Bulls vs Celtics 7pm CT Nov. 29th 2024

[sco]

Sure, it's easy to find fault with Billy and the team, but c'mon, we played the champs close for most of the game. We shot 39% from 3 on 51 3's and over 50% FG with only 8 TO's! And yes, our defense is crappy, but I'm seeing some progress here. I was disappointed that Matas only played 5 minutes, but that will come once we're eliminated from the playoffs in a month or so.

[DuckIII]

Sure, it's easy to find fault with Billy and the team, but c'mon, we played the champs close for most of the game. We shot 39% from 3 on 51 3's and over 50% FG with only 8 TO's! And yes, our defense is crappy, but I'm seeing some progress here. I was disappointed that Matas only played 5 minutes, but that will come once we're eliminated from the playoffs in a month or so.

Negative comments are odd to me after this one. At least as regards the “team” rather than individual players. If the Bulls play a better game than that all season I’ll eat my shoe.

[DuckIII]

I also want to mention that Giddey that a great job on Jaylen Brown, he defended him on the majority of his shots & drives. Brown was 7-21. There were people talking about how safe it was to bet on Brown going for 34+ tonight, not even close.

No doubt. I thought Zach also brought far better defensive effort and physicality than normal as well. I was really impressed with both of them last night.

[burlydee]

I don't think Billy is above criticism just bc its the Celtics. Two things that have been consistent problems to me reared their ugly head. The Bulls needed to try something different on the pick and roll. Change up the look. Doing the same thing over and over lead to the same result.

Billy seems to decide who will close games sometime pre tip off. Coby can be on the bench to end some of these games. He isn't Curry. If he's going to be that bad on offense given his baseline on D, closing with THT or Giddey would have made more sense. Billy treats Coby like he's Brunson. He hasn't shown that consistency.

[Indomitable]

I don't think Billy is above criticism just bc its the Celtics. Two things that have been consistent problems to me reared their ugly head. The Bulls needed to try something different on the pick and roll. Change up the look. Doing the same thing over and over lead to the same result.

Billy seems to decide who will close games sometime pre tip off. Coby can be on the bench to end some of these games. He isn't Curry. If he's going to be that bad on offense given his baseline on D, closing with THT or Giddey would have made more sense. Billy treats Coby like he's Brunson. He hasn't shown that consistency.

Coby was terrible.

Giddey has to be a scoring threat.

Vuc needs to be protected from his slow feet.

Mataes needs more minutes.

Craig played well actually.

[BloodyQ]

I was thinking if Pritchard was on the Bulls he wouldn't be nowhere as good.

He would just be another P-Will (probably better than that) but.....yeah

[LikeMike23]

You need size and athleticism to blitz and trap successfully. Size/length to deny passing lanes and protect the rim and speed to recover. The Bulls don't have either.

Look at all the space KP has to work with and Vuc can't close out to him without getting beat. Horford/KP can pop into space or roll and force the Bulls' small backline to contest at the rim. Brown was 4/10 from 3. Most of his misses were midrange jumpers.

You do NOT need size to blitz successfully. Just watch the Thunder. They don't have much size, but they blitz screens with the best of them. You need speed, athleticism, and players to know their rotations. Blitzing is not about denying passing lanes. It's about denying clean looks off the screen and forcing the ball out of certain players' hands.

In the clip you posted, the blitz was successful because it forced Tatum to pass. Vucevic ran KP off the three-point line, which is what you want. The Bulls would much rather have KP trying to create off the dribble than Tatum. The problem was Ayo standing in no man's land. Ayo wasn't guarding Pritchard, and he wasn't helping Vuc. If Ayo stepped up to help Vuc, Lonzo could have rotated to Pritchard and Ayo could have rotated to Tatum. Vucevic was forced to foul because he didn't have help.

