We obviously would have had an easier time of it if we played Omer more than 3 minutes. How about Rose and his 21 FTA? WOW.
Deep breath. OK, keys to the game: DRose is big-time...no other way to say it. They beat the shit out of him, but he dropped 39 on 'em. Collison had 15 at the half and 17 for the game. Rose is truly a unicorn. Granger and Deng basically fought to a draw. Each made the other work like hell. They got their points, but nothin' was easy. Deng was a beast on the boards. Hansbrough clearly outplayed Boozer. This is a problem. I thought that Noah was brilliant defensively. When he played Hansbrough, Psycho-T got nothing. Both teams went with 10-man rotations...very unusual in the playoffs. The Bulls "Bench Mob" don't have the advantage against the Pacers that they do against most teams. Indiana is also very deep. Please Lord, tell me that this was the Pacers best shot.
Is Indy going to be tough on their home court? We have to win all our games at home against these guys.
Time will tell, but there's something to be said for the ability to impose your will on an opponent. The Bulls certainly did this, though they sure took their damn sweet time about it. A more convincing win is needed on Monday.
The pacers are a bad first-round matchup for the Bulls for seventeen different reasons. Indiana's style of play is perfect for playoff basketball. They play half-court basketball, have bigs who can guard the hoop, a host of specialists, and an inside-out game. Conseco Fieldhouse is a tough place to play too. Indiana is probably going to win one or two in the series. I look at this as a good opportunity for the Bulls to get their feet wet against a team that is ultimately not going to beat them. They are an undertalented version of the Celtics not the Heat. Other than that . . . another chapter of the Derrick Rose legend was written today.
Pacers played about as well as they could play. We played well for 3 minutes! The minutes that counted.
The most free throw attempts by a player in this game ( Rose ) since Iverson in 2002 Vogel mentions Iverson ( with others ) in his words about Rose This team has more than a passing nod to Iverson's Sixers teams except that Derrick is 100 times the leader / winner Allen Iverson never was
Watch Pacers won't shoot better than 30% from beyond the arc for the rest of the series Monday is going to be a ritualistic killing at home
I'm hoping you're right. Collison and Psycho-T are unlikely to play that well again. And Boozer will be better or at least not as horrible. Deng needs to come out more aggressive early rather than wait to see how much the other guys are going to suck. If Boozer doesn't pick up his game, I'd go with Noah/Gibson or Noah/KT or even Noah/Asik. I'd also maybe switch Bogans onto Collison to start. It was really Rose's poor defense early that gave Indiana confidence. They have to do a better job of containing Collison otherwise their league leading defense will continue to look mediocre.
I don't think DRose saw Collison's offensive aggressiveness coming. Live and learn. Drose first shut off the valve on Collison, then after double-teams resulted in easy shots for Hansbrough, DRose shut Collison down straight up. The kid's good.