PG: Philly evens series on lights out shooting

[GetBuLLish]

Boozer was a big part of why they fell apart in the 3rd. Did you watch the game?

Boozer was just digging a hole so that he could come in later and heroically save the day. Unfortunately, Thibs didn't allow him the chance to do that. It's on Thibs.

[Beith Kogans]

Series tied, I thought we would come out with a little more motivation and we did to start the game, Philly just shoot lights out in the 2nd half. We need a big win friday.

[Gnarc90]

I wish there wasn't so many damn days between these first few games. Had to deal with Rose's injury for 3 days, now have to sit on this horrible loss for another 3. grr.

[imagge]

As I said

If we can't beat Philly without Rose, we can't beat Miami with Rose.

Someone has to step up. If they can't, we'd see a repeat of what happened in the Miami Series last year yet again.

Doesn't that mean this team needs to continue to evolve, take another step back to move 2 steps forward?

[bigsexy70]

Lucas needs to find a way to find korver he seems to miss him and korver looks frustrated also brewer needs to just stay on the baseline he is taking way to many forced ugly jumpers

[Payt10]

I'm honestly to the point now where I'm neither excited nor angry win/loss. I mean, it's nice that the team is saying all the right things.. that they can do this for Rose, and play the underdog role etc etc.. But the reality is that whether or not it ends this series, or the next one, the team will not be getting anywhere without it's MVP.

This could be just "one of those games" in every playoff series where a team plays above themselves for 48 minutes and shoots an insanely high % that leads to a win, but I think it's probably a sign that the team has started to lose their confidence, knowing Derrick isn't coming back anytime soon.

[MVP Rose]

I'm not even kidding, I think if Jimmy Butler got an opportunity today the Bulls would have won..his pestering, in-your-grill defense is magnificent and he can actually draw a foul and keep the defense honest

Ronnie Brewer's brick launching is getting old

[pduh01]

Here is one positive:

When the Bulls lose especially lose badly like this one, they usually bounce back the next game, either play better, make the game grimmy, and most important win. So lets hope that is the case in game three.

[Jeter6z7]

Whats up with the UC? I can understand the ticket prices plunged, but not to showing up to the game? Yes according to TNT analysts there were a lot of empty seats, and 100 level quiet when we needed them to be loud especially for this game. Sorry but why does OKC have such great arena fans and we don't?

[NBAwesome]

Whats up with the UC? I can understand the ticket prices plunged, but not to showing up to the game? Yes according to TNT analysts there were a lot of empty seats, and 100 level quiet when we needed them to be loud especially for this game. Sorry but why does OKC have such great arena fans and we don't?

what are you talking about? The place was loud as hell. Did you watch the CSN broadcast?

[CousinOfDeath]

The high shot % was a result of our missed shots starting their fast breaks. I don't think it's something that's just going to come back down to earth.

[Googjob]

Whats up with the UC? I can understand the ticket prices plunged, but not to showing up to the game? Yes according to TNT analysts there were a lot of empty seats, and 100 level quiet when we needed them to be loud especially for this game. Sorry but why does OKC have such great arena fans and we don't?

I was there. Seemed full to me. A little late arriving as traffic was bad due to the weather.

Crowd was also loud in that 2nd quarter. Tough to get loud when your team gets curbstomped in a half.

[imagge]

The fact the Boozer can't go in the post and at least get to the FT should be very disturbing to the FO, I mean dud makes 15 mil a year

[Rerisen]

I'm honestly to the point now where I'm neither excited nor angry win/loss. I mean, it's nice that the team is saying all the right things.. that they can do this for Rose, and play the underdog role etc etc.. But the reality is that whether or not it ends this series, or the next one, the team will not be getting anywhere without it's MVP.

This could be just "one of those games" in every playoff series where a team plays above themselves for 48 minutes and shoots an insanely high % that leads to a win, but I think it's probably a sign that the team has started to lose their confidence, knowing Derrick isn't coming back anytime soon.

Think this is mostly on point. A lot of hysteria in the game thread leads me to believe many were actually buying into us winning the title without Rose. Um... let's just take one game at a time. Much better for everyone's health.

On the point about losing confidence, we maybe we did for a stretch, having a, "Oh crap, Rose is really gone!" moment, but I don't think its a point of no return. We can regain it, certainly vs Philadelphia anyway. They don't have the offense to run away from us like this in every game.