The Bulls play at the fastest pace in the league on offense, so they have the speed and athleticism to blitz successfully. The problem is coaching. Not every player knows where they're supposed to be on defense and not enough adjustments are being made during the game. An adjustment should have been made to blitz Tatum and Pritchard earlier in the game because they scored most of Boston's points, but didn't score a single point after the Bulls started blitzing at the end of the game.

You do if you're going to allow shots at the rim. I watched the Thunder. They do not blitz every screen like what you're recommending. Even when they were without a center, they switched.

Example of why size/length is important. You have to make the initial pass difficult so that the defender can recover and you don't allow open runways to the basket. If you aren't sending help early you need to be able to defend at the rim. Gobert doesn't even need to set the screen to get open. Blitzing the ball leaves the defense vulnerable especially when the opponent knows it's coming. There's a reason why blitzing the ball is a last resort.

The Celtics got 2 free throws because they blitzed. That possession was a failure. The goal is to get stops, if you aren't getting stops then the defense isn't working.

If Ayo steps over to help Vuc, Pritchard gets an open 3. Lonzo is in no position to close out on Pritchard. His head is turned and he stunted at KP.

There is no relation between pace and athleticism. The Wizards play fast too, but I wouldn't call them athletic.

Teams don't want to blitz the Celtics for a reason.

I never said the Bulls should blitz every screen, so you're taking what I said out of context. I said the Bulls should have started blitzing screens with Tatum and Pritchard earlier in the game because they scored most of Boston's points, but didn't score a single point after the Bulls started blitzing them at the end of the game.

Blitzing is not a last resort on defense. Have you been watching the Bulls games? Many teams have been blitzing Zach LaVine and Coby White to get the ball out of their hands. It is not a last-resort tactic. It is a strategy to force other players on the opposing team to beat you.

The possession in the original clip failed because Vucevic didn't have help on defense. The blitz was successful because it got the ball out of Tatum's hands, which it was designed to do. If Ayo comes up to the free-throw line to help Vuc, he either takes the charge or forces a pass to Pritchard. KP isn't an athletic big with point guard skills. He's a slow big, who averages 1.5 assists per game. Lonzo would have had enough time to contest Pritchard's shot or play the passing lane for a steal.

Watch at the 0:05 mark with 56.2 left on the game clock. Ayo is in no man's land. He's late on the help and not guarding anyone. If Ayo is at the free-throw line to help Vuc, KP has to pick up his dribble. Lonzo is in the perfect position to play the passing lane or contest Pritchard's shot if the pass gets through.

The notion there's no correlation between pace and athleticism is false. You can't play at a fast pace if you don't have the athleticism to do so. The Wizards are an athletic team. From Sarr to Coulibaly. Even Poole and Kuzma. Their problem isn't a lack of athleticism. Their problem is a lack of experience and basketball IQ. Maybe some of their veterans aren't athletic, similar to the Bulls, but overall the Bulls and Wizards are two athletic teams.

Either way, leaving Vucevic on an island to guard Tatum is a losing strategy. The Bulls have to help each other on defense. If someone gets hot like Tatum and Pritchard did in this game, the Bulls have to adjust their defense to get the ball out of their hands and force someone else to take a shot. Arguing against this is just dumb like Billy Donovan's coaching.

[Chi town]

Terry blitzed at the end of the quarter on Tatum and it led to them not getting a shot off in time.

It’s super hard to blitz consistently but normally the first couple times you blitz or go to zone the opposing team is thrown off and they don’t get a good shot. Considering we were giving up wide open layups and wide open 3s I would have done both lastnight 10-12 possessions to disrupt momentum.

[chitownsports4ever]

We intentionally play small and there is zero creativity with it.

