Not sure where else to post it, but here are some of my useful notes from The Jordan Rules:
• The triangle wasn't used literally every play during the regular season (Jordan frequently broke out of it in games, much to the dismay of teammates; he and Pippen, when he developed, freelanced quite a bit), and was more useful in the playoffs when dealing with teams playing zones (Detroit, Dunleavy Lakers, Cleveland to some extent). The Riley Knicks were able to slow it down with holding, bumping, pushing.
• Speaking of the triangle, while was important for role players (for there to be a system in place), it was key in mismatches too:
So Jackson made a switch. He sent Paxson off on the wing, where he was best for his spot-up jumper anyway, and had Pippen carry the ball upcourt more. This removed the pressure from the ball— while also keeping it out of Jordan’s hands— since the Pistons then had to try to contest the ball handler with a forward or leave themselves in a major mismatch against Pippen once the ball got upcourt. It was the culmination of the maturation process Jackson had long planned for Pippen.
The process had started earlier in the season when Jackson began leaving either Pippen or Jordan on the floor with the reserves. Ostensibly , Jackson did this to keep a scorer out with the bench players. But Jackson also wanted to push Pippen into developing on his own. He knew Pippen had difficulty taking charge and getting his shots when he played with Jordan.
“But now he was the guy ,” Jackson said. “He had to make the decisions and take charge and score.”
Pippen would grow comfortably into the role; it had been a major factor against Philadelphia. And now, against Detroit, the pressure seemed to fall away from the Bulls’ offense while on defense the Bulls continued to apply pressure of their own. They swarmed over Detroit, making it hard for the Pistons to run their deliberate offense. The Pistons always played ball-control basketball since they were not a great offensive team; they’d control the clock and the backboards, and a 4- or 6-point win by them was like a 15-point win by another team. But they never could get control of these games from the Bulls, no matter what they tried.
• Chicago played a great pressing defense:
But they also had talent and played exceptional halfcourt defense that produced a transition game that allowed Pippen, Jordan, and Grant to run and overcome the team’s weaknesses.
It’s a scramble to get to the basket, and players learn about fighting pressure, but even more about playing midcourt defense. And midcourt is where the Bulls beat teams. The area from the free-throw line to midcourt is where plays begin, and that’s where the Bulls take teams out of their offense, often turning the mistakes into transition slam dunks by Pippen , Jordan, or Grant. Grant’s speed allows him to double and then retreat to his man, and Jordan and Pippen are the riverboat gamblers of the NBA, sharp dudes who will steal your underwear off you, but carefully. Jordan gambles in games the way he gambles off the court— on everything— and Pippen, though more conservative off the court, has a mean streak in him and likes the challenge of the chase.
Of course, Jordan was a major part of that, as was Pippen . But they had the best jobs. Cartwright’s role was to stay back and zone the area under the basket while Jordan and Pippen crept into the passing lanes for steals. This strategy leads to breakaways and crowd-pleasing slams, but they’re often made possible by Paxson, whose job it is to turn the guard to one side so Jordan can jump in and force a bad pass, or Grant can come from behind as he’s racing downcourt, bothering the man with the ball.
“He’s the intrepid one,” said Bach of Grant. “He’s the one who has to meet the ball on the double -team and then sometimes a second time as he goes downcourt, and then he has to find a man to guard and rebound. He’s the one who’s really made our press. We always had the ability to trap a ball handler with two guards, but he’s given us the addition of a big man able to do that. So now you’ve got Pippen at about six-eight and Horace at six-ten and Michael at six-six, and they’re roaring around the court in a triangle of defenders and interceptors, anchored by Paxson in the guard position and Cartwright in the back. And it works by the boldness of Phil in his calls.”
• Scottie was a gambler on defense initially, but that changed this season:
Laughing in the face of this kind of pressure was a new experience for the Bulls. It showed maturity, especially on the part of Pippen, who had surprised the coaches with his seriousness. He was watching game tapes now for the first time in his career. He was working hard in the gym and in games; on defense he was now less like a matador, with a wave and an ole , and more like a bull.
• Speaking of Grant, he was thought of very highly:
In Jordan, Pippen, and Horace Grant, they believed they had perhaps three of the five best players in the conference, and some of their role players seemed more capable than the All-Stars.
