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July 2010

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July 2010
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May

3

Great Series Ends on Downer for Bulls

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Well, things looked good for the Chicago Bulls throughout the first quarter of Game Seven last night against the Boston Celtics.

The team was moving the ball, Ben Gordon was working off screens and hitting shots, Derrick Rose was getting nice floaters around the bucket, the team was active on defense, and Boston was off to a slow and ineffective start.

And then the second quarter happened, a quarter so miserable that it essentially put the Bulls in a hole to deep to get out of.

Chicago held a four point lead at the end of the first and moved it to ten early in the second quarter. And then the Bulls stopped attacking the basket and became a one-on-one, jump shooting team. The ball stopped moving, and if you read the papers this morning, you’d get the impression that Gordon was the sole cause for this.

Well, let’s be honest. It was everyone in the second quarter, including Gordon, John Salmons, and reserves Kirk Hinrich and Brad Miller, who put the ball down several times in traffic and unshockingly turned it over. Until a gutsy fourth quarter, Hinrich struggled and looked as if the moment was too big for him. After a nice start, Rose disappeared and looked like the 20-year-old rookie that he is.

Still, Boston did nothing too impressive to seize control of the game. In fact, Chicago could have had a much bigger lead if the offense didn’t stop halting after one pass, which actually started late in the first quarter.

Ultimately the Celtics chipped away as the Bulls matched horrible offense with brutal defense. Chicago’s helpline defense was atrocious all night long, and either way too late or never to be seen on most plays. Once Boston got onto the lane, the Bulls gave the Cs a free pass to the hoop.

While Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and even Rajon Rando were effective but less than spectacular offensively in Game Seven, the Bulls lost this game to scrub scrubs named Brian Scalabrine and the annoyingly one- dimensional and full-of-himself Eddie House.

Scalabrine had eight points in the first half and House ended up with 14 for the game on 5-for-5 shooting. It’s not like Scalabrine and House hit tough shots. Time and time again, the Bulls left these jumpshooters wide open and give credit to them for hitting the shot. Castigate the Bulls for continually allowing them to do so.

Not only were the players bad last night but so was novice coach Vinny Del Negro.

It seemed as if Chicago made no adjustments all game, breaking down time and time again on both ends.

As the Celtics went on that ultimate game-turning 22-2 run, there was Del Negro failing to wake his team up and just watching them make the same mistakes and do the same stupid things over and over again.

For a guy who used timeouts throughout the regular season and first two games of this series as if they were going out of style, Del Negro called only one timeout during that run, letting the game shift to Boston.

The Bulls fought in the second half and chipped away at the large deficit, but continued to break down in the big moments, going one-on-one on offense and losing players on defense.

All in all, it was an awful effort from Chicago in Game Seven, with the exception of Joakim Noah, who played with poise and urgency when he was on the court before fouling out.

Not that Game Seven should take away from the Bulls effort this series, but the reason Chicago lost this game last night were due to things that burned the team in the regular season: a lack of commitment on defense, no movement on offense, and inexperience on the sidelines.

It’s a shame that the Bulls went out this way as Boston should have been beaten this series and did nothing too amazing in Game Seven. The defending champs knew they were in trouble as this series moved forward and did just enough to survive.

There’s no denying Chicago did much more than anyone would have expected this season and in this series.

Still, the Bulls should have won this game last night.

To become a better team as opposed to one who shows flashes but is ultimately mediocre, the Bulls need to learn how to play defense and become much smarter on the court and the sidelines.

Until that happens, the team will remain talented but ultimately fail in these type of games.

With that said, it was a good run. Chicago shouldn’t be satisfied though as there is a lot of work to do.

The Bulls are a little closer than we thought, but are still a long, long way from ever dreaming of being a contender for the Eastern Conference and the NBA title.