I sat through a quick rewatch this morning and that 4th quarter ... the good and the bad

1- Cobys drive to nowhere which forced the jump ball. It was such a what are you doing come have a seat moment that I dont know how he was still in the game

2- We are on a run force a timeout down 3 points. Zo steals the ball out of the timeout and we have a 3 on 1 and Ayo decides to not take a layup but instead throws it back out to Zach for a 3 which misses and they go down and Tatum gets a dunk . Ayo then races down court with the ball and throws up a wild layup and they go backdown and Holiday hits a 3 and now instead of being down 1 with momentum we back down 8 and thats game . Lawd have Mercy

These guys are so lucky Billy is the coach I fully expect that when Coby and Ayo are moved their careers will go the way of Devonte Grahams when he left Charlotte.

There is no valuing of possessions going on and Billy has coached them for years now


The Celtics did a good job of scouting us but Billy should've treated this as a one off playoff game that it was and thrown a wrench in it .

They were running a 4/5 PnR with Tatum /Porzingas to counter it you have to get a POA defender in it with some size and the best one we have right now is Craig but since he refuses to sit Coby or Ayo we intentionally are putting ourselves in these positions .

On that video above Porzingas doesnt really set a hard screen screen he slips it once he sees Vooch committing to the blitz but he runs opposite the side of court Vooch is blitzing on there is no center in the nba making up that ground . If you have a stronger POA hes pushing up into Tatum and not even allowing thin Porzingas to set a soft screen at all . You have to be the aggressor in that situation and force him where you want him, but we let Tatum right into the middle of the floor.

This is why I said I hate smallball fetish at the top of the this thread pregame because we are going small and staying small with smalls who are not even playing well.

[meekrab]

Teams don't want to blitz the Celtics for a reason.

This defensive play would've worked great except OG rotated early to Horford who you don't care about 30 feet from the hoop and left a gap open in the paint.

[drosestruts]

What a game!

Vuc and THT were lights out offensively. As a THT hater gotta give props where it's due - I'm not sure he need be part of the rotation every night, but when we need that offensive punch (especially when someone like Coby is struggling). He has shown capable of providing it.

Speaking of Billy - he seemed to go with Phillips in the second half over Matas and while I don't like it from a development standpoint, I did think Phillips stepped up in his minutes.

Bulls played really well, and that's with obvious poor games from some key players.

Not sure how much better Vuc needs to play for teams to be putting out some serious offers for him. Perhaps it's just the wait till December 15th, but just seems like there's plenty of teams that could use some of our vets - especially Vuc and Craig who from a cap standpoint should be easy to acquire.

[FriedRise]

Was only able to catch the highlights, but from what I saw, looks like it was a much closer game than what the score would suggest. It was a 5pt game with 40s left - which could've gone either way - but hard to win a game when the other team can just throw the ball in the general direction of the hoop and it automatically finds its way in.

Against any other team that didn't spam the 3 ball more than the Bulls, this was a W.

[2weekswithpay]

Teams don't want to blitz the Celtics for a reason.

This defensive play would've worked great except OG rotated early to Horford who you don't care about 30 feet from the hoop and left a gap open in the paint.

OG rotates early to deny the easy pass to Horford. Forcing Tatum to make a risker cross court pass instead. That's one way to get TOs and give the defense time to recover. Unfortunately, White cuts into open spacing giving Tatum an outlet.

Also, Horford is shooting 40% on above the break 3s for the 3rd year in a row. One dribble and that's an open 3 if OG isn't there. He's skilled enough to put the ball on the floor and attack as well.

[2weekswithpay]

You do NOT need size to blitz successfully. Just watch the Thunder. They don't have much size, but they blitz screens with the best of them. You need speed, athleticism, and players to know their rotations. Blitzing is not about denying passing lanes. It's about denying clean looks off the screen and forcing the ball out of certain players' hands.

In the clip you posted, the blitz was successful because it forced Tatum to pass. Vucevic ran KP off the three-point line, which is what you want. The Bulls would much rather have KP trying to create off the dribble than Tatum. The problem was Ayo standing in no man's land. Ayo wasn't guarding Pritchard, and he wasn't helping Vuc. If Ayo stepped up to help Vuc, Lonzo could have rotated to Pritchard and Ayo could have rotated to Tatum. Vucevic was forced to foul because he didn't have help.

