Well that was fun. Wins like the blowout over Houston are great, but there’s nothing like out-hustling the Heat or out-muscling the Pacers. Judging by the players themselves, they feel that way too. The Bulls did what they do so well, and channeled their frustration over iffy calls, alleged flopping and the handful of heels on the Pacers into passionate, angry play.

It certainly didn’t start out that way though. In a game of runs, the Pacers got the first one in, jumping out to a quick lead. The Bulls missed their first seven shots, failing to score for more than four minutes until Joakim Noah put in a jumper.

Noah was just one of multiple major players affected by foul trouble. Jimmy Butler took an early exit, especially for him, after picking up two quick fouls. Tony Snell was pressed into duty for more time than usual, playing both in the first quarter and in the second when Butler quickly drew his third foul upon returning. Snell was 0-6, including a couple misses on 3s he simply has to hit, but he held his own guarding Paul George one-on-one. Butler so rarely picks up fouls (he now has as many games with three or more fouls as he does with none at all, an astounding feat considering his minutes load) that unless he’s hurt, we don’t see the Bulls without him for extended periods. Times like tonight were nice to see and make me want to show this to Thibs:

Jimmy’s one of the best defenders in the NBA and he’s also a great rebounder for his position. But the Bulls can survive stretches without him, and more importantly, if they can’t, then the team isn’t good enough anyway, and the only way that improves is for Snell to get more run. Letting him play a little more isn’t just about giving Jimmy some rest, it’s about setting the team up better if he’s not available.

Anyways, back to the game.

George Hill’s hot start pushed the Pacers to a 19-13 lead at the first quarter that would have been even worse for the Bulls had Taj Gibson not slammed home a putback of a Snell drive as time expired. The rim-shaking dunk would not be his last.

The Bulls stayed afloat without Jimmy in the first half largely thanks to Indiana’s own offensive woes. After they dominated the beginning and end of the opening quarter, their bench failed them yet again. Luis Scola’s Dirk Nowitzki impression from Friday did not carry over, and Evan Turner struggled yet again (a welcome sight for Bulls fans). Scola and Turner are supposed to provide scoring punch off the bench for Indiana, but a 1-4 night from each led to them posting more turnovers than made field goals.

I think their bench speaks to a larger point about the NBA. In baseball, the smart teams have realized that relievers throw such a limited number of innings throughout the season that their year-to-year performance isn’t worth chasing. For every Brian Wilson or Fernando Rodney who has continued success after a dominant season out of the blue, there’s a dozen Brandon Leagues who turn back into pumpkins after cashing in on a strong year that turns out to be an anomaly.

The Pacers have been more in the latter category the last few years, acquiring and/or dumping Gerald Green, D.J. Augustin, Scola and Turner based on sample sizes that aren’t to be trusted, and it’s cost them in multiple ways, as they’ve dealt assets and lost flexibility acquiring players that aren’t moving the needle on the court. They keep reacting too much on the past, and this is an area where Chicago’s frugality is a positive. Instead of shopping for the hot item, they let the value come to them. It’s a cliche at this point, but the best teams won’t pay for Augustin’s performance this year, they’ll simply look for the next Augustin.

Chicago looked primed to go into the locker room up 33-31, but a defensive slip-up gave Hill a look at an open triple that he knocked down with a second remaining. The Bulls didn’t let it deter them however, as they jumped ahead in the third. That stretch was marked by a magnificent sequence in which Noah jumped in front of Hibbert to snatch an entry pass and chucked it ahead of Butler leaking out in fastbreak. The pass had too much on it for Jimmy to corral, but he tiptoed the end of the court, hurling it out to Mike Dunleavy who drilled a three to put the Bulls up 45-37. It only put them up eight, but considering this was Bulls-Pacers, it felt like it put them by 15.

A couple minutes later, Hibbert and Noah each picked up their fourth foul on back-to-back possessions. (Note: between these two fouls, Butler and David West picked up the weakest double technical you’ll ever see.) Could the Bulls hold their 50-41 lead without Noah? That seemed questionable when Carlos Boozer contests drives like this one from Lance Stephenson this poorly:

Seriously Carlos, he’s not contagious. As bad as that play was, Noah’s replacement decided the Bulls weren’t losing.

Taj proceeded to hit that rare level where he can spark the entire team. With his rough outing Friday still gnawing at him, he let out every bit of that frustration on both the Pacers and the rim. On another magical sequence, George, whose 8-22 night belies the difficulty of shots he hit to sustain Indiana’s second half offense, was ready to coast in for a dunk after swiping the ball from Boozer, but was stifled by Kirk Hinrich. Yes, Kirk Hinrich stymied Paul George. Video evidence and everything:

Hinrich recovered the ball, and after pushing it up court Jimmy missed at the rim. Taj cleaned up the mess though, violently slamming it through:

This shot is also the one at the top of the post, but I’m posting it again, because it was great and Taj Gibson is the best.

Taj’s reaction?

Indiana’s last gasp at a comeback ended when Stephenson was called for a charge with just over a minute to play. During a last second free throw stoppage, Thibs even gave Taj and Jo the rarely seen curtain call, inserting Erik Murphy and Toko Shengelia for mere moments just to let the raucous crowd know how much they appreciated the intense duo that led the Bulls to such a prized win.

Notes:

Hinrich must have assumed Pacers-Bulls was a national TV game because he sure played like it. A couple three pointers, floaters in the lane, that stop on George in transition. He was a big help tonight.

On the other hand, Hibbert had another poor outing. 0-5 from the field, he had three points, five rebounds, no assists and no blocks. We’ve seen Joakim struggle with the big centers like Hibbert, but at this point in the season, Hibbert and the Pacers look gassed, which allowed Noah and Gibson to outwork them.

The post Bulls Split Season Series With Pacers After 89-77 Win appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Tonight is the final round of Bulls/Pacers, barring Chicago falling into Indiana’s side of the bracket, and then winning their first round series. The first three rounds have all been claimed by the home team, with the most recent coming last Friday, as Indiana pulled away from Chicago in the second half. Indiana has floundered lately, but the Bulls and their offense out-floundered them in that game.

Friday’s loss looked a little more lopsided than it was thanks to Chicago’s third quarter offensive woes. Otherwise, it was a close game, even with Luis Scola practically shooting flames out of every orifice. In order to tie the season series, the Bulls will need better shooting. They hit five of their 11 threes (4-6 by Jimmy Butler), but shot just 36.4% overall, with poor outputs from Mike Dunleavy, Carlos Boozer and Taj Gibson.

Both teams felt the effects of that emotional and physical contest, as the Bulls struggled to hold off the hapless Sixers the following night, while Indiana could not withstand the toll of playing the Grit and Grind Grizzlies just one night after playing the Bulls. Each has had a night off, as well as time to stew on the latest footnotes to this rivalry’s expanding history. Gibson brought accusations of flopping by Indiana, which Roy Hibbert obviously denied. Also, Lance Stephenson got worked up, as he is wont to do, and stood over Mike Dunleavy after a made basket, which can been seen above. It will be interesting to see if either have any impact of the chippiness of tonight’s game.

