Not time to panic….not yet anyway: Bulls 105 Celtics 103 (OT)
Posted by Brian Robb on Apr 18, 2009
Bulls’ perspective: By The Horns
Take a deep breath. Count to three. Exhale. The Celtics have lost home court advantage in this series, falling 105-103 to a Derrick Rose led Bulls team in a daunting back and forth battle. Outside of a career best performance from Rajon Rondo, and a solid game from Kendrick Perkins, the Celtics did not do much of anything that made them worthy of winning this game. They were fortunate that despite this lackluster play, and an out of this world effort from Derrick Rose (36 points 11 assists), the C’s were still just one foul shot away by Paul Pierce from stealing this contest.
Let’s take a quick look at a couple things the Celtics will have to improve on to win this suddenly intriguing series.
Ball Movement: Passing was virtually non existent in the first half for the Celts as they finished with only 6 assists in the first 24 minutes. As I mentioned in my halftime update the guys on the floor (outside of Rondo) resembled a lottery team that were looking to pads their own stats in going it alone, while being afraid/unwilling to rely on their teammates. There was a lot of dribbling, a lot of isolation, and a lot of unwillingness to pass out of double teams in the paint.
Things got a bit better in the 2nd half, but only for brief stretches as the team finished with 16 assists overall in 53 minutes of play, 7 below their season average. The Celtics are at their best when they space the floor and make the extra pass. Tonight, every guy in the lineup looked to put it upon their own shoulders to increase the team’s production to make up for KG’s absence. Rajon Rondo unfortunately was the only player that stepped up to the plate.
Playing the full 48 53 minutes: I will have more on this later, but the starters slow start has been a disturbing trend for this team in last couple months. The have come out sluggish in these contests, taking difficult shots, making lazy passes and failing to get back in defense. The Celtics had been able to get away with this type of play for much of their recent home stand, but today was different. Today they forgot it was the playoffs.
The Bulls did not play terrific ball for this entire contest, but they had the playoff intensity the entire way. The Celtics eventually found their own fire, but it took a half for them to get there. Ther Celtics can’t afford to wait that long, in the playoffs, especially without KG.
Outside Shooting: The Celtics are the best shooting 3 point team in the league at 39.7 percent but tonight the team only shot 25 percent 4/16 from 3 point range. Let’s take a look at the roster breakdown.
Paul Pierce: 2/5
Eddie House: 1/4
Ray Allen: 0/6
Some of these numbers can be attributed to the a lack of good looks due to the poor ball movement in the offense. That being said, Ray and Eddie did get some nice open looks on fast breaks that they knock down 8 times out of 10. They both had off days tonight but you can count on them to bounce back in Game 2.
Speaking of Ray Allen, I feel like I am partially to blame for his performance, saying he could shoot any worse after going 2/8 from the field against Cleveland. The sharpshooting guard was anything but that today, going a horrific 1/12 from the floor with only 4 points, which would have to serve as the worst performance of his playoff career, maybe even his entire NBA career.
The poor shooting carried over to other aspects of his game, as he missed a dunk on a strong drive in the 2nd quarter, and fumbled away a ball on a fast break, late in the 2nd half. These are two plays that are incredibly uncharacteristic of Ray, as even during off shooting nights he usually remains consistent in the elements of his game.
With KG out, this team’s margin of error has greatly decreased. They can’t afford to have an off shooting night from Ray Allen and an below average performance from Paul Pierce (8/21 from field, 23 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 turnovers) and expect to win games especially when an opposing team’s point guard is having the best game of his life. It wasn’t anything the Bulls did in particular to slow these guys down, they just didn’t have it tonight. These guys are champions however and I fully expect them to rebound come Monday Night.
Before we go any further, let’s talk about Derrick Rose, I feel it is an injustice for me not to have brought up his play yet. I knew the guy was good, but he looked like the best point guard in the league this afternoon. He played smart and fast by beating the Celtics down the floor in transition and off of made baskets, which created easy baskets for Joakim Noah all afternoon long.
In the half court, he got to the hoop almost at will on dribble penetration, and looked silky smooth shooting the mid range J when Rondo decided to go under the pick. Rondo went for the steal a few too many times when defending Rose, and Rose took advantage of this but to be honest, the guy was simply in the zone all day. He was far and away the best player on the floor today and showed a veteran’s leadership and composure in going 12/12 from the line, including hitting two big one at the end of regulation that gave the Bulls a short lived 1 point lead.