The Bulls play at the fastest pace in the league on offense, so they have the speed and athleticism to blitz successfully. The problem is coaching. Not every player knows where they're supposed to be on defense and not enough adjustments are being made during the game. An adjustment should have been made to blitz Tatum and Pritchard earlier in the game because they scored most of Boston's points, but didn't score a single point after the Bulls started blitzing at the end of the game.

You do if you're going to allow shots at the rim. I watched the Thunder. They do not blitz every screen like what you're recommending. Even when they were without a center, they switched.

Example of why size/length is important. You have to make the initial pass difficult so that the defender can recover and you don't allow open runways to the basket. If you aren't sending help early you need to be able to defend at the rim. Gobert doesn't even need to set the screen to get open. Blitzing the ball leaves the defense vulnerable especially when the opponent knows it's coming. There's a reason why blitzing the ball is a last resort.

The Celtics got 2 free throws because they blitzed. That possession was a failure. The goal is to get stops, if you aren't getting stops then the defense isn't working.

If Ayo steps over to help Vuc, Pritchard gets an open 3. Lonzo is in no position to close out on Pritchard. His head is turned and he stunted at KP.

There is no relation between pace and athleticism. The Wizards play fast too, but I wouldn't call them athletic.

Teams don't want to blitz the Celtics for a reason.

I never said the Bulls should blitz every screen, so you're taking what I said out of context. I said the Bulls should have started blitzing screens with Tatum and Pritchard earlier in the game because they scored most of Boston's points, but didn't score a single point after the Bulls started blitzing them at the end of the game.

Blitzing is not a last resort on defense. Have you been watching the Bulls games? Many teams have been blitzing Zach LaVine and Coby White to get the ball out of their hands. It is not a last-resort tactic. It is a strategy to force other players on the opposing team to beat you.

The possession in the original clip failed because Vucevic didn't have help on defense. The blitz was successful because it got the ball out of Tatum's hands, which it was designed to do. If Ayo comes up to the free-throw line to help Vuc, he either takes the charge or forces a pass to Pritchard. KP isn't an athletic big with point guard skills. He's a slow big, who averages 1.5 assists per game. Lonzo would have had enough time to contest Pritchard's shot or play the passing lane for a steal.

Watch at the 0:05 mark with 56.2 left on the game clock. Ayo is in no man's land. He's late on the help and not guarding anyone. If Ayo is at the free-throw line to help Vuc, KP has to pick up his dribble. Lonzo is in the perfect position to play the passing lane or contest Pritchard's shot if the pass gets through.

The notion there's no correlation between pace and athleticism is false. You can't play at a fast pace if you don't have the athleticism to do so. The Wizards are an athletic team. From Sarr to Coulibaly. Even Poole and Kuzma. Their problem isn't a lack of athleticism. Their problem is a lack of experience and basketball IQ. Maybe some of their veterans aren't athletic, similar to the Bulls, but overall the Bulls and Wizards are two athletic teams.

Either way, leaving Vucevic on an island to guard Tatum is a losing strategy. The Bulls have to help each other on defense. If someone gets hot like Tatum and Pritchard did in this game, the Bulls have to adjust their defense to get the ball out of their hands and force someone else to take a shot. Arguing against this is just dumb like Billy Donovan's coaching.

Alright, my mistake for not making things clear. Blitzing Tatum/Pritchard or anyone on the Celtics is a bad idea because they have the personnel to punish any team that decides to blitz or double them. They have shooters all over the court, they move without the ball and can dribble and get to the rim or make the extra pass if needed. Blitzing Tatum and Pritchard only to concede open 3s to Brown, Holiday, KP, etc, isn't a win for me. Who cares if you get the ball out of their hands if it isn't leading to stops. If you aren't getting stops why would you say the blitz is working?

