What’s wrong with the Chicago Bulls?
That became a popular question in the aftermath of their come-from-behind victory in Game 1 on Saturday. It’s going to be even more popular today, tomorrow, and in the hours leading up to Game 3 in Indianapolis on Thursday.
Because there must be something wrong with a team that has won 11 games in a row and 23 of their last 25.
So what’s wrong with these guys anyway? Let’s ask Derrick Rose.
“Our play has to get better,” Rose said. “We have to be more smooth, more efficient, especially on the defensive end where we have to try a lot harder. But I feel like we’re going to get things together pretty quickly.”
Better defensively? Last night, the Bulls held he Pacers to 90 points on 41.6 percent shooting, forced 18 turnovers and won the rebounding battle 57-33. Indy finished with an Offensive Efficiency of 91.8.
The defense was fine. The offense? Not so much.
The Bulls shot 38.6 percent from the field and misfired on nine of their 14 three-point attempts. They also bricked seven free throws. Starters Luol Deng (3-for-13), Joakim Noah (2-for-10) and Keith Bogans (1-for-5) couldn’t have located the basket with a GPS device. Derrick Rose scored a game-high 36 points and went 12-for-13 from the foul line, but he missed 14 of his 25 shot attempts.
Apparently, Indiana’s defense was fine, too.
Worse than the misdirected shooting, though, was that the Bulls gave up 26 points off 22 turnovers. Look, playoff basketball is tough. Defenses step up the intensity and shooting percentages tend to drop. That’s to be expected.
To win in the postseason, teams need to play defense, rebound and take care of the basketball. In Game 1, the problem was either that the defense didn’t play as expected or the Pacers shot the lights out from mid-range (or both). Last night, the Bulls played solid defense and took care of the boards. However, they did not value possession of the basketball. And it nearly cost them Game 2.
That said, let’s think things out a bit.
This quote from the AP recap really stood out to me: “It hasn’t been easy for the Bulls after they stormed through the regular season with a league-best 62-20 record.”
Did you see what I saw?
The Bulls did indeed finish with a record of 62-20. Best in the NBA. But it’s not really accurate to say they “stormed through the regular season.” The 2010-11 Bulls did a great many things, but storming was not one of them. Several teams — the Celtics, Hornets, Lakers, Mavericks and Spurs, for instance — ran out to better early-season records. And there were long stretches of the season in which the Bulls had, say, the fourth, fifth or sixth best record in the NBA.
No, what they did was not “storming” so much as it was grinding out win after gritty win. As the season wore on and other teams struggled with injuries, boredom, or a general pulling back of the throttle to reserve energy (both mental and physical) for the playoffs, the Bulls came out with the same level of focus and desire to win every game every night.
The Bulls were the league’s best regular season team not because they are the most talented group of players but because they wanted it more. Because their focus and intensity was more consistent than any other team in the Association.
And so now there’s been a major shift in perception. Remember: The Bulls were not expected to lead the East in regular season wins. Many people figured they would finish behind the Celtics, Heat and Magic at a bare minimum. Maybe the Hawks, too. And, as I’ve mentioned, there were people who genuinely believed that the Milwaukee Bucks might win the Central Division.
With great power comes great responsibility, right? Well, with 62 wins comes increased expectations. When the Bulls were grinding out win after regular season win, they were exceeding the expectations that had been set for them prior to the season. But now, because they were the league’s best team for 82 games, there are new expectations. Namely, that they should be steamrolling their opponents, especially lesser teams like the Pacers.
Look, I’m not trying to demean the players on this team, because they’re great guys. That said, the Bulls’ success this season has caused many people to overrate the team’s talent. I think this has happened for two reasons. First, because the Bulls have been so successful, people need to reframe the situation to better understand it. “Oh,” they decide, “these guys must be a lot better than I gave them credit for.”
Second, in the rush to argue against Rose’s MVP candidacy, it became a popular notion to suggest that his teammates were actually better (or even much better) than previously assumed. “Hey,” they pointed out, “check out those plus-minus numbers. The Bulls aren’t just Rose. They have a lot of really good players.”