The post Pacers at Bulls Preview appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

An undermanned Bulls team — currently missing their superstar (Derrick Rose), two starters (Kirk Hinrich and Rip Hamilton), and their top reserve (Taj Gibson) — playing with their backs against the wall against a top-notch opponent.

It’s been that kind of season. Actually, it’s been this way for the past two seasons.

During last year’s lockout-shortened season, the Bulls lost 52 player games to injury. This season, the Bulls have lost 109 players games to injury. And counting.

Insert standard Tom Thibodeau response here: “It’s the NBA, we’ve got plenty in that locker room, we’ve got to get the job done.”

I get the feelings Thibs would say that even if all 12 of his players were injured and the entire roster was replaced with D-League players.

About the only thing that changed in the Bulls favor last night is that Rose was actually present and on the bench. Other than that, it was business as usual, with the players giving their best effort without complaining or making excuses.

The Bulls certainly competed. They just couldn’t finish.

The Bulls got another strong effort out of Joakim Noah (14 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists). Marco Belinelli started in place of Hamilton, scoring 20 points and connecting on four of his five three-point attempts. Jimmy Butler was great off the bench, scoring 20 points on 11 shots and hitting three three-pointers. And Deng (15 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists) came alive in the fourth quarter when the Bulls were trying to rally.

However, the Bulls couldn’t contain David West, who matched his season-high with 31 points on 11-for-18 shooting. West also went 9-for-9 from the line and got pretty much whatever he wanted whenever he wanted it, particularly off pick and rolls, and especially down the stretch.

After the Bulls had managed to tie the game at 80-80 with just over seven minutes to go, West ran a pick and roll with George Hill and got a layup. On Indy’s next possession, West drew a foul and hit both freebies.

Following two baskets by Roy Hibbert — one coming from an offensive rebound — Paul George found West for another layup. Still later, with the Bulls trailing only 92-89 with about a half minute to go, West missed a layup attempt, snared the rebound (after Noah sailed by and fell down) and put in the shot to make it a two possession game.

Butler made things exciting by hitting a three to pull the Bulls to within three with 19.9 seconds left, and Hill made things even more exciting by missing both free throws with 13.6 seconds left to give the Bulls one final chance. But there was West again, stealing the ball from Noah and sealing the game with a couple free throws.

Too. Much. David. West.

Said Pacers coach Frank Vogel: “[West] leads our team in will. He has a great will to do whatever is necessary to get the job done and to get a ‘W’ and that was clear tonight.”

I can’t disagree. Although I sure would have liked to see West’s will tested by a healthy Gibson.

Of course the Pacers would probably have liked to have had a healthy Danny Granger. And the Bulls a healthy Rose. So on and so forth. But, as Thibodeau says, this is the NBA, and you play the guys who can suit up.

The Bulls were outrebounded 42-34. The Pacers also had a slight edge in offensive boards, which gave them a slim advantage in second-chance points (15-14). These are areas in which the Bulls usually need to excel in order to beat the league’s better teams. Without Gibson, and with Boozer (6 points, 3-for-9, 2 rebounds) limited to a mostly ineffective 17  minutes, that just didn’t happen.

Those little things can kill a team. And prevent them from finishing games…or starting them well.

Said Thibs: “The thing is we got to find ways to win games. It doesn’t matter. We have more than enough in that locker room. Those guys are all capable of doing well. We played from behind most of the night, and it’s important to play with a lead. We got to come out with more fire to start the game, more intensity; the level of intensity has to be a lot higher.”

One golden nugget from the game was Chicago’s bench production. Nazr Mohammed (7 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks) nearly outplayed Indiana’s bench (8 points, 2 rebounds, 1 block) by himself. And as you can tell from the plus-minus scores, it was the bench that brought the Bulls back in this one.

Said Noah: “[The second group] played really well and that’s what we need. We need a team effort every night and everybody to be into it. It’s always tough to lose, but I think that we fought collectively and I think we fought really hard.”

Countered Deng: “We lost. You always acknowledge the great things we did out there, but at the end of the day we got to find ways to get that win. It’s tough every time you lose.”

It’s true. There are no moral victories in this league. Only wins and losses.

Next up: The Spurs in San Antonio on Wednesday.

Extras:
Recap, Box Score, Advanced Box Score, Play-by-Play, Shot Chart.

The post Game Recap: Pacers 97, Bulls 92 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

The Bad:
Again according to Basketball-Reference, the Pacers scored a blistering rate of 121.2 points per 100 possessions against a Bulls defense that ranks second in the league at 97.1 points surrendered per 100 possessions. This was especially staggering considering that the Pacers rank 25th in Offensive Efficiency at 99.7 points per 100 possessions.

Indiana scored 60 first half points on 66.7 percent shooting. For the game, the Pacers shot 52.7 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from three-point range. For perspective, the Bulls rank second in the league in field goal percentage defense (.428) and fifth in three-point percentage defense (.337).

In addition to the hot shooting, the Pacers converted more free throws (27) than the Bulls even attempted (22).

Said Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau: “We got to play better defense. Any time you make a commitment in one area you’re giving something up in another. You have to decide what gives you your best chance of winning. So as the game is unfolding, we started in a big hole, so we had to get out of that hole. So now you’re scrambling from there and trying to give yourself a chance. I thought we were in position with five minutes to go that we thought we could win the game. We have to expect better, but we didn’t get it done.”

The Worse:
Both David West (29 points on 11-for-18 shooting) and George Hill (22 points on 7-for-10 shooting) had smoke wafting off their hot hands. It happens. The Bulls were missing two of their best defenders in Kirk Hinrich (sore right elbow) and Joakim Noah (plantar fasciitis in right foot). But Indiana also won the rebounding battle 47-35 and had an Offensive Rebounding Percentage that was 10 percent higher than Chicago’s (36.1 to 26.1).

In other words: The Bulls got outworked.

In some ways, it’s understandable. The Bulls were playing a division rival on the road without three starters in Hinrich, Noah and Derrick Rose. But the Pacers played smarter and hit harder all game long.

Marco Belinelli (24 points, 9-for-13, 3 assists), Nate Robinson (19 points, 9 assists, 3 steals) and Taj Gibson (11 rebounds, 10 points, 5 blocked shots) did what they could, but Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng combined to shoot 8-for-30 (26 percent) and the Bulls just seemed a step behind all night despite being competitive until the final minutes.

Speaking of which…

Tough Call:
Despite getting outplayed most of the night, Belinelli hit a 14-footer to pull the Bulls to within 98-94 with 1:59 remaining. Hill turned the ball over on Indy’s next possession but Marco missed a mid-range jumper on the other end. There was a scramble during which the ball seemed to go off of Indiana’s Roy Hibbert. The officials signaled Pacers ball and declined to review the play despite the fact that it happened during the final two minutes of the game.

Said Thibodeau: “[Official] Mike Callahan went and asked [official Mark Lindsay] and he said there was no need. It’s reviewable under two minutes. It’s subjective. But if there’s any question, supposedly you do it.”

Added Robinson: “What’s the rule? Under two minutes you’re supposed to review right? It speaks for itself, man. We all [asked for a review]. For us, we go out there and play hard, we don’t be lazy on calls. We go out and play as hard as we can and for them not to review it, to me I just feel like that was just being lazy. Not taking anything from the referees because I know that’s one of the hardest jobs to do is to officiate a game but for them not review it, knowing the rules? That’s just self explanatory. It just shows that either they didn’t want to do it or they’re just being lazy.”

