In a way, this felt like the first time we’ve actually seen the Bulls all season. Their offense hasn’t been this easy on the eyes in eons (per Basketball Reference, the wacky 2011-2012 lockout season is the only year Chicago has had a top ten offense in the Post-Jordan Era), but the Bulls under Tom Thibodeau have been a team that thrives on emotion. The games that stand out, Game 1 against Indiana in 2011, the Christmas Day comeback over the Lakers, the streak-breaker over Miami, Games 4 and 7 against Brooklyn in 2013, all revolved around them doing anything and everything to win. They embodied and validated the cheesiest cliches in sports about effort, perseverance and teamwork.

No longer needing to scrap and claw for wins, they’re a more complete team this year. Jimmy Butler has been a borderline MVP candidate. Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic have fit in seamlessly. Derrick Rose is slowly but surely rounding back into his old self.

And yet, something was missing: an adversary.

It’s often said that the villain makes the movie, and that’s been the secret ingredient in Chicago’s most memorable bouts over the years. KG and Pierce’s Celtics, the Bulls before the Bulls, are long gone. LeBron left Miami and took all of the sizzle of the Bulls-Heat rivalry with him. The soulless Nets were the perfect foil for the tattered remains of the 2013 Bulls, but now lie in ruins themselves. Without Paul George and Lance Stephenson, the Pacers have been defanged, at least for now.

While the new Eastern Conference is proving to be more ferocious than anticipated (the five East contenders are 52-8 against the rest of the conference), Cleveland, Atlanta and Toronto are in their infancy as contenders. Washington is as well, with the important caveat that they outmuscled the Bulls in a five game series last season. That history played out in the preseason, as new Wizard Paul Pierce went out of his way to make a point that was for his teammates as much as it was for the Bulls: We’re not backing down.

The Bulls finally had their heel, their motivation, and it showed. A night after toppling Toronto in a pinball affair, they battled the Wizards in a physical game. Unlike their series last April though, this game never turned ugly. The first half was dead-even, the six point difference coming from last second threes to close each quarter, the first from Gasol, then from Rose.

Chicago came out strong in the third and built a nine point lead. Not to be outdone, Washington scored on seven straight possessions, tallying 14 points in just over three minutes. With mostly reserves in the game, the Bulls went back to work. Led by an emotional Taj Gibson (he and Noah unleashed vocal screams and put a little extra into their dunks tonight), Chicago pushed back and built an 11 point buffer.

The Bulls had imposed their will and were threatening to throw the knockout punch.

Then the final eight minutes happened. Hampered by foul trouble, John Wall hadn’t done much to that point, but he turned into a one-man fastbreak. Time and time again he pushed the pace, practically tapping into the Speed Force and finishing at the rim over multiple defenders and blowing past a backpedaling Rose.

The spiritual heir to Rose’s vacated throne, Wall defended his home court and the crowd was rocking. Perhaps the Bulls just didn’t have enough in the tank to finish off a road back-to-back for the second time in a week. It would have been disappointing, but understandable.

Trailing by one with less than four minutes to go, the once (and future?) king returned. After a pair of Butler free throws put the Bulls back up one, Rose snared a loose ball off of a Wall pass and scored on three straight possessions, culminating in a jumper that upped the lead to seven. As Washington called timeout, Rose was clearly feeling it, strut-skipping all the way to the bench:

The Derrick Rose Skip https://t.co/O7woag5hne

— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) December 24, 2014

A vicious Marcin Gortat dunk cut the lead to five, only for Rose to answer the bell again, scoring to get it back to seven. The Wizards came up empty on their next two trips up the court and two Gasol free throws sealed the game.

Rose led the Bulls to victory by attacking. In what has become a telling barometer, he wasn’t settling for jumpers. The Bulls are now 9-1 in games Rose shoots five or fewer threes, versus 4-4 when he takes more than five. His 25 points (on 10-17 shooting) means they are now 6-0 when he scores more than 20 points.

This season has showed these aren’t the same old Bulls. Tonight, however, showed that thankfully they still are.

The post Rose, Bulls Deliver Statement Win With 99-91 Victory Over Wizards appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

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

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

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

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

— James Straton (@WorldwideJames) April 30, 2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This was a familiar tale for the Chicago Bulls as yet again the defense couldn’t bail out shockingly poor offense.

Taj Gibson scored a career-high 32 points and it didn’t really matter – no other Bull scored more than 16 points. Gibson finished 13-16 from the field.

Chicago shot 35-78 from the floor including 4-19 from behind the three-point line as they failed to score more than 22 points in three of the four quarters.

Washington was once again dominant, flying out to a 14-0 lead, forcing the Bulls into an early timeout. Chicago failed to score on it’s first eight possessions, missing six shots and turning the ball over twice.