I’m not sure that’s actually the case, though. If the Bulls truly had a lot of really good players, they wouldn’t have to start Bogans. No, what Chicago has are a lot of solid NBA contributors who bought into a concept (defense and teamwork) and played their butts off for six months.
I mean, let’s face facts. Carlos Boozer was a major free agent last summer, but he was definitely on the second tier of the most sought-after acquisitions. Kyle Korver and Ronnie Brewer might have been on the fourth tier. As far as I could tell, there were no bidding wars or trade battles for the services of C.J. Watson. Kurt Thomas is ancient. And everyone realizes that Omer Asik is a rookie with almost no offensive game to speak of and even less upper body strength, right?
Oh, for the record, I’m not saying any of this to boost Rose’s MVP resume. I just think that it’s worth reevaluating the updated perception of the Bulls. The 62-20 record looks overpowering, but this was not an overpowering team. The Bulls might be number one in terms of wins and losses, but in terms of pure talent, they might not be in the top five. They are very well coached, they play exceptionally hard and they believe in each other. Oh, and they have Rose to clean up any messes.
And if you take a look back at the last month or so of the season, the formula for winning became this: Play all out on defense and let Rose take over the last five minutes of the game. I’m serious. Go back through the game logs. The Bulls played a lot of close games in which their will and Rose’s ability to close simply wore down the other team.
That’s what’s happening right now. Nothing has really changed except what people believe the Bulls are supposed to be doing.
Said Noah: “Like we’ve been saying all year, we have really high character on this team. It’s funny how people always [say], ‘Oh, you guys are going to smack [them].’ People are just automatically expecting us to just beat down on teams. That’s what we want to do, but sometimes it’s not going to happen, and you’re going to find a way to win these games as well.”
Exactly.
The Bulls are not and have not been a “smack down” team. As Noah said, they are a high character team that wears down opponents with consistent effort and intensity. It worked in Games 1 and 2. And it should work well enough for them to win this series.
Past that?
We really don’t know yet, do we? These Bulls are travelling an unconventional path to success. They win more on scrap than talent, and the scrappy teams aren’t supposed to win 62 games and earn the top seed in their conference (and the league). They’re supposed to do what, say, the Houston Rockets did, or what the Pacers are doing now.
What will these Bulls do? What can they do?
Their are a lot of variables that effect regular season success. The playoffs are about talent. When you look at the past decade of NBA champions, you see Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. You see Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. Shaq and Kobe. The closest recent comparison is the 2003-04 Detroit Pistons who featured a top four of Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince.
Can the Bulls emulate their success?
I’m not sure. Those players were at the top of their repective games at that particular time. Rose, obviously, has never been better. Deng is having his best season (or second only to 2006-07). This hasn’t been Boozer’s best season. And, frankly, the Noah of right now is not the Noah from before his thumb injury. Jo is ripping down boards and playing defense, but he looks confused, hesitant and out-of-sync on offense. Earlier in the season, he was much more confident posting up, taking short jump hooks and shooting the midrange jumper. His offensive confidence is gone unless he’s dunking the ball or getting a putback.
To be perfectly blunt, Chicago’s offense has become too reliant on Rose. Actually, scratch “has become” from that sentence. It’s been too reliant on Rose for a while now. If I have any criticism of Tom Thibodeau, it’s that he has not (in my opinion) done enough to diversify the non-Rose parts of the offense. And I get that. I mean, it has been working. It worked well enough to earn the team 62 wins.
I’m afraid it may cost the Bulls during these playoffs. If not in this round, then in the next, or the one after that.
Or maybe I’m doing it now. Maybe I’ve caught the “What’s wrong with the Chicago Bulls” fever, too. They have an established formula that works for them. It has worked against bad teams and it has worked against the good ones as well. They are playing hard, executing down the stretch and, most importantly, winning.
So maybe there’s nothing wrong with the Chicago Bulls.