[LobosJordan]

Finally Deng is calling out the dumb Chicago media about these Derrick Rose questions. HE ISN"T COMING BACK. GET OVER IT. Stop asking the Bulls about him.

[jl342323]

Boozer was a big part of why they fell apart in the 3rd. Did you watch the game?

what does this have to do with anything i posted?

if you watched the game closely, you would know that bulls were only down by 7 when boozer went out in the 3rd quarter and the sixers lead went up to 22 points while boozer was on the bench.

believe it or not boozer had the third best +/- only behind john lucas and korver. taj, lou, cj, rip were all ranging from -13 to -16

[fleet]

--Open--

Philly just shot great. They clearly gained a ton of confidence from Rose going down, believing that they can win.

So now it’s gut check time. Bulls can play much better than they did and certainly beat Philly. But they have to believe and not hang their heads like they sort of did late in the 3rd.

I thought they did well enough in the first half. They came out in the 3rd quarter and that fire was missing. But even in the first half it wasn't that consistent really.

I don’t really care for Thibs rotations of running the starters the whole first quarter then the subs the whole second practically. Really kills flow in the game. Rip was hot in the first quarter, but stunk after he came back. His old legs probably sat too long.

yeah I think you can't really play older guys spotty minutes. Either have them out there to warm up and maintain a rythm or it may not work optimally.

One unnoticed disruption of losing Rose is that the second unit is now led by Lucas not Watson, and JL3 really plays a different style than Watson, much more shot first, this could derail their chemistry for a while.

The Lucas thing works best when the starter is really rolling and Lucas comes in and tag teams.

A bigger question is really if Boozer and Deng and his injured wrist can provide the offensive punch we need going forward. Lucas and Watson can’t become Derrick Rose.

Not very confident in it. Boozer is not going to be consistent enough in a series of adjustments, especially if he is deemed the primary scorer.

Another thing I noticed, Philly was getting away with a ton of hacking and pushing defensively. We did not get any benefit of the doubt calls despite contact. This was a fear without Rose. Bulls are not an exciting team anymore and I think few care if they advance. It’s going to be an uphill battle officiating wise.

they wanted it more in the second half. It was the opposite of what was supposed to happen. The home team gets physical in playoffs basketball, not the visitor

Fastbreak points, 25 to 8. Like I mentioned in another thread, you can’t rely on great defense if you are missing tons of shots leading to transition run outs.

and getting outrebounded. Ouch

Lastly, Derrick had to feel awful watching this one. We can relate.

I stopped watching when he left the box.

[Jeter6z7]

Whats up with the UC? I can understand the ticket prices plunged, but not to showing up to the game? Yes according to TNT analysts there were a lot of empty seats, and 100 level quiet when we needed them to be loud especially for this game. Sorry but why does OKC have such great arena fans and we don't?

what are you talking about? The place was loud as hell. Did you watch the CSN broadcast?

I watched TNT broadcast, it was better quality and they(CSN) had some issue early with putting it in HD. But I don't know I watched OKC and its like 20x louder.

[Mech Engineer]

1. Mike James has to play for 8/10 mins in the next game. He can make some tough passes and although he will probably collect a few fouls quickly, he is bigger and tougher on defense. He will disrupt the 76ers offensive rhythm at-least.
It is very difficult for Watson and JL3 to be hot for a long time.

2. Thibs has to tell Korver to shoot from where-ever he is. There is no way Korver will get free against an athletic team without Rose to take attention away. Korver has to attempt 7-8 shots at the minimum especially without Rose to bail them out.

3. That said, Thibs and the team were in a big time funk. Thibs has to try new tricks like playing Butler on the hot wing guy and if he sticks to his old thinking as if the Bulls are playing the Bobcats, the season will be done sooner than later. The team might talk a lot but there were distracted with all the questioning and the reality of Rose not being there.

[SeniorWalker]

I reeeealy don't think we will lose like that again unless, god forbid, we're down 3-1 and on our way out, completely throwing in the towel. But when the margins are much closer (and we can't buy a basket), like they will be the rest of this series, we'll need someone to step up for us and get things rolling. Philly acts as if they know that won't happen now.

They can't be allowed those fastbreak blitzes either. Totally deflating.