Turnovers were a theme for the night. Washington turned the ball over just six times all night, compared to 16 for the Bulls.

Trevor Ariza scored 30 points. In a playoff game. This really happened. He hit his first six three-point attempts and finished 10-18 from the floor.

Bradley Beal continued to be an issue running around screens set by Washington’s big men. John Wall was his usual self on the fastbreak.

The Wizards went up by 20 in the third quarter before the Bulls went on a run to make the game slightly interesting before the Wizards closed out the game.

Carlos Boozer became a foul machine in the third quarter – collecting five fouls in just 3:30 before collecting his usual zero fourth-quarter minutes.

The Bulls now must head home for a win-or-bust Game 5. Despite the Bulls well-known resilience and will to win, there is no way to fix a simple lack of offensive talent.

Taj Gibson can score a career-high in game five, but if the team cannot reliably score for 48 minutes, the Wizards will once again come out on top.

Performances like tonight’s do little to quell the growing rumors that the Bulls will pursue Carmelo Anthony this summer, and there is very little in the way of on-court evidence to show why they shouldn’t.

Top Performers

Washington Wizards
Trevor Ariza: 30 points, 10-18 FGS, 6-10 3FGS
Bradley Beal: 18 points, 7-13 FGS, 5 rebounds
Marcin Gortat: 17 points, 6-17 FGS, 6 rebounds

Chicago Bulls
Taj Gibson: 32 points, 13-16 FGS, 7 rebounds
Jimmy Butler: 16 points, 5-14 FGS, 2-7 3FGS
Joakim Noah: 10 points, 4-9 FGS, 15 rebounds

The post Chicago Bulls 89, Washington Wizards 98 – Bulls season on the line after loss appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Tip: 1pm ET, Verizon Center, Washington D.C.

The Bulls have taken a beating from the Washington Wizards over two of the first three games of this series. This afternoon they can deliver a punch of their own, drawing the series level and restoring homecourt advantage.

Chicago avoided what amounts to elimination by winning Game 3 on Friday night after Jimmy Butler sank a late three to breathe new life into the Bulls playoff effort.

The Bulls got another break after Game 3 with the league office announcing Wizards center Nene would be suspended for Game 4 after a confrontation with Jimmy Butler. Trevor Booker is expected to start in his place.

The suspension of Nene has the potential to turn around a series in which the momentum was firmly in the direction of the Wizards as Nene repeatedly tore open the Bulls defense from the high post.

His performances necessitated Joakim Noah playing below his standard for the first three games as he tried to hold Nene in check, unable to help defend other Wizards demanding attention.

The Bulls won the last time these two teams met with Nene sidelined as the Bulls were in the midst of a much-improved run of performances.

Chicago will need to improve again from the first three games in this series where the offense has endured lengthy droughts, notably when Kirk Hinrich and D.J. Augustin have shared the floor and also when Mike Dunleavy has been on the bench.

Dunleavy was noticeably missing late in Game 2 and proved why that was a poor decision on the part of Tom Thibodeau with his 35-point outburst in Game 3 to give the Bulls new life in this series.

Probable Starters

Chicago Bulls

PG: Kirk Hinrich, 11th season. 9.1 points per game, 3.9 assists per game.

SG: Jimmy Butler, 3rd season. 13.1 points per game, 4.9 rebounds per game.

SF: Mike Dunleavy, 12th season. 11.3 points per game, 4.2 rebounds per game.

PF: Carlos Boozer, 12th season. 13.7 points per game, 8.3 rebounds per game.

C: Joakim Noah, 7th season. 12.6 points per game, 11.3 rebounds per game.

Washington Wizards

PG: John Wall, 4th season. 19.3 points per game, 8.8 assists per game.

SG: Bradley Beal, 2nd season. 17.1 points per game, 3.7 rebounds per game.

SF: Trevor Ariza, 10th season. 14.4 points per game, 4.9 rebounds per game.

PF: Trevor Booker, 4th season. 6.8 points per game, 5.8 rebounds per game.

C: Marcin Gortat, 7th season. 13.2 points per game, 9.5 rebounds per game.

The post Game 4 Preview: Chicago looks to draw level appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

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

The four main takeaways from the game:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Game 1 of this series was a self-contained entity. Nene and Marcin Gortat were great, while D.J. Augustin going 3-15 meant the Bulls had nowhere to turn for offense. There were tactical adjustments to be made. Should the Bulls get more aggressive defending midrange jumpers? How does that impact allowing the corner three pointers Washington so desperately seeks? How do the Bulls compensate for the Wizards taking away Joakim Noah’s facilitating from the elbow?

