It seems they had a strategy of rushing Rose with 2 guards and we don't really have another ballhandler out there to take the pressure off him. CJ Watson had a miserable game, and he's the only other guy we really could put out there with Rose in this circumstance. The scary thing is that this might be what we see in the playoffs.
I guess Sam Smith and I are just stating the obvious. I disagree that Rose always has figured out the pressure/double team schemes against him. Teams don't really get a chance to prepare for one team, such as the Bulls, because it's just one game in an 82 game schedule. Playoffs is a different animal altogether.
Well, every team that plays the Bulls tries to set their defense to stop Rose. It's a "well, duh" thing. GSW threw a bit of a new wrinkle at 'em and neither Rose nor Thibs could counter it. Just my opinion, but I also think Rose had one of those nights where, no matter what you tell yourself, you just can't get body and mind revved up and in sync...it happens sometimes even to the best of 'em. The good news is that Rose is one of those players who doesn't really accept sucking very well and last night is about as close as he gets to sucking. I expect a big bounceback against the Blazers.
GS was definitely doing the double teams a little differently. They were more aggressive in going for the steal as opposed to just having a big man show. And it seemed like they were trying to make Rose go to his left, where he has a tendency to just stop and step back as opposed to passing or splitting the double team. They were also leaving the opposite corner wide open, but that is a hard pass to make sometimes.
Eh, I'm writing this off as Derrick Rose's worst game of the season. I originally had the Bulls losing to GS and should have stuck with that prediction. I'm not going to extend this out and say the Bulls are struggling on the road. The team played relatively well, besides Rose and Boozer. It just goes to show you how consistently strong Rose has been all season. If he has an off game, the Bulls fail. As to Golden State, I'm not willing to give them all that much credit. They present a tough matchup with Curry and Ellis, and Rose plays consistently better against bigger slower guards, but I think the Bulls walk away with this one if Derrick had an average performance.
I don't think that it scares me very much. Because I think that Rose together with Thibs will find a way to be sucessfull against this defense. Don't know about a big bounceback tonight, but Rose will find his ways...
Amazingly, I predicted the right record, but was wrong on all but one of the games! Transplant, you're a genius!