Update! I knew the Bulls had the second-best margin of victory in the league this season, but I didn’t realize how many blowouts they had. I checked the schedule, and it turns out the Bulls had 30 double-digit victories. Of those 30 wins, 17 of them were by 16 or more and seven of them were by 20 or more.
You know, it didn’t feel (to me) like there were that may double-digit wins. Maybe I need to (partially) reevaluate my perception of the Bulls as a grind-it-out team.
Extras:
Recap, Box Score, Advanced Box Score, Play-By-Play, Shot Chart, Photos.
The Bulls is an underdog team. In all the playoffs of reason memory, the expectation has been for the Bulls to lose. Now, the expectation is higher, and the Pacers are the underdog. The Bulls’ offense is struggling because they don’t have the ‘clawing the inside of the coffin’ mentality. I am not at all surprised that the Bulls have been a let down. I am surprised that the let-down is happening a bit early, sans D Howard and Lebron.
@rhett
I’m not going to say they let me down until they lose. 2-0 baby!
They’ll find their stride…Boozer was getting back into it and Deng will find his smooth stroke. If those 3 are good and the bench plays as is they’ll beat anyone in the league.
GO BULLS!
Anyone who has watched the team all year has to agree with you.
When Hollinger dished out his+\- numbers to rectify Howard as MVP Chicago fans responded with a sort of “huh. That’s awfully surprising.” We saw all season Chicago did not get those gaudy 20 point victories, how we rode Rose and Deng 37mpg, and how on the nights you weren’t getting 9 points from Keith, or 25 from Luol, or 12 from Kurt Thomas this team was all about Derrick Rose.
And like Wilbon said Rose’s Bulls are not unlike Jordan’s 89-90 Bulls, how Rose is on that level of Jordan in terms of clutch play in the final minutes. We see this developing and the media beginning to question the team on points we knew the answers to at the all-star break. Having a player averaging 39-6-7 is a blessing. It is everything we’ve wanted in this city. It is everything we’ve been waiting for since 1998.
I definitely agree with alot of your points Matt. The Bulls are a team that grinds out wins by wearing teams down with suffocating defense and relies heavily on Derrick Rose to close them out down the stretch. That being said, I know they can play better than this, and I’d rather them get the kinks out now Vs. Indiana then when we have to play an actual contender. Also, there have been very few times this season that Rose hasn’t risen to the occasion and closed out both good teams and bad. Here’s to hoping he can keep it up during a long playoff run.
GO BULLS!!!!!!!
I half agree with Matt’s points. The 62-20 regular season mark was an outlier on the high side for this group of players. They don’t have the talent of a typical 60+ win team. If the Bulls were struggling like this in a 3-6 matchup, I dont think it would raise that many eyebrows. But being the 1 seed, there’s a feeling we should “be better than this.”
But you know what? They are better than this. The notion that the Bulls are just a grind it out team that plays close games is wrong. We had the 2nd best point differential in all of basketball. We often blew teams out.
I believe more than the league catching up to the Bulls, pressure is catching up to the Bulls. Watching them play, they look like tight. 21 turnovers?!? That’s a team that’s pressing. 38% from the field? To me, that’s a team that’s pressing.
In Game 1, Indy shot their season best from 3. We knew that wouldn’t happen again and it didn’t. But in Game 2, the Bulls had their 3rd highest turnover rate of the season and 3rd worst effective FG%. Give Indy credit for playing hard, but that’s also the Bulls just executing very poorly.
This may be a difficult series, but the team I watched all year is definitely better than this.
Nice recap; I agree, especially about the lack of supporting talent (specifically, the near-complete lack of shot-creators not named Rose, which is, not surprisingly, the skill adv. metrics undervalue tremendously).
Another point I noticed; the Bulls have a nasty habit of running away from Rose when he’s trapped. I can’t tell if they just don’t recognize traps well, or if they expect Rose to break double-teams on his own, but that has to stop. The plays where guys ran to him (notably, when Noah ran up the lane, got Rose’s pass out of the trap, drove and passed to Korver for his 3) usually end well. Dealing with the aggressive high-traps would be a great NBA playbook segment – Bulls will be seeing a lot more of them…
Other then that; lazy mistakes (at least 10 or 12 unforced turnovers), team-wide case (exempting Korver) of broken jump-shot, and Noah’s hands seem to have something wrong with them (he’s fumbling balls all over the place). Hopefully they get back to normal soon.