Game 2 became something more with Chicago’s collapse in crunch time. Most of their issues weren’t limited to the game or series itself, but could be extrapolated to examine the Bulls in a macro sense. Jimmy Butler playing all 53 minutes brought questions about Tom Thibodeau’s rotations and stubborn adherence that their way is the correct way because being fatigued is something players simply have to decide not to be, even in the face of common sense. It also brought frustration, as Thibs rhetorically asked who exactly people want him to sit. Jo and Taj are no-brainers, while D.J. is their one shot creator. Jimmy is the lockdown defender, leaving one spot for Kirk Hinrich or Mike Dunleavy. According to Thibs, Kirk has been a “big shotmaker from 3,” which… let’s just move on.

The idea seems to be that their closing lineup has to be maintained because it’s what they’ve gone with all year, which is part of the problem. Gregg Popovich has been lauded for experimenting with Spurs lineups big, small and everything in between in preparation for whatever the playoffs might throw at them. The instant counter to Thibs not doing the same is that he had neither the bench depth nor the comfort in the standings to have the luxury of tinkering that way. However, my argument all year has been if Jimmy has to play 45+ minutes for the Bulls to squeak past the Bostons and Detroits of the world, then it sure wasn’t going to be good enough come April and May. Maybe Jimmer Fredette’s defense is so horrid that it cancels out any offensive production and value. Maybe Tony Snell would sink them if his role were expanded more than it is currently. The keyword is maybe, because nobody knows, and the Bulls needed to see if they were truly maximizing the capabilities of this roster. With 48 wins in the regular season, they maxed out their record at the expense of the overall ceiling of the roster.

So, here we are, the night of Game 3, with the Bulls down 2-0 in a series for the first time in the Thibodeau Era, and the possibility of them falling into, if NBA history is to be trusted, an inescapable 3-0 chasm and that’s not even what’s at stake tonight in the big picture. Tonight is all about Thibs, win or lose. Is he willing to pull Carlos Boozer earlier than usual if they fall behind early yet again? Will he bury Dunleavy and Snell even if they play well? Can he stomach giving Jimmy two or three minutes of rest when Bradley Beal is off the court? This is about process over results. If seeing this nucleus win a championship is the goal, then Thibodeau’s willingness to adapt his principles is far more meaningful than the numbers on the scoreboard at the end of the night.

The post Game 3 Preview: The Trial of Thibs appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Attack John Wall off the ball

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Be more decisive with the basketball

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and Chicago ended up with this instead:

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

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

3. Make shots

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

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Chicago’s 102-93 loss at home to the Wizards in Game 1 wasn’t demoralizing so much because they lost a close game (the Bulls get in so many of them it’s hard to get worked up over just one of them) but because they had it. Leading by about a dozen over the first half of the third quarter, the Bulls looked ready to ramp up the pressure and suffocate the opposition the way they have so many times before, only to come undone, lose their lead by that quarter and the game by the end of the next. How exactly did it happen? Today we’ll look at how the Bulls performed on defense before looking at the woeful offense tomorrow.

Obviously, the Bulls were unable to contain Nene all night. He basically turned into Dirk Nenetzki, punishing Chicago on jumpers and functioning out of the pick and roll. Let’s take a closer look at how he led the Wizards to victory.

In transition, Hinrich monitors Nene until Boozer gets back. Once Nene gets the ball on the baseline, he could attack the rim and with only Boozer standing between that happening, even though Nene hits the jumper, that he settles is a win for the Bulls.

Here are a couple more deep twos:

The first three are all shots the Bulls are geared toward surrendering. For this last one, Nene is closer to the basket than the others, but if this is the look you concede off of Wall driving straight to the basket, especially with Noah needing to cover for the diminutive D.J. Augustin, you live with that. In fact, when Washington can put the likes of Beal, Trevor Ariza and Martell Webster in the corners, it’s a look you don’t really have a choice in conceding.

Nene, as many have mentioned, gives Noah problems, and this possession shows why. Noah historically struggles against the bulkier bigs (Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum before the injuries) and Nene certainly qualifies for that category.

He backs Jo all the way down, turns toward the baseline and finishes with his left hand.

The Wizards did a really good job of attacking Chicago with pick and rolls using Nene as the screener. When Beal was used as the ball handler, Washington did well giving him the ball off a running start to get separation from Jimmy Butler, as he did on this possession. It starts with Beal at the top, receiving the ball from the inbounder. Rather than Beal go straight into the PNR with Nene, he passes to Nene and starts to cut…

but stops and reverses back. Note how this gives Beal the breathing room he needs to operate without Jimmy sticking right on him.

Beal comes around and takes the handoff.

With Jimmy having to go so far around the pick, Jo drops a bit to cut off Beal’s chance of driving, which Beal recognizes, so he gets the ball back to a rolling Nene.

Now Nene has the ball and all eyes are on him. Mike Dunleavy has sunk in off of Webster and with Taj drifting off Trevor Booker to protect a wide open driving lane, D.J. abandons Andre Miller to cover for Taj.