Against the Celtics, blitzing is a last resort. Teams will blitz the Bulls because half the roster isn't a threat to score. The same can't be said for the Celtics.

KP doesn't need PG skills. That's an easy pass to a guy open on the wing. KP is more than capable of making that pass, most players in the NBA can make that pass to Pritchard.

56.2 seconds on the clock. Look at Lonzo's legs. He plants, puts his weight on his right foot, and leans towards Tatum. He won't be able to close out to Pritchard in time if Ayo helps. Lonzo isn't changing directions like that anymore.



The Wizards were first in pace last season as well. With Tyus Jones, Kispert, Shamet, Davis all playing. With Mike Muscala and Gallinari as backup centers. The old Bucks were 7th in pace last season. We have different standards for athleticism so this isn't a big deal. What about Poole makes him athletic by NBA standards? He's quick, but he isn't strong and he isn't a great vertical athlete. He doesn't have ridiculous body control either.

Choosing to concede open 3s to a team that shoots 50 3s a game is an even worse strategy. The best way to get stops against the Celtics would've been to take Vuc out because they were targeting him every possession. Wanting to see something different just because isn't how to coach basketball.

[kodo]

Pritchard is 1-7 tonight.

[Chi town]

Pritchard is 1-7 tonight.

Suggs has sucked since he made 4 3s on us in what felt like the first quarter alone.

[Indomitable]

Pritchard is 1-7 tonight.

Pritchard is not better Patrick

[MrSparkle]

We intentionally play small and there is zero creativity with it.

I sat through a quick rewatch this morning and that 4th quarter ... the good and the bad

1- Cobys drive to nowhere which forced the jump ball. It was such a what are you doing come have a seat moment that I dont know how he was still in the game

2- We are on a run force a timeout down 3 points. Zo steals the ball out of the timeout and we have a 3 on 1 and Ayo decides to not take a layup but instead throws it back out to Zach for a 3 which misses and they go down and Tatum gets a dunk . Ayo then races down court with the ball and throws up a wild layup and they go backdown and Holiday hits a 3 and now instead of being down 1 with momentum we back down 8 and thats game . Lawd have Mercy

These guys are so lucky Billy is the coach I fully expect that when Coby and Ayo are moved their careers will go the way of Devonte Grahams when he left Charlotte.

There is no valuing of possessions going on and Billy has coached them for years now


The Celtics did a good job of scouting us but Billy should've treated this as a one off playoff game that it was and thrown a wrench in it .

They were running a 4/5 PnR with Tatum /Porzingas to counter it you have to get a POA defender in it with some size and the best one we have right now is Craig but since he refuses to sit Coby or Ayo we intentionally are putting ourselves in these positions .

On that video above Porzingas doesnt really set a hard screen screen he slips it once he sees Vooch committing to the blitz but he runs opposite the side of court Vooch is blitzing on there is no center in the nba making up that ground . If you have a stronger POA hes pushing up into Tatum and not even allowing thin Porzingas to set a soft screen at all . You have to be the aggressor in that situation and force him where you want him, but we let Tatum right into the middle of the floor.

This is why I said I hate smallball fetish at the top of the this thread pregame because we are going small and staying small with smalls who are not even playing well.

I think you’re right. I’m having a hard time deciphering whether these are Gabe Vincent caliber guards- Billy clearly likes them a lot since they worked hard for him, but it’s hard to tell if they’ve just been overplayed on a mediocre team suffering from many injuries and a very funky small ball preference.

Crazily Coby couldn’t buy a minute for a good 1-2y with Billy. But at this point, I’m puzzled at the preference of going small and just getting annihilated defensively and on boards, while also playing sloppy/stupid offense. Since a more promising early stretch, Coby’s been playing like trash every other game.. and that’s been his trait since 2019. Ayo’s overall offensive impact is brutal when he’s shooting 26% from the arc.