Did the bulls get lucky by losing and drawing the Celtics? Here's how I see the matchups breaking down: Rondo vs. the Rookie. I see Rondo's experience and solid game being better than Rose's innate ability. I'm not sure that even the C's can stop Rose if he wants to score, but I don't think it's Rose's nature to take over from the beginning. When Rose decides to try and take over and how successful he is will be probably the biggest factor in determining how competitive the bulls are in the series. Ray Allen vs. BG. We know BG can't cover Ray. The question then is can BG be productive and efficient enough on offense to balance things out. If BG goes for 35 one night and 14 on 6-19 shooting the next the bulls have no shot. And if BG has more TO's than assists, I'll be shocked if it's even close. The easiest way to keep that from happening is for Rose to take charge early and make BG a catch and shoot threat. We'll see... Pierce vs. Salmons. Two weeks ago I would have said this could be close, even with Pierce playing at such a high level. But Salmons groin looks worse each game, I'm not holding out a lot of hope that Linton Johnson is the answer. Somebody needs to pull a Mr. Miyagi on Salmons groin between now and Saturday afternoon. At the first three spots, I give the edge to the Celtics, but it could be closer than it looks right now, especially if BG breaks out or Rose takes another step like he did at the end of the Pistons game. Not KG vs. Tyrus, Noah and Miller. The thought of not having KG has already been enough to give Danny Ainge a minor heart attack. Mostly because Leon Powe isn't that great, nor is Perkins or Davis or even Mikki Moore. Powe's likely to get into foul trouble and Tyrus and Noah need to exploit this. Tyrus has made huge strides this season. So has Noah. And Miller has been playing like he's been rejuvenated by the change in scenery. If they can continue to play better and have an impact, the bulls have a shot. The frontcourt is where the bulls have the edge. If they don't take advantage of it, I don't see how they win. The benches. It's not going to be Hinrich vs. House, Marbury because Hinich is going to spend all of his time guarding Rondo, Allen and probably Pierce if Salmons groin doesn't heal up. That means BG and Rose have to handle those guys. If they don't and House and Marbury become difference makers it's a quick series.
Btw, I like the bulls in six because Rose takes that next step. But that may be me dreaming. Even Jordan couldn't beat the C's in the playoffs.
Actually the Bulls would. If Gordon bursts for 35 in game 1, Bulls probably win. 14 in the next, Bulls lose. 35 in the next, Bulls win, and so on, until the Bulls win the series 4-3.
I give the Celtics the edge at all 5 spots, or 4 if you consider Miller and even then it's a close call at C. Perkins is 8.5/8.5 guy, while Noah is a 6.7/7.6 guy. Leon Powe per 36 minutes is 15.8/10.1 while Tyrus is 14.2/8.4. If Garnett plays, it's a stomp.
Powe is also 5.6 fouls per 36 so I don't see him playing that much. Unless Tyrus starts settling for jumpers.
I'm feeling pretty good about these predictions after the first game. Rondo played great, but Rose took it to another level. BG couldn't guard Allen, but somehow worked the Jedi mind tricks on him and got him to miss open looks and even a dunk and overall out-produced Allen. And while BG had a minimal positive impact in the first ~45 minutes, he had no negative impact in the form of bad TO's, which might be more important from a morale perspective. Salmons defended Pierce pretty well, but his offense was pretty bad. He should benefit from more open looks when Rose starts drawing more attention. Or he should stop forcing things and pass the ball, which BG did for the most part. Tyrus played really well. His performance today was basically the antithesis of his early 3-17 performance. Can he keep it up? Noah was great on the boards and had a fantastic block of of Big Baby that shouldn't have been called a foul. Miller was ok. Hinrich played great D and had a key, late game strip of Pierce. On offense he suffered from a lack of ball movement and was open and waiting for the pass on numerous occaisions. He only got 4 shots in 24 minutes, but he is shooting at a higher percentage from 3 than BG even for the season so getting the ball to him with open looks shouldn't be a bad thing. The good defense is more important though.
I don't see why you think Gordon's turnovers are the difference in the game. He doesn't get that many of them. In the 2007 playoffs, in the Miami series, he had a ton of turnovers, but led the Bulls to victory with his big scoring and assist numbers.
