matter how well the Bulls are playing, ends up with Thibs saying the defense has to be better, and aside from the fact that the Bulls won’t win this series solely with defense, that’s fine, because it’s what’s gotten the Bulls as far as they’ve gotten. But trying harder isn’t always enough. He’s so intent on breaking through the mountain that he can miss how to simply walk around it. Trying smarter doesn’t have to mean giving less effort.

-On that note, a couple things the Bulls should contemplate: Starting Taj (Boozer against Washington’s bigs puts the Bulls in a hole the same way Kendrick Perkins puts OKC in a hole against Miami, plus it staggers Taj’s minutes rather than having him play 15 minutes all at once) and giving Snell more run. Hinrich and Boozer just can’t keep up with Washington’s size, speed and shooting.

-Game 3 is on Friday, but I suspect we’ll be talking more about this game in the days before then.

The post Wizards 101, Bulls 99 (OT): You Get What You Deserve appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

As noted in yesterday’s post, Nene was a destructive force in Game 1, but seeing as the Bulls contained John Wall and his trio of perimeter shooters rather well, defense is not where the game was lost. They faltered down the stretch on the offensive end of the floor. For Chicago to even the series, here’s a couple points of emphasis for their attack in Game 2:

1. Attack John Wall off the ball

Wall is too fast for Kirk Hinrich to beat off the dribble at a productive clip, but much as how Washington gave Bradley Beal room to breathe by faking cuts and reversing away from Jimmy Butler, the Bulls can get Hinrich space by moving him around because Wall gets caught ball-watching and letting Kirk drift away.

In this first shot, Hinrich has looped around by the baseline from the other side, but Wall notices D.J. Augustin begin to drive and abandons Hinrich, leading to…

this made three pointer by Kirk after he makes himself available on the wing. It’s one of the cleanest looks Chicago got all night and Kirk knocked it down.

Again, Wall is so preoccupied by Augustin he allows Hinrich to move and create another open shot. This time he misses, but unlike earlier in the season, he’s capable of making teams pay for giving him such a good look.

It’s not just with Hinrich either, as Wall is eager to jump this passing lane to D.J.

It leads to Augustin cutting towards the basket for a makable layup (which he missed):

Finally, one more example of Wall losing Hinrich around screens:

Hinrich should get a clean look of this, but doesn’t, which leads to the next big adjustment for the Bulls…

2. Be more decisive with the basketball

Hinrich is open but an extra dribble by Jimmy as he searches for an outlet gives Beal the chance to leave Mike Dunleavy in the corner, so Hinrich rotates it to Dunleavy, but by that point, Wall has recovered and Dunleavy isn’t open. The sequence ends with a putrid foot-on-the-line long two that clangs away by Butler.

Here’s what happens when Hinrich goes into Steve Nash mode, trying to dribble around the whole court, even under the basket. He gets trapped and instead of finding an open Noah, he gives it Boozer. This possession ends with one of Dunleavy’s made triples, but it shows how their ball handlers will get in trouble if they aren’t committed to making quick decisions to either drive all the way to the basket or move the ball to the open man before it’s too late.

A perfect example of how the Bulls can succeed came on another of Dunleavy’s made threes. After Kirk drives and kicks it to the corner, Jimmy fakes the three and drives to the hoop.

Butler meets trouble at the rim, but finds Boozer in the other corner, who instantly gets it up top back to Hinrich. Notice that Washington’s spacing is in chaos after multiple drives into the teeth of the defense.

Beal attempts to recover, and Hinrich drives to suck in Ariza off of Dunleavy.

It takes four crisp passes, but Chicago got their best shooter a wide open look by not hesitating and not over-dribbling. Hopefully we see more of this tonight.

Another facet of being decisive is not passing up decent looks. For example, Kirk elected not to shoot this…

and Chicago ended up with this instead:

The Bulls aren’t the Spurs. They can’t pass up good looks for great looks because they won’t get them. They need to simply take the good looks. I don’t think playing Boozer in the fourth will help at all, but there is something to be said for the way he plays. He’s trying to get his, but he isn’t shy about shooting and sometimes his teammates need that same attitude.

One other way the Bulls could get crisper possessions is getting the ball to Noah more to let him operate and direct traffic. His frontcourt touches and elbow touches were lower in Game 1 than his season averages, despite being on the court for longer.

3. Make shots

It sounds so simple to say they need to make shots, but if D.J. even goes 5-15 instead of 3-15, the Bulls might have won Game 1.