“But you know what? They are better than this. The notion that the Bulls are just a grind it out team that plays close games is wrong. We had the 2nd best point differential in all of basketball. We often blew teams out.”
I did some stat-checking based on your comment and discovered, to my surprise, that the Bulls had 30 double-digit wins this season, 17 of which were by 16 or more and 7 of which were by 20 or more (plus five 30+ point wins). I have to admit, it didn’t feel like there were that many lopsided wins this season. So many of them felt close.
At any rate, I updated the post with this information and may need to reevaluate my perception of the Bulls as a grind-it-out team.
IMO, i think it’s more of an issue with nerves….when you watch Deng or Noah out there, they miss shots or make mistakes you normally wouldn’t see in a regular season game….same can be said for the remaining players in the supporting cast, with the exception of Korver, who has been a savior thus far.
i said it earlier in the regular season, i’d be worried if this CHI team grabbed the #1 seed, because i didn’t think they could handle the pressure of playing as the top dog in the playoffs just yet….after watching games 1 & 2, they don’t look like a team playing with the swagger of a #1 seed….NERVES are getting the best of them….Rose has been the only big name on that team that has been living up to expectations…. Deng/Boozer/Noah – too inconsistent to this point….until there’s a consistent #2 on this team, this team will get bounced early…that’s just my take.
The offense is out of sinc because of turnovers…and there are a lot more turnovers, because every ball into the paint is contested(hacked at by a Pacer)…it’s the no easy layup rule in the playoffs-which the Bulls did not run into much during the regular season. They have to adjust to that style of play and protect the ball more. Spacing in the paint becomes a premium. Korver and Boozer have to work the inside/outside post game…Noah has to get to the opposite side wing where Thomas sets up. They have to give room for Deng to drive to the hoop(everything is clogged up in the middle only Rose seems to be able to weed his way through it with any success.) The poor 3 pt shooting has added to the congestion in the middle. None of these problems are new…except for the higher rate of hacks by the opponent, which will continue throughout the playoffs.
The foul call on Rose when Price went up for the three was horrible. You can clearly see that Price grabbed Rose’s arm and kicked out his legs on his way down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9vJMvj8e7w
Matt,
I value your opinion much more than Wilbon’s when it comes to basketball (because you have demonstrated actual knowledge about the game) and especially in regards to the Bulls (I see Wilbon as a homer). With that being said, I think you may be wrong about this and have caught the “what’s wrong with the Bulls fever.”
Do I think they should be destroying the Pacers by double digits at home? Yes. Am I concerned about this series because they are not? No. Am I concerned about next round or the round after that because of this series? Not by a long shot.
The reason being… Everyone was saying this and that about the Lakers last year during the 1st rd then they went on to win the championship. In 08-09 the Magic were down 1-2 to the 76ers in the 1st round and went on to win the ECF. I know that those teams have nothing to do with the Bulls and comparing history to the present is utterly irrelevant, but I must do so just for perspective.
The Pacers are playing with a “nothing to lose” attitude no matter what they say or anyone else says. Sort of reminds me of when the Bulls played the C’s or the Cavs the past two seasons. The only difference is, they don’t have an MVP caliber player and two all-star caliber players (Jo-No & Boozer) the latter which the Bulls barely acquired this season. So yea, the games are a little closer than they should be. In in my very humble opinion, no matter what Thibs or Rose have said I truly believe the bulls were and still are looking past the Pacers and have their eyes on the ECF’s already.
I think they either sweep the Pacers, or maybe a gentleman’s sweep (win the first 3, give them a game, and win it in Chi-Town for their fans.) After this series, they turn it on and beat the hell out of the Hawks or the Magic and are ready to compete for the ECF and the Finals when the time is here. At the end of the day they are 2-0, while the Magic, Lakers and Spurs are 0-1 in their first round match-ups but yet everyone is dissecting the Bulls much more than any of those other teams. I’m sure the Lakers, Magic and Spurs and their fan base would all love to switch positions with the Bulls right now.