Nene holds just for a second, and Dunleavy deems a wide open Webster three as a bigger threat, and he retreats to Martell. This gives Nene the wide open look. He misses, but it’s an indication of how the Wizards are using their spacing and Nene’s skills to get open looks. Expect the Wizards to go one step further with this as they did on their second possession of the game.

Again (well not really again because this possession happened first, but you get the idea) Beal passes to Nene to start the sequence.

And again, he fakes a cut through the middle to separate and takes the handoff.

Beal goes around the pick, but instantly reverses. Notice the spacing for the other three players. There is no Webster at the wing for Dunleavy to float off of.

With Beal getting middle, Nene is rolling down the side of the floor, not the middle, and he doesn’t have to worry about drawing another defender on his way to the rim.

Noah is unable to recover that quickly, leaving Boozer in a 1-0n-2 where Nene can draw Carlos out enough to bounce to Gortat. He doesn’t need to do that though because Boozer can’t stop that freight train and Nene finishes with a vicious slam:

Aside from a couple faux pas from Augustin and Nazr Mohammed, the Bulls were sufficient in preventing open looks from three, a trend that dates back to the regular season. If the Bulls can keep encouraging Wall and Beal to take pull-up twos rather than let Nene run wild, their defense should hold up their end of the bargain in this series.

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The Bulls gave a performance tonight that was anything one could want and more. With both teams on a back-to-back, Chicago put their imprint on the game early, despite being the road team, and delivered a haymaker right off the bat, and in the process extended their league-best winning streak to five.

They were absolutely swarming on defense, holding the Wizards to a season-low 26 points in the first half. Yes, 26 points. In an entire half. They also broke Washington’s season worst for points in a quarter, holding them to ten points in the second quarter (the previous high was 11), and that could have been even less if John Wall hadn’t caught the Bulls napping a bit and exploded for a bucket at the rim with less than a second to go. Other than that, their rim protection was fantastic all night, and they used blocks at the rim to get out in transition, often giving D.J. Augustin, who poured in 25 points thanks to six threes, room to operate and find open looks.

Their halfcourt offense wasn’t too shabby either. They hit that peak level of passing a few times where the ball just whips around, barely touching one player’s hands before being whipped to the next. That’s how you end up with Joakim Noah going without an assist in the first half, and just three overall, as hockey assists don’t go down in the box score. Often the middle man on those passing sequences, Jimmy Butler compensated for just three points on 1-9 shooting by notching nine assists to go with his usual superb defense. Also, Noah may not have had many assists, but he rebounded from his dismal shooting against Milwaukee last night with 21 points on 9-13 from the field, and nabbed 12 boards to boot.

To be fair, Washington certainly played a part in their own demise. They were sluggish and didn’t convert open shots. In that first half where the Bulls doubled them up 52-26, the Wizards missed not only all eight of their threes, but all four of their free throws as well. The area where they really failed to convert was in transition. Bradley Beal (14 points on 7-16 FG, 0-3 3FG, five assists) and Trevor Ariza (two points on 1-9 FG, 0-3 3FG, seven rebounds) had three or four quality looks before the Bulls got back but they just couldn’t knock any of them down. Add in that Trevor Booker isn’t really an offensive weapon and that they got little from their bench, and that left just Wall and Marcin Gortat (19 and eight boards on 8-11 from the floor) to carry the load for the Wiz.

To expect the Bulls and Wizards to keep trending in such opposite directions wasn’t realistic, and Washington predictably came out with much more intensity after the half, led by Wall. 12 of his 20 points came in the third, as did three of his six assists, one of which was a beautiful cross-court bounce pass in transition for a dunk that cut the lead to 11. The Bulls weren’t exactly in danger, but it was worrisome and seemed to indicate the Bulls might have to fight harder than anticipated.

Then just as quickly as the lead was trimmed, it quickly ballooned again to 20, and then 25, with the Wizards essentially waiving the white flag once they pulled Wall five minutes into the fourth. Butler got an early exit, relieved by Jimmer Fredette, and Noah received his a couple minutes later. This was a game the Bulls won in the first half. In the second half, they only had to play Washington to a draw to win and that they did.

As for playoff ramifications, Chicago keeps pace with the Raptors for the 3 seed, and Washington is now closer to Charlotte for the 7 seed than they are to Brooklyn and the 5 seed.

Next up for the Bulls is the Wolves, and they have until Wednesday to rest up for that matchup. A new wrinkle to that game is Minnesota being eliminated from playoff contention. Kevin Love is having conveniently timed “back spasms” now, and they’re missing a few other players as well.  Losing will not only improve their pick, but also prevent it from being conveyed to Phoenix, and the Bulls could be the beneficiary of their situation.

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