It wasn’t too surprising. Back in 2009, an academic study of NBA officiating found that three specific types of favoritism — one of which was for the home team — resulted in a 5-10 percent advantage in “discretionary” turnovers. That is, turnovers over which the official have the most influence.

The book Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports Are Played and Games are Won — written by Tobias J. Moskowitz, a behavioral economist at the University of Chicago, and L. Jon Wertheim, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated — contends that home-court/home field advantage in sports is due to the bias of officials toward the home team. Mind you, this isn’t a conspiracy, but the product of of a human being’s psychological need to be liked and confirmed in their judgement. Which is what happens when an official makes a tough call in favor of the home team.

By the way, I’m not saying the Bulls got jobbed or anything like that. One call does not make or break a 48-minute game of basketball. Chicago’s defense and poor rebounding had a greater overall effect on the game.

And there’s a certain coach who agrees with me.

Said Thibs: “I thought we got a tough whistle and that happens. We had some calls that we should have had that went against us — that’s part of it. We have to have the mental toughness to get through that. We can’t allow that frustration to lead us into not executing or recklessly fouling. To me, those are the things you don’t want to do. We’ll learn from it and move on.”

Key Stats:
The Bulls committed only 10 turnovers while forcing 16. That’s good.

However, the Pacers scored 19 points off Chicago’s turnovers, while the Bulls scored only 14 points off Indiana’ turnovers. That’s bad.

Given that the Bulls had only a slight advantage in second-chance points (17-16) while getting out-performed in transition (12-4) and points in the paint (42-38), you can see that this was a clear case of the Pacers simply playing better basketball.

Random Stat of the Night:
According to ESPN Stats and Information: “The Bulls lost Monday night to the Pacers, 111-101. The loss snapped the Bulls’ 41-game win streak when scoring at least 100 points, which was tied for the longest such streak in NBA history (Spurs).”

Get Those Guys More Time:
With healthy bodies in sort supply, Deng (44:03), Gibson (44:03) and Robinson (40:27) logged heavy minutes again.

I admit to being mildly curious why Rip Hamilton (10 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist) logged only 15:47. I was even more curious why Marquis Teague (2 points and 2 assists) got only 7:33 on the court. The Bulls were actually +12 in Teague’s short stint…easily the best plus-minus score on the team. I know Thibs isn’t a big fan of rookies, but still.

Quote of the Night Part 1:
“Like coach said, sometimes guys get hot. No excuses, they just flat out beat us. They made shots tonight. You have Lance Stephenson step back and making threes. Seriously, come on? Not taking nothing from his game, but that’s not his game. They made some big-time shots at the end, tough shots over guys playing great defense. We got to live with it. But we got to move on and get ready for our next game.”

Robinson was referencing a 27-foot bomb dropped on the Bulls by Stephenson with 6:33 left after the Bulls had pulled to within 92-88. But although Stephenson was 0-for-3 on triples to that point and despite the fact that he was only 4-for-35 on threes in his first two seasons in the league, he is shooting 37 percent from beyond the arc this season.

Quote of the Night Part 2:
Gibson on Bulls versus Pacers: “It’s a rivalry. We understand that every time we step on the court these two teams have something to prove. They’re trying to win a division, we’re trying to win a division. We’re trying to get better and help our teams move forward in the swing of things and right now they’ve got the two wins on us. They’re feeling good, but we’re looking forward to playing them again late.”

Quote of the Night Part 3:
Thibs on the team’s shortcomings in this loss: “You just got to learn. You learn from every situation. You’re on the road against a quality opponent and you want to be in position to win. There’s a lot that goes into winning. When you rely on making it strictly an offensive game where you’re trading baskets, now you’re reducing your chances because if you hit a tough stretch, now you’re in trouble. So if you defend and you rebound and you take care of the ball and you play inside out and you share the ball, there’s a lot of discipline that’s required to do that,” he continued. “And a lot of effort that’s required to do that. But you have to be a well-balanced team. With that being said, I still think over the course of the season you have to win a lot of different ways. I did like that we fought back. You have to figure out what you can do to give yourself a chance in the end. I thought our guys did that. Of course we’re disappointed with the way we finished, but it’s still a very winnable game.”

Extras:
Recap, Box Score, Advanced Box Score, Play-by-Play, Shot Chart.

The post Game Recap: Pacers 111, Bulls 100 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

The Bad:
The Pacers shot 36 percent from the field, went 2-for-10 from three-point range, missed seven free throws…and won.

The Worse:
Chicago’s defense made Indiana’s offense look terrible — outside of Paul George — but The Bulls’ offense offset that. Big time.

The Bulls shot 38.4 percent and scored only 76 points at home against a division rival.

If you were wondering whether the Bulls were going to miss Rip Hamilton’s 13.9 points per game — not to mention his ability to move without the ball and keep opposing defenses off balance — the answer is a resounding yes.

Give credit to the Pacers’ D. They were physical. They had active hands. They contested every shot.

However, the Bulls also played poorly, by there standards or any other. The spacing was poor, which led to several turnovers on their interior passes. Speaking of which…

Turnovers, Turnovers, Turnovers:
As mind-numbingly awful as the Bulls were shooting, they probably would have won this game if they’d been able to take care of the basketball. They committed 19 turnovers for 23 points going the other way, which is a large reason why Indiana enjoyed a 14-11 edge in fast break points.

When you consider the Pacers only managed to score 80 points, giving them 23 points off turnovers in a four-point loss is huge.

As I mentioned above, the Pacers were playing tough defense, so some of the turnovers were inevitable. However, others were committed due to poor spacing (which allowed the Pacers to deflect or intercept several interior passes), and still others occurred due to casual, lazy, sloppy passing.

When a team is getting after it on D the way Indiana was, players have to adjust and be extra careful with their passes. The Bulls were not. And they paid for it.

Said Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau: “It usually comes down to too much one-on-one or making a risky pass and not being aware of what is going on. If you’re dancing with the ball and trying to thread the ball, that will lead to turnovers.”

Offensive Rebounding:
Even with the lousy shooting and careless ball handling, the Bulls still might have eked out a win if they’d taken care of the glass. The Pacers pulled down 16 offensive rebounds. Add that to Chicago’s 19 turnovers, and that’s a lot of extra possessions to give an opposing team in a close game.

And, frankly, some of those lost rebounds were indefensible.

In the first quarter, after George Hill missed a three-pointer, Paul George waltzed in uncontested for a put back dunk. Later the Pacers stole an offensive rebound after a missed free throw, which shouldn’t happen at the high school level, let alone in the NBA.

Meanwhile, the Bulls managed only 6 points off of their 13 offensive boards as the Pacers repeatedly denied them in the paint and around the basket.

Imposing His Will:
The way George played last night, it’s hard to believe he scored zero points on 0-for-7 shooting against the Golden State Warriors in Indiana’s last game.

He was utterly dominant against the Bulls, scoring a season-high 34 points on 14-for-25 shooting to go with 9 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists and 2 blocked shots.