The Celtics coaching staff will without a doubt be looking hard at the best way to defend Rose for the rest of this series. The Celtics stingy half court defense let Rose get comfortable and the C’s would be smart to trap Rose for the rest of this series and force the ball out of his hands to make his teammates beat the C’s.
The Green began to do this in overtime, as he went scoreless for the period, but he was still making the right passes (2 assists) despite his lack of scoring. The C’s were burned by Tyrus Thomas going 3/4 from the field taking 20 footers. Thomas has shot 34.5 percent on jumpers all season, so that’s a more appealing option for the C’s to live and die with in these games, than Rose wreaking havoc with the rock.
Luckily for the C’s, Rajon Rondo responded to Rose’s terrific play with some of his own, going for 29 points (career playoff high) on 12/21 shooting, with numbers bordering on a triple-double (9 rebounds, 7 assists) and perhaps most impressively only 1 turnover in 43 minutes of play. Rondo stayed aggressive all game long attacking the basket and abusing Rose on the defensive end.
Rondo did a terrific job of taking what the Bulls gave him on pick and rolls in the 1st half, confidently taking jumpers in rhythm and penetrating with a purpose when the opening was there. This is clearly a weakness of the Bulls’ defense and the C’s would be well served to keep attacking the Bulls’ hesitant pick and roll D for the rest of the series.
The outside shooting for Rondo trailed off in the 2nd half (1/5 on jumpers) as Rondo became more hesitant with his open looks, but it was encouraging to see the point guard remain such as a potent offensive weapon that looked to make things happen at the end of the 4th quarter. This disappeared in overtime however as Rondo took no shots for the final frame, a disappointing sight for the C’s offense’s best performer of the afternoon.
When I look at this series, right now it’s obviously evident the Celtics have dug themselves a hole. The Bulls now have the confidence they need to play with the big boys, play extremely well at home and they have the talent to ensure that this will not be an early out for the defending champs, like a lot of people (myself included) assumed it would be.
However, as long as the Celtics are able to get more consistent performances out of its shooters (paging Eddie and Ray) the Green still are the better overall team. As long as these guys wake up, and the team realizes it has to bring the fire from the opening tip, they should be fine. If Ray can’t shake out of this shooting slump though…..the C’s will be in trouble. A couple more observations after the jump
Other Odds and Ends
—Encouraging number for Celtics fans out of the loss: Only 12 turnovers in 53 minutes. C’s will need to keep this number down as they try to even up this series.
—Classic 4th quarter performance from Ben Gordon, going for 12 of his 20 points in the final frame, on 4/7 shooting. C’s need to do a better job of keeping him under wraps in this time span.
—Crazy final 30 seconds of regulation with some extremely questionable officiating by the referees: A recap:
1. Not calling a foul when Rondo gained possession of a loose ball and was hacked on the ground by multiple Bulls defenders, causing the ball to be stripped.
2. Reversing a travel call on John Salmons that returning possession back to the Bulls with 20 seconds left. Probably was the right call, I just had never seen a travel call reversed like that before.
3. A questionable foul call on Rondo as he tried to deny Rose the ball with 10 seconds left, that gave the Bulls a 1 point lead with ten seconds left. The replay showed that Rose shoved Rondo off him, as he tried to make a cut to the ball, a couple seconds before the whistle was blown. I am sorry but in the closing seconds of a playoff game, off the ball this has to be a no call unless you are calling it both ways.
Despite this sequence, the C’s have no one to blame but themselves for blowing this game after Pierce missed a free throw on the other end that would have given the champs a lead.
–Interesting substitution patterns in the 1st half as Zach Lowe noted at halftime. It will be intriguing to watch if Doc sticks to this formula, or plays the starters more now that the team is down 1-0.
–Rebounding has to be a concern for Doc, with Noah and Brad Miller picking up 17 and 12 boards respectively as the Bulls out-rebounded the Celtics 53-45 as a team. A lot of this stems from the lack of intensity in the first half in my estimation, but I would also like to see Leon in there a little more to account for this deficiency (8 rebounds in only 16 minutes) instead of Big Baby (3 rebounds in 40 minutes). I know Baby brings more versatility to the offensive end than Powe but Doc has got to let Leon see the floor more when the team is getting outworked on the glass.
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