The post Game 2 Preview: 3 Ways The Bulls Can Improve On Offense appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

From Flickr via Matthew Britt

To (heavily) paraphrase a line from Rust Cohle, the NBA season is a flat circle. This season saw Chicago Bulls fans cycle from hope and excitement (Derrick Rose’s return), to disappointment and despair (his injury), to grief (the Luol Deng trade). But as the season progressed our sorrow slowly morphed back into optimism with stellar play from the team and, now that the playoffs are here, are back to feeling hope and excitement about what this team could accomplish.

This year’s hope stems from the ideal playoff seeding. With an end-of-the-season loss, the Brooklyn Nets fell from the 5th seed to the 6th seed, keeping Chicago out of what would have likely been a very grueling and exhausting physical series. Instead, the Bulls have drawn the Wizards in the first round for what should be an easier series physically. Should Chicago advance they’re likely to face a struggling Indiana Pacers team that is far from a lock to make the Eastern Conference Finals.

But before we get ahead of ourselves we need to remember that though the Wizards will be less of a physical drain, they’re still a young and dangerous team that could present quite the challenge for the Bulls.

Season Series:

The Wizards beat the Bulls in two of the three games they played during the regular season. As tempting as it sometimes is to look at the regular season records as a measuring stick for success, it’s important to realize that the two wins the Wizards have came against a very different Bulls team. At the time Chicago was struggling having to deal with injuries, losing Luol Deng, and learning a new way to play without the veteran swingman. But since January 17th Joakim Noah played his way into MVP ballots, Taj Gibson emerged as a candidate for Sixth Man of the Year, and DJ Augustin has enjoyed a career resurgence that has more than dropped jaws, it’s broken them. All of this has led Chicago to the best second-half of the season record in the Eastern Conference. Thus if there’s any game we can use as a means to predict what to expect in this series it’d be the third game played earlier this month (that Chicago won). Unfortunately one game doesn’t tell nearly enough to make any sort of prediction about a series.

Roster advantages:

Front Court: Chicago Bulls– Let’s not act very surprised. The tandem of Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson is arguably one of the best, if not THE best, front court in the league. The rare days that Carlos Boozer shows up makes the front court even better with improved offensive production. Nene and Marcin Gortat will provide a challenge for the duo, but it should be business as usual given the intensity these two play.

Wing: Chicago Bulls– I think Trevor Ariza and Martell Webster are solid role players, but they Wizards wings don’t really worry me that much. Meanwhile the Bulls have two very solid wings in Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Jimmy Butler. The former stretches the floor for Chicago and plays solid defense while the latter will not let you score and is still playing fairly well offensively despite dealing with turf toe all season.

Back Court: Washington Wizards– Augustin has been phenomenal this season and closes the gap between Chicago and Washington’s back courts, but this advantage goes to the Wizards by a mile. John Wall and Bradley Beal have been great this season and, given their speed and scoring proficiency, should prove to be a challenge for Kirk Hinrich and Augustin. Chicago should find it challenging to stay in front of both of these guys and it’ll take a team effort to limit the damage that these two can do.

Coaching: Chicago Bulls- If there is one coach in the NBA that can devise a system to stop Beal and Wall from exploiting Augustin’s below average defense and Hinrich’s slowed-with-age defense it’s Thibodeau. The man remains one of the best coaches in the league and should figure out a system to shut Beal and Wall down. Hats off to Wizards coach Randy Wittman because he’s done a great job with his team this year. But at the end of the day there is only one, maybe two, coaches you would pick ahead of Thibodeau.

X-Factor:

Chicago’s offense is still one of the ugliest in the league. It’s a pure dumpster fire. But things have improved a little bit since Augustin has emerged as a legitimate scoring option for the team. The only issue is that Augustin, for as good as he’s been, remains a streaky player who could either do well or end up hurting the team with inefficiency. Jason Patt of Blog-A-Bull said it best when he compared Augustin to Nate Robinson. If the good Augustin shows up then Chicago should win their games with a combination of his scoring ability and Noah’s excellent high-post work. If Augustin doesn’t perform then each game could be a battle.

Projected Starting Lineup:

 Schedule:

Game 1: Sunday, April 20 at Chicago, 6 p.m., TNT and CSN

Game 2: Tuesday, April 22 at Chicago, 8:30 p.m., TNT and CSN

Game 3: Friday, April 25 at Washington, 7 p.m., ESPN and CSN

Game 4: Sunday, April 27 at Washington, 12 p.m., ABC

Game 5*: Tuesday, April 29 at Chicago, TBD

Game 6*: Thursday, May 1 at Washington, TBD

Game 7*: Saturday, May 3 at Chicago, TBD, TNT and CSN

* if necessary

Prediction:

Chicago Bulls in 6 games

The post Playoff Primer Round 1: Chicago Bulls vs Washington Wizards appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.