Four of his rebounds were on the offensive end.

George hit from everywhere. He hit when he was open. He hit when he was covered. He hit tough shots while fading, leaning, or otherwise falling away from the hoop. Nobody on the Bulls could do anything with him, not even Luol Deng.

Speaking of which, George put some D on Luol, who scored 17 but shot only 5-for-15 from the field and committed 4 turnovers. One of those TOs came in the third quarter when George stripped Deng clean then took it coast-to-coast for a fast break layup.

Watching George almost single-handedly win this one had to have Bulls fans thinking wistfully: “Hey, we used to have a guy like that.”

Derrick Rose is missed. Badly.

Good Nate and Bad Nate:
There is no question that Nate Robinson — who scored a team-high 19 points in 25 minutes off the bench — helped keep the Bulls in this game with his energy and offense.

Nate’s shooting was streaky as usual — he went 2-for-7 from downtown — but he was also the only Chicago player who consistently found his way to the basket. He hit a couple very tough layups and earned several fouls, going 7-for-7 from the line.

Unfortunately, he finished with more turnovers (4) than assists (1) and made several late game blunders that cost the Bulls. He forced a couple quick shots and committed two costly (and rather careless) turnovers in the final minutes. Not surprisingly, Thibodeau pulled Robinson immediately after his final turnover, which happened with 57 seconds left and the Bulls down 76-74.

Bulls fans are coming to realize this is life with Nate Robinson. He’s going to bring wild enthusiasm and explosive bursts of scoring. And he’s going to make mistakes. Not that I’m pinning the loss on him. Not at all. But his crunch time mistakes were definitely part of the team’s losing formula last night.

To his credit, Nate shows some self awareness after the game: “We’ve got to take care of the ball down the stretch. I definitely take the blame for this one. I’ve got to be smarter with the ball, make the right plays and got to execute.”

Bench Production:
Outside of Robinson, the reserves didn’t provide much in the way of points. Jimmy Butler scored 4 points and Nazr Mohammed chipped in another 2 points. That was it. Taj Gibson — who is shooting a miserable 41.7 percent this season — went 0-for-5 and didn’t score.

That said, Butler grabbed 9 rebounds and Gibson had 7. And the bench had much better plus-minus numbers than the starters:

Gibson (+17)
Robinson (+7)
Butler (+7)
Mohammed (+6)
Deng (-3)
Belinelli (-10)
Noah (-13)
Hinrich (-13)
Boozer (-13)

Booz Cruise:
Carlos Boozer had a reasonably solid night: 14 points on 7-for-13 shooting to go with 10 rebounds and 2 assists. He even played decent defense against David West, Indiana’s leading scorer, who went only 3-for-12 from the field.

Unfortunately, he missed a critical free throw that would have pulled the Bulls to within a point with 37 seconds left.

Late Game Offense:
Down 78-74 with 42 seconds left, the Bulls ran a nifty play in which a Noah hit a cutting Boozer for a layup and the foul (although, as noted, Boozer blew the freebie). This was a much better idea than letting one of the Bulls isolate and try to create a shot on his own.

Similarly, down 78-76 with 14 ticks on the clock, Noah fed Deng, who had just made a great backdoor cut and looked poised to either dunk the ball or draw a foul. Unfortunately…

The No-Call:
…Indiana’s Roy Hibbert was there to meet him. Hibbert jumped into the air, arms straight up, and made an awful lot of contact with the soaring Deng. Deng went down. The ball was lost. As was any chance the Bulls had of winning the game.

Said Thibs: “In my eyes, he got wiped out. I did not get an explanation. He had a layup. It was a train wreck.”

Added Deng: “I got to see it again, but I thought I got fouled. I haven’t seen it yet. … Mad at myself that I didn’t get a shot. When he contacted me, I should have … If I got a shot up even if I missed it I think a teammate could have got the rebound. That’s the one I think I got to do better with, that play.”

The Pacers, obviously, disagreed.

Said Indiana coach Frank Vogel: “He is the best in the league in exercising verticality. That is what earns him no calls. If you can jump straight up and absorb the contact, you are not going to have the call called. Once he learned that and tried to take charges, he became one of the best bigs in the league.”

Added Hibbert: “During the summer, I stayed in Indiana and worked with the coaches on defense — just playing without fouling and blocking shots without fouling. If I jump straight up in my spot, I will get that call. If you jump forward and you come down, they’ll call a foul. I’ve been working on that for the past couple years and I try to make sure I defend the rim without fouling.”

The no-call didn’t cost the Bulls the game. Their godawful shooting, careless passing and poor defensive rebounding were bigger issues. But it was a tough moment, and it’s hard to image that call not going the way of a superstar player.

Rough Night for Noah:
Jo didn’t have a night to remember: 9 points, 4-for-9, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks, 5 turnovers. He was working hard but often found himself getting out-scrapped by the scrappier Pacers. And his frustration was pretty evident.

There’s been a lot of talk about whether Noah is the best center in the East…but I actually don’t think he’s having the kind of season he should be having.

Yes, he’s averaging a career-high 13 points per game, but he’s also shooting a career-worst 47 percent from the field. He’s also hitting only 53.6 percent of his shots at the rim despite converting at a rate of almost 60 percent last season. His rebounding average (9.8) is identical to last year’s despite the fact that he’s playing almost nine more minutes per game.

In fact, despite a spike in Usage Percentage (up to 17.3 from 15.8 last season), he has suffered declines in Defensive Rebounding Percentage (down to 17.2 from 21.8 last season), Offensive Rebounding Percentage (down to 11.4 from 14.1) and of course Total Rebounding Percentage (down to 14.4 from 18.0). And all of those marks are significantly below his career numbers of 22.2, 13.5 and 17.9, respectively.

There’s more. His Turnover Percentage is currently 18.0, which is way up from last season’s career-best mark of 13.7. His Player Efficiency Rating is 17.7 (down from a career-high 19.6 last season) and his Win Shares Per 48 Minutes is .158 (down from a career-best .223 last season).

My point is this: Noah’s raw stats — 13.0 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 4.2 APG, 2.3 BPG, 1.4 SPG — may make it appear as if he’s having a career year. But he’s not. He’s really not. He’s logging more minutes…but playing less efficiently.

Extras:
Recap, Box Score, Advanced Box Score, Play-by-Play, Shot Chart.

The post Game Recap: Pacers 80, Bulls 76 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Finally the Bulls played like the Bulls.

I’m still not sure exactly what happened in Games 1-4.

Maybe they just needed the wakeup call they got in Game 4.

Maybe the Bulls were abducted by space aliens and replaced with android duplicates until right before Game 5.

Maybe we’ll never know.

Whatever the case, the Bulls pulled a switcheroo on the Pacers. Through the first four games, the Pacers were the aggressors. They were dictating the terms of the series with their intensity and (especially) their ultra-physical play. Last night, the Bulls became the Bullies.

Or, as Stacey King said, “Now the rabbit’s the one holding the gun.”

The hunter became the hunted. And the Pacers didn’t like it. Not one bit.

It’s kind of funny, too, considering all the hard and borderline dirty fouls Indiana dished out in this series. The Bulls never really complained about them, either. Even when Jeff Foster was dropping elbows on faces, Chicago coaches and players took the high ground, eschewing the “dirty” talk and describing the Pacers as a tough team playing hard.

