Game #12, Bulls @ Lakers - Game Thread

Good looking first half. Not backing down at all.

 

Derrick is 10x quicker than anyone else on the floor. Holy crap.

On a flip note, Shannon Brown (and turnovers) is killing us

 

Noah vs. Gasol is always fun to watch.

 

Wow, this game was tantalizingly within our reach. If things had transpired just a little differently in the fourth quarter we easily could have won.

1). The last 6 minutes of the game we had a great shot to put ourselves back in the game.....if we shot the ball well....and we just didn't. Korver had an off night, which meant our 3-pt shooting was non-existent.

2). I was surprised how much Kobe Bryant has lost his athleticism. He took and made a lot of contested shots, but he really can't create easy ones for himself anymore. He was more dangerous with a double team than with single coverage because his ability to pass out of them is greater than his ability to take his guy one-on-one.

3). On a related note, I think one of the reasons we were able to get back in the game the last 5 minutes is because we stopped double teaming Kobe as soon as he got the ball.

When we got buried in the 2nd half is when we came over to help on Kobe, he teased two bulls into the corner, and it allowed the ball to swing around to Steve Blake who hit an open 3 that put them up by 12. The execution couldn't have been better. After that, we mostly put single coverage on Kobe, and he wasn't able to do much with it. I'm not sure if he scored the rest of the game. Good move by Thibs.

4). One transition we'll need to make to go from a good to great team is what we do when Derrick doesn't have the ball. Right now we mostly just fuck around until someone has a chance to pass the ball back to him. Usually one person will try and make a move, and if it doesn't work out, the person stuck with the ball just waits for DRose to come and get the ball from him. Usually when that happens, it's like our offense halts and waits until Derrick has it again and then it resets itself.

Derrick is partly to blame for this. There are quite a few times each game when he barrels to the basket and goes 1 on 3 when he could pass to an open guy instead. He's probably the best in the NBA at getting to the rim, so you can't fault him too much, but it's part of the reason why a lot of our offense degenerates into everyone standing around while Derrick does his thing.

And speaking of his ability to get to the basket.....wow!! By the 4th quarter, you almost sensed that the crowd was halfway rooting for the Bulls each time he got to the basket and made a zany shot. There were about 5 times when he faked out pretty much everyone on the lakers to get to the basket and make an acrobatic shot. The Lakers won, but Derrick stole the show.

 

On a happy note though, this team can be pretty darn good when Boozer gets healthy. We play well, and with Boozer back, all of our best players will be in positions where they'll have to do things that they're really good at.

If the chips fall our way, I think we could make it to the ECF this year.

 

I was going to say that his game right now really reminds me of Jordan's his last championship year, but a little bit worse. Jordan could still get to the rim a little better than Kobe could right now.

I'm guessing if you compared their careers by minutes played, they're probably at about the same spots.

It's an impressive sign of how well-coached the Lakers are. My guess is Kobe's reputation has probably overshadowed his game for the Lakers' recent championships.

 

Well, we didn't do too badly against the Lakers.

Dwight's an entirely different kind of problem though, and one we're not optimally suited for. Our strength is our length and activity, but I'm not sure those qualities will do much to prevent Dwight Howard from overpowering us.

 

It will definitely be something to watch out for, although I suspect he will struggle mightily against Howard. Asik's biggest assets seem to be his length combined with his subtle agility. He gave Pau serious problems tonight, and he did quite well against Tim Duncan as well. However, on his own, I'm not sure he would muscle up against Howard any better than Noah.

A Noah/Asik double team would be daunting, but how badly does a Noah/Lewis match up hurt us? I'd imagine Noah could do a decent job guarding Rashard Lewis on the perimeter, but the biggest loss would the time he spends away from the basket.