Bulls potential playoff matchups

[charity stripe]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/basketball/bulls/chi-06-bulls-chicago-apr06,0,4092290.story

Cleveland

Season series: Cavs won 3-1.

How they match up: Even in two of the losses, the Bulls outscored Cleveland in bench and fast-break points, so using Brad Miller, Tim Thomas, Kirk Hinrich and possibly Luol Deng to keep starters fresh and push the tempo is important. Miller matches up favorably with Zydrunas Ilgauskas, as Noah does with Anderson Varejao. Delonte West fractured his right wrist and LeBron James complained of being sick in the Bulls' one victory, a 102-93 overtime triumph Jan. 15 at home. Still, Derrick Rose consistently attacked off penetration and Tyrus Thomas turned in an active defensive performance with four blocks.

How they don't: James. And that could fill the scouting report of the other 28 NBA teams as well. James averaged 31.5 points in the season series, and in the one game he didn't score 20 he posted a triple-double instead. The Cavaliers also have added former Bull Joe Smith to bolster their bench, which could change Ben Wallace's role should he return from his broken leg. Cleveland is the league's stingiest team in points allowed, second stingiest in opponents' field-goal percentage and a solid rebounding team. So opponents' possessions frequently are one and done.

Boston

Season series: Celtics won 2-1.

How they match up: This will be brief: They really don't. About the Bulls' only chance is for Kevin Garnett to be limited by his sore knee and for Rose, Ben Gordon and John Salmons to go nuts offensively. Yes, the Bulls shot 53 percent in a 127-121 home victory March 17 in which they piled up 17 fast-break points. But Garnett sat with his injury, and Salmons tied his career high with 38 points.

How they don't: The Bulls are a solid offensive team in the open court but below average to poor in the half-court. Boston—with its league-leading defense that allows the second-fewest points and lowest field-goal percentage—often dictates a slow tempo. The Celtics' physical play also often intimidates the Bulls, which is why they've trailed by 28 and 22 in their two losses. Few teams have the defensive pieces to match up with Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce.

Orlando

Season series: Magic won 3-1.

How they match up: The Bulls own a better bench, even with a shortened rotation. In their one victory, a 120-102 home blowout Feb. 24, Tim Thomas hit four three-pointers for 17 points as a reserve as the Bulls shot a season-high 56.5 percent.

How they don't: Noah might weigh as much as Dwight Howard's biceps. And while the Magic occasionally get shortsighted and forget about Howard to launch three-pointers, the Bulls have no answer when Orlando goes inside. And it's not like the league's most prolific three-point-shooting team is bad with perimeter strategy. That's why Orlando led by as many as 17, 33 and 38 in its three victories.

There's been a lot of talk about this, but I don't think it matters, as they would get smoked against all 3 opponents. They would only win 1 game, 2 at best. There's too much going against them.

- Rookie PG
- New head coach
- Bad road team
- Poor half court team
- Poor defense
- Poor rebounding
- Rondo has owned Rose in 3 meetings
- Howard will eat the frontcourt
- If Lebron wasn't sick, the Cavs would have swept the season series.

You could probably add more, but you get the idea.

 

[Dpauley23]

I like the Cavs series as you could drive on them all day since they don't have good defensive center. As for Lebron being sick we would have gotten swept, I'll counter with we probably could have beaten them both times at home if we had the new guys in the trade. To me they are some pretty similar players and I really believe we could take the Cavs to 6 game series. The Cavs pretty much run same offense as us, which is clear the lane and let Lebron drive

 

[??? ??????]

I always thought that Zydrunas Ilgauskus was a bit underrated defensively. He isn't overbearing, but he seems to alter a lot of shots just based on his height and length.

If Luol Deng is playing, I think we could match up tough against Cleveland, just based on us playing the Cavs well the past few years. But without Deng, I think Salmons is too small to go on Lebron for an entire game, and will probably be in foul trouble for a lot of the series.

 

[Dpauley23]

Ilgauskus we be on the perimeter alot with Miller so it should open alot of the driving lanes. As for Salmons guarding Lebron, Vinny likes to switch alot so I could see Salmons only guarding him half the time. Tyrus could really give him some trouble and Kirk could could go on him for 5 to 7 minutes just P.O with his nagging hand checking

 

[dougthonus]

I don't think it matters.

I think we've done well against Cleveland. Boston maybe has limited hope if Garnett is somehow limited still. However, we don't win more than a game unless one of those three teams has an injury IMO.

 

[Dpauley23]

We could definetely win two by the way we shoot the 3. We win basically every matchup besides Lebron vs Salmons and headcoach wise

 

[Gene]

I could see us beating Orlando if their outside shooting slumps. And they are the only team I think that would get rattled if we take them to Chicago tied 1-1.

 

[charity stripe]

Dpauley23 wrote:

Ilgauskus we be on the perimeter alot with Miller so it should open alot of the driving lanes. As for Salmons guarding Lebron, Vinny likes to switch alot so I could see Salmons only guarding him half the time. Tyrus could really give him some trouble and Kirk could could go on him for 5 to 7 minutes just P.O with his nagging hand checking

Tyrus will definitely not give him any trouble. He is not a good one on one defender since he doesn't have good fundamentals and he is weak. People think he might do well because he had a couple of blocks on him that game the Bulls won. But like I said Lebron was sick and couldn't get a good lift.