Miami wasn't a very good team at that point and IMO it wasn't so much BG leading anybody anywhere as Miami just not being that good. They weren't able to capitalize on the TO's. I think the fact that he had none was a key to today's game given how close it was, and a very big positive for him. Offensively, even though he didn't hit much of anything for the vast majority of the game, he was almost exclusively taking good shots. He was way better than Salmons today. BG's TO's are important because they tend to lead to fast breaks more often than you would expect. BG doesn't throw the ball out of bounds as often as he tries to split a double team at the top of the key and gets picked, or dribbles it though his legs right into the arms of the defender. But in the last month or so he's cut down on those and he did a great today of not doing that. If nothing else, today showed that they don't need huge numbers from BG to win. I don't expect Ray Allen to shoot 1-12 again and miss dunks, but I don't expect BG to start 2-10 again either. In fact, my prediction would be a lot of open looks for BG if the bulls do a good job of moving the ball next game. He just needs to knock them down.
Just wow. Gordon scored 12 points in Q4. We scored 26 as a team. It sure was easier for us to stay in the game and eventually win it with the 0-1 shooting Tony Allen in the game to guard Gordon. 12 points in a quarter is awesome. If he could do that every quarter, he'd be a 48 PPG scorer. To put it in perspective. Not to mention the 5 assists and 8 FTA. ZERO turnovers, too.
Typical. I point out the good part ( no TO's) of BG bringing nothing for 90% of the time he was on the floor, and you want to throw a parade for the 10% where he actually showed up (the 4:30 he played in the fourth). You know what the difference is between BG and Rose is? Nobody has to extrapolate what the good 10% of Rose's game would add up to if he played like that for whole game...
Rose has had numerous no show games. Your post was just silly. He guarded Allen and shut him down. Props where props are due. No "Jedi mind tricks" involved. That would be more than "minimal" positive impact for the whole game. If Kirk or Thabo were out there instead, Boston could have triple teamed Rose, so he benefited rather directly from Gordon just being on the court.
Please, BG didn't shut anybody down. Allen posted him up and BG picked up a foul on the second play of the game. BG didn't get in Allen's way for the next 40 minutes. Allen was just off. He was missing 10 footers and the blown dunk was the icing on the cake. Did you even watch the game?
I think there was a play where Gordon got switched onto Leon Powe in the post, and Gordon prevented Powe from scoring.
Game 2: Hopefully Rose learned a lesson about staying out of foul trouble. BG, great shooting and rose to the challenge with Rose and Hinrich in foul trouble. And ZERO TO's, which is absolutely fantastic. If I could nitpick I'd ask for more than 0 asts, 1 reb and 1 stl in 40+ minutes. And of course more defense. But I think the ZERO TO's mostly makes up for that along with the 14-24 shooting. Still, as hot as he was, Allen outscored him 28-25 in the second half. Salmons, please pass the ball. There are guys standing open one pass away. Defense on Pierce has been solid. Tyrus needs more looks. Needs more weight, too, to bang with Perkins and Davis. Doing a good job of protecting the rim, but either he or Noah needs to actually come down with the ball. Noah is doing what he does. Try not to get pushed around. Hinrich also needs to get the ball when he is standing wide open in the corner. Only 2 shots in ~16 minutes? More good defense, but got hung out to dry when the bulls left way too much time on the clock for the last shot. Can't get into foul trouble again either. Miller plays so much ostensible because he passes the ball and can rebound. So he can't afford to turn the ball over in critical situations, or get bodied under the boards as much as he did last night.
Nitpicking about Ben Gordon's play so far this series seems way off the mark to me. Even with his flaws, I'll take 31 ppg on 63% TS any day, thank you very much. Concerning matchups, the following concern me much more: With a groin that's still injured, we don't seem to have a decent SF to play for us this series. Even though they're not great, the size and girth of the Celtics frontcourt seems a bit too much for Tyrus and Noah to match up against. Those matchup problems concern me.
If we get Rose's game 1 with Gordon's game 1, we win. If we get Rose's game 1 with Gordon's game 2, it's a stomp. I am so liking our guards right now. Best 1-2 the Bulls have had since MJ and Pip. I was talking to a friend on the phone who's a smart basketball guy but hasn't really followed the Bulls this year and he was talking like Gordon was like Jordan. No, I don't think he's like Jordan, but when he's that hot, he gets you thinking about MJ. And I think Rose is going to be a lot closer to MJ in the end.
It sure does highlight their skinniness. I'm looking at this series and it's convincing me more that these two guys are simply not going to work out well together in the long-run.