Then, when the Bulls (finally) got physical back, Danny Granger took the low road.

Said Granger: “[Joakim Noah] pulled a cowardly move. He cheap-shotted a couple of my teammates, and one gets thrown out … The refs never catch what he did … it’s cowardly. And I’m going to say something about it. I wanted to say something about it all the way to the game was over. I just don’t think the game should be played that way. You can play hard and fight and battle, but when you start cheap-shotting people it gets out of hand.”

Granger was referring to a sequence in which Noah was jostling Josh McRoberts during the battle for a rebound. McRoberts said Noah elbowed him in the throat and, in retaliation, McRoberts threw a punch-like blow in Noah’s general direction. The blow whiffed, badly, but McRoberts was tossed anyway.

Said McRoberts: “I was trying to shove back to defend myself.”

Tom Thibodeau’s response? Whatever.

Said Thibs: “It’s just heat of the battle stuff.”

Added Noah: “I played dirty? Ok. I’m just trying to win basketball games, man. It’s the name of the game. I’m just out there trying to do what I gotta do. Like I said, I give a lot of credit to their team. The play hard as hell. They were competitive. I don’t have anything bad to say about them. Everybody saw what happened out there. Now you want to call me a dirty player? I don’t think I’ve ever been a dirty player. It is what it is. It’s ok.”

Granger really shouldn’t have been surprised at the turn of events. After all, the Pacers came into this series overmatched, and they made the first four games competitive by being as physical as possible. I wouldn’t call them the second coming of the Bad Boy Pistons or Pat Riley’s Knicks, but there was an awful lot of grabbing and hacking going on. And as we all know, if you mess with the Bulls, you just might get the horns.

And yeah, the Pacers got gored last night.

The Bulls controlled the game from the opening tip. The Pacers kept things close in the first half and then were utterly dominated in the second. Chicago outscored Indiana 62-43 over the final two quarters. The beating truly began thanks to an MVP-like stretch from Derrick Rose, who erupted out of the slump he was in during Games 3 and 4. He did it on offense. He did it on defense.

With 5:52 left in the third quarter and the Bulls leading 61-57, Rose dished to Taj Gibson for an 18-footer. On Chicago’s next possession, Rose drilled a three to push the lead to 66-57. On the other end, Rose made an amazing block on seven-footer Roy Hibbert. With 4:31 to go in the third, Rose nailed another three. Five seconds later, he stole the ball from Darren Collison, sprinted the other way, drew a foul from Tyler Hansbrough, and converted one of two free throws. Then, with 2:47 left in the quarter, Rose knocked down yet another three-pointer to push the lead to 75-60.

And the rout was on.

Now let’s look at that block on Hibbert.

Rose wasn’t the only slump buster. As a team, the Bulls pulled out of the dreadful offensive funk they were in. Well, everybody except Carlos Boozer, that is. (To wit: Boozer, who suffered a turf toe injury during the second quarter, finished with fewer points than Rasual Butler.)

Chicago literally blew the lid off the rim.

Luol Deng scored 24 points on 7-for-14 shooting, adding 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals for good measure. With his grandfather and sister watching from the stands, Joakim Noah had 14 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks and 3 steals. The bench added 36 points and 15 rebounds. Taj Gibson in particular delivered a strong performance (10 points and 7 boards) in relief of Boozer.

And Keith Bogans — yes, that Keith Bogans — went 5-for-7 from downtown and finished with 15 points. The Bulls are now 27-2 when Bogans scores at least 6 points.

Oh, and did I mention yet that Kyle “The Four-Inch Vertical” Korver dunked?

Well, he did. Korver dunked.

Yep. It was that kind of night for the Bulls.

They finished with an Effective Field Goal Percentage of 56.6 percent and an Offensive Rating of 124.4, easily their best marks of the series. Finally (there’s that word again) players were spaced correctly, and moving without the ball, and making smart passes. After averaging 18 turnovers per game for the first four games, the Bulls limited their miscues to 14 while forcing the Pacers into 21 turnovers, which turned into 34 points for Chicago. The Bulls also went 14-for-31 from beyond the arc.

Like I said, it was just that kind of night.

After the failed comeback in Game 4, Noah said this was a team that deals well with adversity. Well, he was right again, and now the Pacers get the summer off. Meanwhile, the Bulls await the winner of the Atlanta-Orlando series, which is now 3-2 in favor of the Hawks.

Said Rose: “Speechless right now. I really can’t believe it. It’s a great accomplishment. I’m happy for my teammates, happy for my coaching staff. They did a really great job.”

A tip of my hat and a firm handshake goes out to the Pacers, who gave the Bulls all they could handle and really could have won an additional game or two in the early going. I’m sure games against them next season will have an extra edge to them.

But that’s next season. The Bulls have more season to go this year.

Extras:
Recap, Box Score, BBR Box Score, Play-By-Play, Shot Chart, Photos.

The post Game 5 Recap: Bulls 116, Pacers 89 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Indiana:
Danny Granger: 24 points (9-19), 10 rebounds, 4 assists
Roy Hibbert: 16 points (6-12), 10 rebounds, 3 blocks

Overview:
First things first; according to K.J Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, Derrick Rose says his ankle is getting better and “if it’s not broken I’m playing.” The Bulls do have him listed as questionable for tonight’s game, but unless it falls off; I assume he’s going to play. Now to the court.

If the first three games of the series weren’t a wake-up call, maybe game four was. The Bulls lost for the first time since March 28, when they fell to Philadelphia at home.

The defense still hasn’t allowed Indiana to reach 100 points (Indiana scored 99 in game 1), but Chicago has failed to score themselves. Part of this can be attributed to Indy’s good defense. They are playing extremely hard (the same way the Bulls played hard on defense throughout the year) and have a solid game plan to slow Chicago’s offense.

But Indy’s solid defense is only part of the problem; there are still no excuses for Chicago’s offense. The Bulls are the second worst shooting team thus far in the playoffs, and only a few players are shooting well. Kurt Thomas and Kyle Korver are both shooting above 50 percent. The rest of the team…not so much. Maybe the most glaring problem is Rose.

Derrick Rose shot nine or more three pointers three times all year (in 81 regular season games). Rose went 11-29 from three in those games, or 37.9 percent. He has shot nine three-pointers twice in the playoffs already. In those two playoff games, Rose went 1-18, or 5 percent.

“Shooters shoot.” That’s a quote people like to use. But there needs to be a point where “shooters realize they are off today, and maybe should move closer to the basket before they shoot.” I know some of these threes were at the end of quarters, but Rose has no place taking that many threes (and T.J. Ford makes them from half-court so why can’t Rose?). He is much improved from behind the arc, but no one can stop him going to the rim. He can get there at will, so he needs to keep driving.

I will give him somewhat of a pass in the most recent game, when he injured his ankle and didn’t have the same quickness or tenacity going towards the hoop (after the injury in the first quarter, Rose scored just eight points). But even Rose didn’t use that as an excuse.