Thoughts?
On the update… only 11 of those double digit wins were against playoff teams. 3 were against the Pacers before the coaching change. Cross off the 45 point Philly blowout, and very few of those double digit wins broke 16 or more.
Bulls don’t dominate good teams — no one does, really. And recently the Pacers have been a good team. Put their backs against the wall with nothing to lose, and they become a better team even.
No shock here that these wins are close. But boy do I wish they weren’t quite THIS close!
To echo Adam’s point, there are lots of examples where a team struggled in the first round and still made a deep run. For instance:
’10: #1 seed Lakers take 6 games to beat OKC and win championship.
’09: #3 seed Magic take 6 games to beat Philly and win Eastern conference.
’08: #1 seed Celtics take 7 games to beat ATL and win championship.
’06: #2 seed Heat take 6 games to beat the Bulls and win championship.
I know the glory days Bulls never lost a first round game, but in recent memory, a championship caliber team having fits in round 1 is pretty common. I’m too lazy to research this trend further, but I also recall the ’93 Suns leading the league in wins and needing to come back from 0-2 in the 1st round against LA.
Now, NONE of this is to say I’m not concerned. I’m very concerned. But, we have seen very good teams struggle early, survive, and gain momentum. It may or may not happen for this Bulls team. But I know they CAN play better than this. We’ll just have to see if they do.
“With that being said, I think you may be wrong about this and have caught the ‘what’s wrong with the Bulls fever.'”
I may very well be, although I’m leaning toward thinking that Games 1 and 2 are similar to many of the wins the Bulls have had to grind out this season. Other than some poor shooting and sloppy play, I think the Bulls are pretty much what we thought they were. Maybe if the Bulls had an overwhelming talent advantage — and my argument is that they really don’t — then there’s no reason to 20-point wins to be the norm.
Part of the “talent” issue is that Boozer has tailed off (in terms of productivity) since his first month and a half with the team, and I can’t shake the feeling that sprained ankle is still bothering him (his lift has disappeared). Noah has not gotten back into the rhythm of the offense. I think that, instead of sacrificing a win here and there to establish a more well-rounded offensive system, Thibs has “cheated” by just dumping most of the offensive burden on Rose.
“I think they either sweep the Pacers, or maybe a gentleman’s sweep (win the first 3, give them a game, and win it in Chi-Town for their fans.) After this series, they turn it on and beat the hell out of the Hawks or the Magic and are ready to compete for the ECF and the Finals when the time is here. At the end of the day they are 2-0, while the Magic, Lakers and Spurs are 0-1 in their first round match-ups but yet everyone is dissecting the Bulls much more than any of those other teams. I’m sure the Lakers, Magic and Spurs and their fan base would all love to switch positions with the Bulls right now. Thoughts?”
It’s really hard to say. We’re still learning about this Bulls team. They evolved as the regualr season rolled along and now they’re in the playoffs. Do they have another playoff gear? How will they compete with the better teams when/if they get past the Pacers? Will Rose wear down? Etc.
In general, I think too much is made of small samples like one or two playoff games. The significance of every game is exaggerated.
I will say this, tho’: I want to see more Omer Asik. Unleash him. He’s got zero-calorie offense but his defense is fantastic.
i thought that bogans played great in the second half of the third quarter…if he can keep up that level of play whenever he is on the floor, then he will be a huge asset throughout the playoffs. Unfortunately that doesnt happen. and did anyone else catch Neil Funk say with about 330 left in the third “It’s Like Flying Chickens in a Barnyard”? I thought that was one of the funniest things ive heard all year.
Boozer is just doing his normal playoff disappearing act. Boozer’s play during the last three seasons against the Lakers doomed the Jazz every time. D-Will stepped up, Boozer stepped back.
