Bulls vs Philly: Series Talk

[Ice Man]

I think you guys are overrating Philly. This is an athletic, semi-talented .500 team that dunks all over opponents who don't hold onto the ball. The Bulls' PGs made 10 turnovers in the first matchup and the Bulls were toast. Philly is a real handful if you play like ass against them.

But play with composure, make it a half-court game, no contest.

[JohnnyKILLroy]

I like Rose matched up against Holiday to start the playoffs.

Holiday gets after it on defense and is big and strong and pretty quick also. He'll also have something to prove trying to get into that upper echelon of PGs.

He'll do his best to challenge Rose and hopefully he knocks off the rust Rose has accumulated.

[organix85]

I'm curious to see if Philly throws Iggy on Derrick at all.

I'm positive they will in spurts.

[Ralphb07]

I really see the Bulls coming out tomorrow and making a statement. I think they feel a bit disrespected by all this "we much rather play the Bulls" crap.

I just can't wait!!!

[organix85]

-They are going to go with Thaddous Young at the four a whole lot which is going to cause problems for Carlos Boozer very likely that Doug Collins is going to play small with Young at the four so very like

Noah will be on Young... he has in the past.

[organix85]

I'm glad we have a good amount of fans not believing this would be a cakewalk. I've always felt that Philly gives us problems cause they have the ability to cut off our perimeter offense with long, athletic guards on defense.

[AirP.]

I think you guys are overrating Philly. This is an athletic, semi-talented .500 team that dunks all over opponents who don't hold onto the ball. The Bulls' PGs made 10 turnovers in the first matchup and the Bulls were toast. Philly is a real handful if you play like ass against them.

But play with composure, make it a half-court game, no contest.

Here's some interesting stats with Philly...

Record: 35-31 - .530 winning percentage.
Record(Without Hawes) 13-16 - .449 winning percentage
Record(With Hawes) 22-15 - .595 winning percentage

Chicago's playing the 76er team WITH Hawes. Although Chicago beat the 76ers in Chicago with Hawes this year, it's pretty easy to see they're a much better team with Hawes then without. Although not a great player, what he brings to the team(including depth) really makes a difference and with that, not nearly as easy of a series as some fans think.

No I don't think they'll beat Chicago, but they do have the ability to make this series much more interesting then a 1 vs 8 should be.

[Rerisen]

Edit: AirP just posted the exact same thing above.

Yeah, he's definitely made a difference for them overall, but didn't help prevent their late tailspin.

[MGB8]

The key to beating Philly is rebounding, zone concepts / lane and 3 pt protection, and slashing / getting the ball inside.

Philly's strenght as a team is athleticism and depth.

But Philly's weaknesses are: (1) interior size - both offensively and defensively - where Hawes has not fully bounced back and (2) mid-range shooting. They also lack reliable 3 pt shooting outside of Meeks. Lou Williams and Jrue Holliday are decent 3 ball players, but not great. Iguodala and Turner are not reliable from range, although they certainly can shoot from there.

If you can force the Sixers to shoot mid range jump shots by contesting shots inside with size, and defending the 3 pt line well, you take a lot out of their movement and slashing based offense.

Conversely, while the Sixers are fast and aggressive on defense, if you can get into the lane on them, or into the post, their lack of size really hurts their ability to protect the rim. That's why they have so much trouble against Miami (Lebron, in particular, but Bosh and Wade, too).

[Rerisen]

I think you guys are overrating Philly. This is an athletic, semi-talented .500 team that dunks all over opponents who don't hold onto the ball. The Bulls' PGs made 10 turnovers in the first matchup and the Bulls were toast. Philly is a real handful if you play like ass against them.

But play with composure, make it a half-court game, no contest.

In Rose's current mindset he will be low turnover. But the test is going to be when he gives it up like he has been doing, can our other players, guys like Deng and Boozer especially, but Rip has also struggled with this at times, take care of the ball?

In that first Philly game, they were swarming all over the place and most of our team looked like they had hardly dribbled or passed a basketball before.