“There’s no excuses when you’re still playing,” Rose said. “That’s the way I think about it. If I was out there, I should’ve changed. But I’m going to change some things that I didn’t. If anything, I just missed shots. All my shots were short. I twisted my ankle but there are no excuses.”

I find it hard to believe that some these three pointers couldn’t be turned into mid-range jumpers. And Thibodeau doesn’t know the injury really affected Rose very much.

“It’s hard to tell with him,” Thibodeau said Sunday. “He’s so fast. The way he was attacking … now he didn’t finish as well as he normally does. And he didn’t get to the line. I thought as a team, we settled for the three too much.”

Rose is averaging 7.3 three pointers per game in this series. That’s too many, he isn’t Ray Allen. And actually Allen is averaging just 4.7 three point attempts in the playoffs. During the regular season Rose averaged six three-point attempts per game against the Pacers, making 2.3 (37.5 percent).

But this postseason, Rose is only converting on 17 percent of his threes. Forget Allen, he isn’t even Spencer Hawes or Luke Walton with those numbers (Hawes shot 24.3 and Walton shot 23.5 percent during the regular season).

Rose has carried the Bulls in crunch time, when they’ve been at their best; but perhaps if his shot selection was better earlier in games the Bulls wouldn’t have to make such epic comebacks in each game.

The blame can’t be placed on just one person, and it’s definitely not all on Rose, but when he isn’t hitting from three he shouldn’t keep launching them up. It’s like he is trying to prove he can make them, when really he should be proving he can get to the hoop at will and score.

More than 30 percent of Rose’s shots are coming from behind the arc. That number is skewed because he has been fouled on a lot of drives and those shot attempts don’t count, but that number is still too high. During the regular season Rose shot 23.6 percent of his shots from three. Why the increase?

He is shooting 44 percent from two-point range, and 87 percent from the line. Those are solid numbers, especially when he is averaging 13.3 free throw attempts per game.

Again, this isn’t to take anything away from the Pacers, as they’ve played above expectations. And with their play, and a little better luck and finishing, they could be leading the Bulls in this series. Also, this doesn’t put all the blame on Rose, but the Bulls go as he goes, and if Rose isn’t getting his points it will be hard for Chicago to win. This is only amplified with Rose’s ankle injury. If he isn’t scoring, who will step up?

There are a lot of things the Bulls need to work on, Boozer needs to show up, Deng needs to be as consistent on both ends of the ball as he was all season and the bench needs to outplay Indy’s bench (when or if they get the chance).

The Bulls learned a lot from their first try at a close-out game, and have tons to improve on. But losing game five may leave the Bulls questioning how they can make their much needed improvements; and may just give Indiana the confidence and momentum they need to even the series. Let’s hope the Bulls don’t let it get that far.

About the Author:
Braedan Ritter was born and raised in Pennsylvania but was swayed by gifts from his aunt to follow the Chicago sports teams. It didn’t hurt that the Bulls had a guy named Michael Jordan playing for them, and the Sixers had…Derrick Coleman. Braedan has stuck with Chicago through thick and thin, and really thin (see: Chicago Cubs). And speaking of Coleman, Braedan is currently a student at Syracuse University.

The post First Round Game 5: Preview and Open Thread appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

If you keep playing with fire…you’re going to get burned.

Chicago finally got burned in Game 4. By repeatedly waiting until the final quarter — the final minutes actually — to play with all-out, winner-takes-all intensity, the Bulls have not only given Indiana life, the Pacers believe they can win this series. Maybe that they should have won it already.

Said Indiana coach Frank Vogel: “I’m still upset that it’s 1-3. We should be up in the series.”

That’s not just coach speak. All the Pacers feel that way.

Added A.J. Price: “Sometimes all it takes is one game to get a team over the hump. Hopefully this will be the game for us. In terms of schemes there was nothing different in our game plan. We just happened to be up a little more. This series could very easily be different. It could be 2-2, 3-1 us, anything you want to say. We’ve played them tough and I know if we finish games better we’ll have a chance to win games. That’s how we’re going to approach it.”

As ESPNChicago’s Nick Friedell points out, the Pacers are setting the tempo of this series. They’re the aggressors. They’re the ones playing lockdown defense, making hustle plays and winning battles for loose balls. And it’s Indy’s reserves, not Chicago’s Bench Mob, making a critical difference. Check out the plus-minus scores: Mike Dunleavy Jr. (+13), Price (+10), Jeff Foster (+5) and Josh McRoberts (+4) are making a much bigger impact than Taj Gibson (+3), Kyle Korver (0), C.J. Watson (-3), Omer Asik (-5), Ronnie Brewer (-7) or Kurt Thomas (-7).

The Bulls were the league’s best defensive team during the regular season. But the way these games are going, you’d think it had been the Pacers. Look at what Indy’s D did to Chi-town’s O yesterday: 37.8 percent shooting, 3-for-20 from downtown, 14 turnovers for 21 points going the other way, zero fast break points. The Bulls also gave up 15 offensive rebounds and 18 second chance points. And then, of course, there was Derrick Rose’s 6-for-22 performance on a sprained ankle.

Yes, the injury affected Rose, which is why he made attempted only four free throws after taking 49 in the first three games. I will give credit to Indiana’s defense, but Derrick wasn’t attacking the basket with his usual tenacity. Whether he physically couldn’t or was afraid of further injury has yet to be determined.

But Rose wasn’t giving any excuses after the game.

Said Rose: “A sprained ankle is going to slow you down a little bit, but all of my shots were on line. They were just short. No excuses. It’s the playoffs. I’ve sprained my ankle many times, you’ve just got to make shots.”

Anyway, the Bulls dug themselves a big hole, falling behind by as many as 18 points. They were still down by 16 points until Korver drilled a three-pointer with 2:38 remaining. And they were trailing by 13 until Carlos Boozer (15 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists) knocked down a pair of free throws with 1:54 to go.

Korver’s shot and Boozer’s freebies were part of a mega-rally by the Bulls that pulled them to within a single point with 15.3 seconds left. Of course, Chicago’s near-comeback was aided and abetted by a group choke job by the Pacers, who became content to hold onto the ball and either chuck up an awful shot or let the shot clock expire. Had the Pacers simply kept playing the way they had played all game, there probably wouldn’t have been a comeback.

But there was.

After the Bulls cut the deficit to a point, Luol Deng (16 points, 5-for-14, 3 rebounds) was forced to foul Danny Granger (24 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists), who converted both foul shots. Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau called a 20-second timeout, after which the Bulls came out and ran what may have been the worst play known to man. Seriously, I wondered out loud afterward whether Vinny Del Negro had phoned it in.

Basically, Joakim Noah (21 points, 8-for-13, 14 rebounds) ended up holding onto the ball for far too long as Deng fought to get open. When it became clear the play was busted, the Bulls initiated a “panic set” that ended when Boozer — of all people — launched a three-point attempt from the baseline.

For perspective: In 569 regular season games, Boozer is 1-for-9 on threes. After Game 4, he is now 0-for-1 in 48 career playoff games. So, yeah, that was not the shot the Bulls wanted.

Said Noah: “I caught the ball at the elbow and I was supposed to set a back screen for Luol. They played it well, they denied the dribble hand-off. Really, it was a mental mistake. When you’re in that position, you’ve got to call timeout, so we learn from it.”