Hinrich on him for 5 to 7 minutes would break the game wide open, destroying any chance of a Bulls victory. You seem to forget that Lebron is 6'8, 250 pounds. Tyrus is only 215 pounds. Hinrich is 6'3, 190 pounds.

If guys like Battier and Artest have trouble guarding him, Hinrich and Thomas, and Salmons have no chance.

 

[cool007]

Like Doug said unless KG is out, we have pretty much no chance for more than 1 game against either Boston or Cleveland.

However, I do like us against Magic. We just need to win 1 game there and I think we can beat them on our floor. Wishful thinking but doable as well.

Vs Cavs = 1 win at most
vs Celtics (with KG) = 1 game at most
vs Celtics (without KG) = 3 games at most
vs Magic = maybe series win (if everything is going for us).

 

[??? ??????]

I want the Cavs. I don't expect us to win the series, so I want our players to learn as much as they can from it. I don't see what Derrick Rose will learn from Garnett crawling on the floor all game. But I think a lot can be learned from Lebron James, who has been through to the Finals before, and who seems like a gracious star.

The Cavs are a division rival, and as long as Lebron is there, will be towards the top of the conference. If we ever want to win a championship, it will probably be through Lebron.

Not to mention, it would be nice to see Ben Gordon try to recreate this shot on Lebron to knock the Cavs out of the playoffs.

[video type=youtube]b-5G3OBKR3Y[/video]

 

[TheStig]

I will feel a lot better about all of our potential match ups if we can get Loul back even if its for spot minutes. Each team has a tough SF match up and if Salmons gets in foul trouble or re injures himself, we are in serious trouble. Deng needs to suck it up for a few weeks and play 15-20mpg and stop saving himself for the GB national team..

 

[Dpauley23]

Im pretty sure Luol Deng said that he wanted to come back. I think he started to do some running or something along the lines of that.

 

[cool007]

I agree, whether we make 6th, 7th or 8th seed, we will probably need Deng to play - not a whole lot but around 10-20 minutes a game depeding on how he is playing/foul trouble/matchups/defense etc.

Even if he doesn't give us big offense, his defense is pretty solid on Pierce and Lebron especially. Against Magic, Salmons will be just fine.

I hope to see Deng feeling better and be in shape atleast so he can be ready for the playoffs.

 

[Kerfuffle]

So, I read today that she opened her eyes for the first time shortly after the obamaniacs left. He told the crowd that she has her eyes open and the blurb made it seem like they were interpreting that as "for the first time ever shortly after they left". I have nothing wrong with he said because i've only caught pieces of it. But I hope that the rally cries stop soon. I do not want this situation to start to be used as political jousting. Invoking the incident as a weapon of partisanship or to compel audiences with emotion instead of logic.

That's the current climate we live in - the old Rahm Emanuel adage of "never let a good crises go to waste" is certainly being exploited here. Sad.

 

[MassHavoc]

That's the current climate we live in - the old Rahm Emanuel adage of "never let a good crises go to waste" is certainly being exploited here. Sad.

Where did he say that.

 

[Kerfuffle]

Where did he say that.

Here you go...



Google this phrase --> "never let a crisis go to waste" - it will pull up the Rham Emanuel videos of him saying this. I would post the YouTube clip directly but it's blocked from work here. You'll see it if you google that.

 

[MassHavoc]

Here you go...



Google this phrase --> "never let a crisis go to waste" - it will pull up the Rham Emanuel videos of him saying this. I would post the YouTube clip directly but it's blocked from work here. You'll see it if you google that.

He said:



"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is that it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not be done before. I think America as a whole in 1973 and 1974, missed the opportuntiy to deal the the energy crisis that was before us, for a long time our entire energy policy came down to cheap oil."



I fail to see how this at all relates to what I said. Just another mis-contributed attempt at muckraking.

 

[Kerfuffle]

And this is different from every other administration how?



I do recall President George W. Bush standing on a rubble pile at ground zero with a bullhorn up to his lips.



"terror terror terror fear fear fear...now let's go bomb Iraq!" Or something like that...

That was one of the greatest moments in presidential history. He didn't need a teleprompter either - he said it from the heart. And he said "...and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear from all of us real soon". It was the right thing to say and was a message of strength and confidence during a tragedy.

 

[Kerfuffle]

He said:



"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is that it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not be done before. I think America as a whole in 1973 and 1974, missed the opportuntiy to deal the the energy crisis that was before us, for a long time our entire energy policy came down to cheap oil."



I fail to see how this at all relates to what I said. Just another mis-contributed attempt at muckraking.

Well, it's a sign of politicians using this crisis for political purposes. And you posted the Rahm Emanuel retraction and clarification of his "never let a serious crises go to waste" comment. It means that when faced with unparalled tragedy you use it to exploit votes and turn the issue political instead of from what it was - a lone nut case with a gun.

 

[MassHavoc]

Well, it's a sign of politicians using this crisis for political purposes. And you posted the Rahm Emanuel retraction and clarification of his "never let a serious crises go to waste" comment. It means that when faced with unparalled tragedy you use it to exploit votes and turn the issue political instead of from what it was - a lone nut case with a gun.

A crisis and a tragedy are two completely different things. He was refering to the energy crisis. Not any kind of tragic event. STOP.