Boozer hitting the mid-range J will alleviate a lot of their inside the arc double and helping.

[AirP.]

Edit: AirP just posted the exact same thing above.

Yeah, he's definitely made a difference for them overall, but didn't help prevent their late tailspin.

Depends on what you're looking at...

Philly last
5 games... 4-1 (lost last game of year vs Detroit playing mostly backups)
10 games... 6-4

[Rerisen]

Conversely, while the Sixers are fast and aggressive on defense, if you can get into the lane on them, or into the post, their lack of size really hurts their ability to protect the rim. That's why they have so much trouble against Miami (Lebron, in particular, but Bosh and Wade, too).

When I watch them play Miami its like a mirror as far as playstyle, but Miami just does everything better, has so much more talent, that Philly cannot really exploit any matchups or find an area to get an edge on them. So every game kind of plays out the same.

Evan Turner was not wrong about who to prefer, he just should not have said it publicly.

In theory the ideal team to take out Miami is exactly a team like the Bulls. Team with a great PG, inside defense and rebounding and that can prevent their transition. Oh and outside shooting to crack their defense. We were just flawed last year. But if our offense struggles too much against Philly, it will be a bad sign for playing the Heat.

[ManualRam]

-They are going to go with Thaddous Young at the four a whole lot which is going to cause problems for Carlos Boozer very likely that Doug Collins is going to play small with Young at the four so very like

Noah will be on Young... he has in the past.

which would take noah away from the paint on defense, making boozer the primary help defender vs a slashing team.
how long does thibs stay with that configuration?

[MGB8]

Conversely, while the Sixers are fast and aggressive on defense, if you can get into the lane on them, or into the post, their lack of size really hurts their ability to protect the rim. That's why they have so much trouble against Miami (Lebron, in particular, but Bosh and Wade, too).

When I watch them play Miami its like a mirror as far as playstyle, but Miami just does everything better, has so much more talent, that Philly cannot really exploit any matchups or find an area to get an edge on them. So every game kind of plays out the same.

Evan Turner was not wrong about who to prefer, he just should not have said it publicly.

In theory the ideal team to take out Miami is exactly a team like the Bulls. Team with a great PG, inside defense and rebounding and that can prevent their transition. Oh and outside shooting to crack their defense. We were just flawed last year. But if our offense struggles too much against Philly, it will be a bad sign for playing the Heat.

I think that's right. Philly has more depth. But they aren't great off the dribble (good, just not great) like Lebron and Wade are, and don't have a guy who can score in the post and mid-range like Bosh.

I just checked Philly's stats and Iggy, Lou and Jrue all shot very well from 3... but from watching they seem to be more streaky. My guess is that the high percentage is a result of excellent ball movement and open looks, whereas Meeks, the guy they start to space things, is better at contested 3's.

One thing about Meeks - not from observation but from looking at boxscores and opponents - he might be poor defensively against very active opposing SGs (like Rip). It might be something to exploit.

[weneeda2guard]

I really see the Bulls coming out tomorrow and making a statement. I think they feel a bit disrespected by all this "we much rather play the Bulls" crap.

I just can't wait!!!

totally agree

i think evan turner might have opened up a can of worms. all the dodge the heat to play the bulls talk will ignite this team. add to the fact this is what the team has been waiting on all season to get back to the playoffs get the heat and make up for where they went wrong a year ago.

i dont see a let down with this team this year. last year was a team that was in they 1st playoff run together and heavily relied on rose to do so much in order to keep the team afloat. this season especially in the last games rose has played, i have seen this team work offense with rose no where near the play. that was unheard of last season where the offense was rose come up, here comes the help defense, ball movement and 10 seconds off the shot clock just trying to get the ball back in rose hands to set up a offensive play.

this season i see rip initiating offense, 2 man game with boozer and deng, boozer and noah, a lot more ball movement and the role players contributing waay more than last season. rose has been bad since he got back, yet we still winning cause somebody else on the team always contribute in some manner.

this team is number 1 in the league for a reason. i see no let downs and i see this bulls team wearing on philly by game 2 and making this a short series. bulls in 5