That’s cool. I’m glad they’ll learn from it. But when you’re one play away from pulling off your fourth straight fourth quarter comeback, I’m not sure clutch execution is the problem.

The fact that they have to keep coming back…that’s the problem.

Chicago’s offense has been terrible. Among this year’s playoff teams, the Bulls currently rank dead last in eFG% (43.4) and next to last in Turnover Percentage (15.3). When a team can’t shoot or take care of the basketball, well, that means pretty big trouble. Which is what the Bulls have been in every single game.

Every. Single. Game.

This isn’t funny anymore. This is no longer cute. Indiana’s “Little Engine That Could” act is starting to wear thin for Bulls fans who were expecting a lot better from their team. And do you know what they were expecting? For the Bulls to play the entire 48 minutes the way they’ve been playing in the final five of each game. It hasn’t happened yet.

When will it?

Said Noah: “You see what these games come down to. It’s nothing. It’s on us to…if we play the way we played in that fourth quarter, for 48 minutes, we’d win that ballgame. We’re excited. We’re excited about the opportunity to go back home.”

I’m glad the players are excited, because I’m sure not. I’m really nervous. Not that the Pacers are going to come back and win this series, although I can’t say I’m 100 percent confident the Bulls will win Game 5. I’m worried about what this means for the next series. The Bulls are playing sloppy, undisciplined basketball.

And, to be completely honest, Thibodeau’s coaching hasn’t been wowing me. He’s completely abandoned his rotations and his “final five minute” offense seems to center around setting screens for Korver or (pre-injury) launching Rose at the hoop like a guided missile.

This does not look like the Bulls team we followed for 82 regular season games.

But you know what? Maybe this wake-up call was needed. No, I’m not rationalizing, I swear. Heading into Game 4, the Bulls had won 12 games in a row and 24 of their last 26 overall. And, frankly, they compiled quite a few of those wins without playing their best basketball.

It’s flat out unrealistic to expect a team to win every game. The Bulls have been on an extremely successful extended run. Think about it: Yesterday was Chicago’s third loss since March 4. The team was due for a loss. It really was.

One of the key characteristics of these Bulls during the regular season was that they responded very well to a loss. Each loss seemed to refocus and rededicate them to all the little things that lead to wins. Making hustle plays and coming up with those 50-50 balls. Things like that.

Unless every single thing we know about this team was a lie, some sort of grand flim-flam, the Bulls are going to come out absolutely on fire in Game 5. That almost have to. For their confidence and for the confidence of their fans. To build some momentum heading into the second round. And, most importantly, so they can have a few extra days of rest to recover from a series that has pushed them far harder than anybody expected.

Extras:
Recap, Box Score, BBR Box Score, Play-By-Play, Shot Chart, Photos.

The post Game 4 Recap: Pacers 89, Bulls 84 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Indiana
Danny Granger: 21 points (10-21 shooting), 4 rebounds, 2 steals

Overview:
Looking to close out the Pacers, Chicago will try to finally put a complete game together in this series. In games one and two, it was Derrick Rose who carried the Bulls. He averaged 37.5 points on 21-48 shooting (31-34 free throws), seven rebounds and six assists.

But in game three, Rose had a poor showing, shooting just 4-18 (22 percent) from the field, while recording just three rebounds, two assists and five turnovers. If there was a bright spot it would be his four steals (he had only three steals in the first two games combined). Oh, and his game-winning layup with under twenty seconds left, that was a good thing too. Even in his poor games, Rose comes up big and his confidence shows.

“We’ve been winning games and we didn’t even play our best basketball yet,” Rose said. “We’ve been finding ways to win. I think these games are going to help us in the long run.”

And this new path to victory answered the question of whether the Bulls could win if Rose had an off game and who else could step up when needed. Luol Deng answered that call. Deng scored 21 points on 8-19 shooting and tied for a game-best plus/minus of +9 (tied with Josh McRoberts). Joakim Noah came up big as well. Jo scored eleven points, grabbed ten rebounds and blocked four shots. Keith Bogans even hit all of his threes to add nine points.

The Bulls still only shot 38.9 percent from the field though. And after dominating the boards the first two games, Chicago tied Indy with 42 boards. There’s always going to be something to work on, but this time the “something” happens to be a “someone”.

Carlos Boozer missed the call for filling in for Rose’s poor game. His phone must be on vibrate and maybe he forgot to set his alarm as well, because that would explain his relative no-show thus far in the playoffs. Boozer is averaging just 11 points per game so far on 36 percent shooting. He had one good game, game two, where he scored 17 points and grabbed 16 rebounds. His offensive rating has fallen from 107.4 during the regular season, to 100.2 during this series.

There are a few positives for Boozington. His defensive rating has dropped as well, from 100.94 to 96.5. And he is leading the team in rebounding during the series (11). But the Bulls didn’t sign him for his defense, obviously (because that would be like signing Darko Milicic to play basketball and pay him $20-million. Wait, someone did that. Nevermind, bad example). Boozer is on the floor for his offense, and, for the most part, it hasn’t been there. He shot 51 percent in the regular season, and he’s now shooting 15 percent worse in the first three games of the playoffs. Maybe the Bulls won’t need Boozer’s offense this series, but they will need an inside presence in the next rounds if they advance and want to keep advancing.

First-things-first, the Bulls need to close out the Pacers. And Indiana will throw everything they have at the Bulls (including elbows apparently) in what could be their last game of the season (and with a lock-out looming, who knows how long they could be done for). Or, maybe the Pacers spirit will be broken after losing a fourth-quarter lead in each of the last three games. I wouldn’t bet on a professional team that has played the number one seed close in all three games to end the series by giving up. No matter what happens, the Pacers deserve a lot of respect for the fight they have shown thus far. They have drastically disrupted the Bulls offense and made what many believed to be a lop-sided series very interesting (Chicago has won the three games by a combined 15 points).

It would be nice for the Bulls to get some rest. Especially Rose before round two, and before he gets beaten up again.

About the Author:
Braedan Ritter was born and raised in Pennsylvania but was swayed by gifts from his aunt to follow the Chicago sports teams. It didn’t hurt that the Bulls had a guy named Michael Jordan playing for them, and the Sixers had…Derrick Coleman. Braedan has stuck with Chicago through thick and thin, and really thin (see: Chicago Cubs). And speaking of Coleman, Braedan is currently a student at Syracuse University.

The post First Round Game 4: Bulls-Pacers Preview and Open Thread appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Danny Granger got his wish.

Before the series, Granger (rather infamously) said: “Chicago, they go as Derrick Rose goes. If you make a concerted effort to stop Derrick Rose, you have a better chance to beat them.”

Over the first three games of this series, it has become very clear that “making a concerted effort to stop Derrick Rose” is indeed Indiana’s game plan. They have doubled Rose. They have trapped him. They’ve thrown entire walls of defenders at him. When he drives, they bump him, hit him, and, if all else fails, commit hard (and borderline flagrant) fouls, such as Jeff Foster’s “Who me?” elbow to the head midway through the third quarter.

Foster has been doing that sort of thing since Game 1.

