What Has To Happen To Win a Playoff Series

[Chi town]

Waste of energy to complain about AK’s complete disaster of leadership. So let’s go with it…

Playoff Series Win

1. 6th seed. Defeat Sixers with hobbled Embiid.

2. Coby doing Coby things.

3. Ayo keeps the rise.

4. Pat gets healthy and returns to pre ankle form.

5. Vuc makes his 3s at career averages not league low.

6. DDR passes and stops playing hero ball in crunch time.

7. Health.

[Red8911]

Yup health is very important to any team during the playoffs. Bulls need to have no injuries other than the obvious Zach- Lonzo. If the opponent has a big injury it sure helps and it can happen.

Don’t play Boston, any other team can be beatable. Boston I think is extremely difficult to beat. Not saying they will for sure take out the Bucks or sixers but I think there’s at least a chance with them.

Finally they need to have high confidence and playing well when the playoffs start. That one year where they made the playoffs they started the season hot but by the end of the season they were probably playing like they were the worst team in the league.



If the opponent has

[Dominator83]

Injuries to other teams. Lots of them

[FriedRise]

Oof this is like 2 months too early lol. Need to show that we can take care of business first these next couple months against tougher competition. But let's say we do end up there...

The best way to get into the playoffs is by finishing 7th or 8th so we get 2 shots at it. It can happen if Miami or Orlando continue to cool off and we continue our momentum. Absent that, it's gonna be a steep hill. Orlando is inexperienced, but is a bad matchup with their never-ending 6'10 players. Miami has Jimmy and has been waiting all season to wake up. Indiana's offense will be tough to keep up with Hali. Our best bet is if Philly joins the play-in picture with Embiid still out.

In the small likelihood that we actually make the playoffs, we'll be facing either the 1st or 2nd seed - so that's either Boston, Cleveland, Milwaukee, or Knicks.

- Boston is gonna be a sweep. That team is 1st on offense and 3rd on defense with no exploitable weaknesses
- Cleveland is a bad matchup with their size, shooting, and Mitchell + a couple certified Bulls killers in Strus and Niang
- Knicks have plenty of firepower now, but I'm gonna need to see how they do after the trade and how OG looks after his injury
- Milwaukee will have the best 2 players in every game, but they also can't defend - so something exploitable there. As long as our offense keeps up, we might have a chance to steal a couple

To actually win a series against any of these teams, we're gonna need a combination of injury to a couple of their key players, disciplined defense, luck, and consistent shotmaking. Guys gotta stay hot and can't go hot/cold from a game to game basis. That's why from this buyout market, we need to prioritize getting a legit shooter like Joe Harris (if he's not cooked) or Korkmaz.

[DuckIII]

Opposition gets caught in a Chicago Black Sox type of gambling scandal and forfeits. Or has worse injuries than we do. We have a horrible roster for postseason play.

[BullChit]

Watch on YouTube

Basically this...

[erlim]

Big thing is our emerging players like Ayo and first and foremost, Coby, can not shrink. This iteration of the Bulls is very very different than the Rose/Noah era and the earlier Hinrich/Deng teams where all those former guys basically had a dragonball z power up come playoffs.

IF we make the play in and advance to a series, an inefficient 18 ppg DDR and 12 ppg Coby isn’t going to cut it.

[ImSlower]

Well we're in 9th and exceedingly unlikely to break into the top 6 in the East. So the idea of the thread is that we first won out in the Play-in - which would mean two great wins! I consider that wildly optimistic, but let's assume the Bulls beat the Hawks, Heat, Magic, or Pacers to win a spot in the actual playoffs against the #1 or 2 teams.

To win a playoff series against the Celtics or [Cavs/Knicks/Bucks], my answer to your original post is that we'd have to watch the other team suffer catastrophic injury to a star. That's it. That's literally the only way I can see this team winning a playoff series.

[jc23]

We would be underdogs vs each of the top 7 teams in the East imo. Id like a matchup vs Cleveland if i had to pick. They were exposed in the playoffs last year and if we could slow down Mitchell we might have a chance.

[MissileMike]

An injurry to an opposing team's best player. That's the only way I see it happening.

[Jeffster81]

Spoiler:

[GoBlue72391]

"A congenital heart defect has apparently felled Tatum moments before he could step into the ring."

[chitownsports4ever]

Top records in the East since Nov 30th

Celtics 26-8
Cavs 24-8
Knicks 23-12
Bulls 20-13
Bucks 21-13
Sixers 18-15
Pacers 20-17
Heat 18-16
Magic 15-19

[prolific passer]

Lot's of praying.

[BullChit]

Top records in the East since Nov 30th

Celtics 26-8
Cavs 24-8
Knicks 23-12
Bulls 20-13
Bucks 21-13
Sixers 18-15
Pacers 20-17
Heat 18-16
Magic 15-19

That start to the season was brutal...