• Regarding the Pistons' defense:
As for tactics, the team had to stop its headlong charges into Detroit’s interior defense. The Pistons played a zone, simple and effective, Jackson noted. And the Bulls had to get good shots and take them rather than crash in where they had no room to maneuver. They had to retreat better on defense, and they had to rebound.
The Pistons had two of the league’s best man-to-man defenders, Joe Dumars and Dennis Rodman, to carry out those assignments. Jordan grudgingly respected Dumars, with whom he’d become somewhat friendly at the 1990 All-Star game; Dumars was quiet and resolute, a gentlemanly professional. But Jordan didn’t care much for Rodman’s play. “He’s a flopper,” Jordan would say disdainfully. “He just falls down and tries to get the calls. That’s not good defense.” Rodman once “flopped” so effectively back in the 1988– 89 season that Jordan drew six fouls in the fourth quarter to foul out in the last minute of a close loss to the Pistons.
But Jordan’s frustration against the Pistons was much larger than his dislike for Rodman, his team’s lack of success against Detroit, or even his failure to score effectively since that Easter Sunday game. Detroit simply beat up Jordan, battering him through picks and screens whenever he tried to move. For Jordan, it was like trying to navigate a minefield of bullies. First he’d take a forearm shiver from Dumars when he tried to get past, then perhaps a bump from Bill Laimbeer and a bang from Rodman or Isiah Thomas. The Bulls were so concerned about some of these tactics a few years ago that they focused a camera on Laimbeer throughout the playoffs to see what he was doing and found that he was grabbing players at their pressure points to deaden their arms. They complained to the league, but got no action. And while Thomas is not generally considered a good defender because he doesn’t like to play a helping game, whenever the Bulls play Detroit he is quick to double-team Jordan. He knows Jordan despises him and he doesn’t care much for Jordan being the hero in Chicago, Isiah’s hometown.
The game couldn’t have gone better for the Bulls. They rarely shoot well in Detroit against the Pistons’ quickly rotating defenses; Dennis Rodman bumps and battles against Pippen and refuses to give him the lanes, and Dumars and Laimbeer or Thomas drop off against Jordan and quickly hurry back. But even with Jordan missing 5 of 8 shots in the first quarter, the Bulls trailed just 26– 25 by hitting half their attempts, and Rodman drew 2 early fouls and had to leave the game. By halftime, the Bulls had climbed ahead 44– 41 as Detroit hit just 5 of 17 shots in the second quarter. The first test had been passed. The Bulls now would be shooting at the softer, more forgiving basket.
• Pippen had the injury and migraine problem in 89, 90 and Grant was overly emotional, but they seemed to largely move past those issues during their first championship run (though Grant broke down once during the Sixers series). Scottie also didn't much care for Rodman (I mentioned his D on Scottie above), and there was an incident in the 91 ECF:
Midway through the second quarter, Rodman shoved Pippen hard out of bounds and into the stands; Pippen slammed into the floor behind the basket and suffered a gash in his chin that would take six stitches to close. The Bulls’ bench exploded and moved toward midcourt as a flagrant foul was called. Assistant coach Jim Cleamons engaged in a colorful screaming match with a fan who began making obscene gestures. Pippen moved hazily into a sitting position.
Watching at home, owner Reinsdorf was both incensed and worried.
“That’s good, Scottie, relax, relax,” he said to the TV screen. “Don’t retaliate. You’re behaving like a man.”
Pippen would later tell Reinsdorf that he didn’t retaliate because he couldn’t remember where he was.
“You play, you play, we don’t get involved in that stuff,” Grant instructed Pippen as Pippen rose unsteadily to his feet.
But Rodman wasn’t done. He had let himself loose into that hysterical world that Pippen had wondered about, even if Pippen was in no condition to hear.
“You think that’s something, I’ll do it again,” he screamed at the referees. “Makes no difference to me. We don’t want no **** out here and he’s a ***. I’ll get him again. He’s going down. He’s going down harder this time and see if I care. We don’t put up with none of that ***-ass **** out here.”
I got nearly 100 quotes total, but this is the stuff I most wanted to share. Good stuff.
Now that's the difference between first and last place.
Here's his OP (edited mentions of offense to defense):