Bottom line: Paul George is a menace. I’m not heaping undeserved praise on the guy, but he’s done en exceptional job, defensively. Remember Rose’s last few buckets in this game? Rose looked confident, comfortable and dominant. Rose was ALSO being guarded by Danny Granger–comparatively, an inferior defender–and took advantage of George’s p/r switch. The best player on a championship team is seldom 6’3”. Rose needs help, and he needs it before Miami becomes the juggernaut we all fear they’ll eventually become and before New York build a team around Amar’e and ‘Melo.
I think it’s not so much “what’s wrong with the Bulls” as it is “What’s right with the Pacers”. Yeah, they finished 8 under .500, but they finished 2 over .500 with their new coach.
They remind me a lot of the Bulls of the past few years, maybe not so much the Rose-era Bulls, but definitely the Bulls who beat the Heat in the first round a couple of years ago. They’re a young, very athletic, scrappy team who are all playing really hard for a coach they believe in. That’s enough to get you some success. They have no superstars, but they have a plethora of decent players. Be honest…what team out there wouldn’t want a Psycho T? A Granger? A Hibbert? None of them are amazing, but they’re all solid contributors. The Pacers will be a team to watch next year.
@uber – his first game may have been a complete dud, but i thought 17 points and 16 boards was a much better statline. that, and he must’ve gotten a serious tongue-lashing from Thibs, because i thought his defense looked improved. he seemed to contest Hansbrough’s shots better, and gave him more respect around the perimeter. granted, his D is still atrocious, but i thought he showed a bit of improvement last night, even if only for one game.
Uber—-> What’s a disgruntled Jazz fan doing in here? Thought you all were over that now that D.Will is gone and your coach quit on you and your team is terrible.
17 points and 16 boards. Yeah, Boozer was totally invisible last game lmao.
The fact is this is still a brand new team, and Bulls fans know as well as anyone that as the chemistry built during the regular season and the chemistry built during the playoffs are two different things.
Even when Boston built their empire, with KG and Allen, no one expected them to fully succeed in the depth of the playoffs that first year.
There is another level of trust that needs to accrue here and it is not something that can be turned on or inspired with a word by the coach.
I kept thinking, after watching the first two games, “This team needs to lose a game to really get what is going on here.”
Lastly, big credit to Vogel, the Pacers coach. After watching those games, I had the strong sense that the Pacers really knew what their roles were and they had a good game plan that they stuck to, for the most part.
Kudos.
Let’s hope that being on the road will be a little more relaxing for our team and they can play a little ‘us against the world’.
@TBF
Uber the “disgruntled jazz fan” is here because the Jazz are already fishing, and he is realizing how long he has been wrong saying D-Will is the best pg in the league.
So he is here merely to vent his frustrations that not only did D-Will ever win the MVP, never did anything noteworthy; and haha he is no longer with the Jazz. I mean face it, I would be pretty mad if the Bulls lost rose.
Anyways, This question is for Matt,
Everyone needs to settle down! the bulls are fine. I am happy this is happening now. Not only do the pacers just match up well with us, but we’re getting our playoff jitters out of the way so that in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, people won’t be saying, “due to a lack of experience”. Think about after this series, no matter if it ends in 4 5 or 6 games, the bulls will look back and say “look how bad we played, how we weren’t outselves…. yet we won”.
The 2nd round (especially if we play the hawks) will go so smoothly and we will regain all our momentum, and will be favored in the ECF.
this is an argument I am having with a Knicks fan and maybe you guys can give your opinions. I think the majority of us just felt the Pacers were going to lay down, but they are challenging the Bulls like they havent been challenged at all during the regular season (IMO). Pesky defense from Indy and carelessness on Chicagos offense, but my argument is: had the Indiana Pacers faced the Boston Celtics or Miami Heat and brought the same intensity, I feel Indy would be up 2-0 or 1-1 at best…..
The Rock – Agreed. The Pacers are bringing it. In fact, you could say that the Pacers are a more cohesive unit than the Knicks.
Here is a question:
The Bulls and Celtics are both up 2 to 0, and barely so.
Which team has more worries?