Honestly, the tactics the Pacers have been using against Rose feels like a zero-calorie version of the “Jordan Rules” former Pistons coach Chuck Daily devised to stop MJ back in the late 1980s. The strategy (as explained on Wikipedia) was “to play him tough, to physically challenge him and to vary its defenses so as to try to throw him off balance. Sometimes the Pistons would overplay Jordan to keep the ball from him. Sometimes they would play him straight up, more often they would run a double-team at him as soon as he touched the ball to try to force him to give it up. And whenever he went to the basket, they made sure his path was contested”.

Sounds about right, doesn’t it?

Rose beat that strategy in Games 1 and 2. He succumbed to it last night and submitted one of his worst games of the season: 4-for-18 from the field, 2-for-6 from downtown, only 2 assists and a game-high 5 turnovers. Rose still managed to score a game-high 23 points by going 12-for-13 from the foul line. He also snatched a game-best 4 steals and hit the go-ahead layup with 17 seconds left.

That’s the hallmark of truly great players: They can make an impact even when they are playing like absolute garbage.

Last night, for most of the game, Rose got by with a little help from his friends. And no, Carlos Boozer (4 points on 2-for-10 shooting in 32 minutes) was not one of those friends. But everyone outside of Rose and Boozer (who were a combined 6-for-28) went 22-for-44.

Starters Luol Deng (21 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists), Joakim Noah (11 points, 10 rebounds, 4 blocked shots) and even Keith Bogans (9 points on 3-for-3 from downtown) came through big time.

The Bench Mob didn’t see a lot of floor time (more on that below), but Kyle Korver was crunch time savior. He scored 10 of his 12 points in a three-minute stretch of the fourth quarter that began with the Pacers up 70-66 and ended with the Bulls ahead 80-76. That hot-shooting burst by Korver really turned the game around because the Bulls were struggling — and struggling mightily — to find some offense at that point.

Said Indiana coach Frank Vogel: “Korver killed us in the fourth. He even killed us on the last play when we couldn’t leave him to help. That allowed Rose to get to the bucket.”

When they review the video of this game, Vogel and the Pacers are going to wonder how Korver kept getting wide open for those shots. They may also wonder: “What more can we do?” Seriously, Indy has done everything in this series but actually win. The Pacers have had fourth quarter leads in all three games and then choked them away. That has to be demoralizing. How much spirit will they have left in Game 4? It’s hard to say…but I’m not going to bet against them. They’ve shown more scrap in this series than I imagined possible.

As for the Bulls, their offensive struggles continue. Offensively, Game 3 was the ugly twin of Game 2, with Chicago shooting 38.9 percent from the field and giving up 18 points off 16 turnovers (12 of those points and 12 of those turnovers came in the first half). However, whereas the Bulls dominated the boards in Game 2, the Pacers evened things up last night (42-42) and won the offensive rebounding battle (15-10).

Unfortunately for Indiana fans, the Pacers shot poorly from the field (37.9 percent) and were absolutely dreadful from beyond the arc (1-for-10). Throw in Chicago’s 27-18 advantage in free throw attempts, Korver’s shot hot streak, Rose’s clutch basket and Granger’s awful final shot…and that’s the ballgame.

I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it again: The Bulls have problems but they aren’t on defense. Last night, they once again exceeded their season averages by holding the Pacers to an eFG% of 38.5 percent and an Offensive Rating of 97.8. Take away Danny Granger’s 10-for-21 performance and Indiana was 23-for-66 as a team (and 0-for-9 from downtown). And here’s more data from ESPN Stats and Information:

“While it wasn’t pretty, the Bulls’ win over the Pacers followed the same familiar scripts as in the first two games with Chicago’s defense tightening up in the 4th quarter. Chicago held Indiana to just 17 points in the 4th quarter on 8-23 shooting. For the series, the Bull are holding the Pacers to 35.4 pct from the floor in the final frame.”

Like I said: Defense is not the source of Chicago’s (relative) woes.

The problems are on offense. The Pacers strategy has been: Throw a variety of defenses at Rose, clog the paint and force the Bulls to become a jump shooting team. They have supplemented this strategy with aggressive, physical play and loads of hard fouls (mostly against Rose). These are tactics lesser teams have always employed against better teams. That’s how the Knicks rose up to challenge the Bulls in the 1990s, although these Pacers are not nearly as brutal as those New York teams and this year’s squad isn’t on par with the Jordan teams. With all due respect to Deng, Boozer and Noah, Rose doesn’t have his Scottie Pippen.

That could be Chicago’s undoing in these playoffs.

Outside of that, the Bulls’ spacing was terrible. That’s why many of these turnovers are being committed. It’s also a big reason why Boozer is struggling so much. Because the spacing is so bad, the area around Boozer often looks like a mosh pit. Several turnovers have been committed because post passes to Booz have to travel through a sea of enemy hands. And when the ball does reach Carlos, he’s almost always surrounded.

Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau has to clean up this spacing issue because it is strangling the offense to death. This is made even more apparent by the following factoids from ESPN Stats and Information:

“The Bulls made a season-low seven field goal attempts inside of five feet on Thursday, one fewer than the eight field goals they made inside five feet against the Bucks on December 28th. The Bulls shot 30.4 percent on such attempts in Game 3 (7-23), also a season-low.”

And:

“The Bulls managed just 16 points in the paint, by far their fewest of the season. During the regular season Chicago’s fewest points in the paint were 26 done three different times. It’s also the fewest the Bulls have scored in the paint in any playoff game over the last 15 seasons.”

Thibs also needs to remember that a clear and consistent rotation was one of the primary keys to Chicago’s regular season success. I get that starters tend to log more minutes in the playoffs, but as near as I can tell, Thibodeau has completely scrapped the regular season rotation and hasn’t decided on one for the postseason. When the Bulls were winning 62 games, everybody knew their role, and it was a strength. The bench players don’t know what their role is right now and it shows.

I ask you this: What impact is Omer Asik going to have in three minutes?

But hey, a win’s a win, and we’ll take it. No matter how ugly.

Said Noah: “It shows you that it’s not all about just stats. I know that a lot of people are always looking at the stat sheet. If you look at, to me, what really affects winning, Taj Gibson’s blitz on [Danny] Granger at the end of the game. Nobody’s going to ever talk about that. But those are the things that win the game. A lot of guys stepped up. Booz didn’t score the ball very well tonight, but his rebounding was very big for us. Overall, it’s a team effort we stuck together, played hard as hell.”

Noah’s right. It’s pretty clear the Pacers aren’t going to win this series. But whether they sweep or finish things at home in Game 5 (or, gulp, Games 6 or 7), the Bulls need to use the remaining game (or games) to clean up their mess of an offense and establish some rhythm for the second round. This kind of play isn’t going to cut it against a better team.

TrueHoop Network:
Jared Wade of 8 Points, 9 Seconds: “But it wasn’t Derrick Rose that beat Indiana tonight. What beat them was their own inability to create good offense when it matters. What beat them was a superior team that through the gutsy, unwavering will of its superior player — and I don’t just mean on the court in this game, I mean perhaps superior to any other player in the NBA right now — made a play just seconds after the Pacers proved unable to do so.”

Extras:
Recap, Box Score, BBR Box Score, Play-By-Play, Shot Chart, Photos.

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