Bulls escape Pacers, but where was the defense for most of the game?
By Rick Morrissey rmorrissey@suntimes.com April 16, 2011 9:06PM
Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM
It sure would be swell if the Bulls started guarding somebody from the start of the game rather than from the start of the 45th minute.
And in that vein, any time the Bulls want to get up in Tyler Hansbrough’s grille, it sure would be appreciated.
Predictably, most of Saturday’s postgame conversation centered on the fourth-quarter defensive stand that helped the Bulls come back for a 104-99 victory over Indiana in their playoff opener. Euphoria feels a whole lot better than depression over defensive inadequacies.
But the Bulls won an NBA-high 62 games this season because they play defense with a ferocity considered felonious in more than a few states. On Saturday, they allowed a team that won 37 regular-season games to shoot 61.5 percent on three-pointers through three quarters.
Can somebody please explain what went on for the longest time at the United Center?
“This series is not going to be easy,’’ Bulls center Joakim Noah said.
But that’s the thing: It’s supposed to be easy. A No. 1 seed is supposed to treat a No. 8 seed like a sesame seed. That’s part of the deal in the NBA. It’s why you spend an entire regular season fighting to win as many games as possible. A top seed treats a first-round opponent like gristle stuck in its teeth. A nuisance.
So what does Saturday mean?
That the Bulls had a bad game and were still able to pull out a victory.
That the Bulls struggled with their nerves.
That the Bulls are going to have to figure out a way to make up for Carlos Boozer’s defensive shortcomings.
That Derrick Rose, though unguardable, might want to invest in some body armor for those drives to the basket.
That the Pacers now believe they belong.
Pacers trying to stay positive
“This is going to be a series,’’ declared their coach, Frank Vogel.
Vogel might be a bit deluded, but he doesn’t have to apologize for it. You’d think the same thing if you saw the way Indiana played the Bulls on Saturday. When Hansbrough converted a three-point play with 3:38 left in the game, the Pacers had a 98-88 lead.
To that point, everything that could have gone wrong for the Bulls had gone wrong. Actually, that’s not fair to the Pacers. It implies that whatever happened was a matter of bad luck, not Indiana’s talents. The Bulls had real trouble stopping Danny Granger (24 points) and Hansbrough (22). Just to be clear, those two guys aren’t LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
It’s a good thing Derrick Rose is Derrick Rose. He scored 39 points and was, as usual, transcendent.
If the Bulls didn’t know teams were going to try to beat up on Rose in the playoffs, they do now. It’s the obvious approach. A point guard shouldn’t be able to drive the lane the way Rose does. Then again, there’s no other point guard like him.
When Hansbrough put a hard foul on Rose with about five minutes left in the game, Luol Deng rushed to his teammate’s defense and got a technical. For the normally mild-mannered Deng, it was a psycho T. It seemed to wake up a too-mellow team and a too-mellow crowd.
Rose didn’t need waking up. He just needed the ball. The Bulls outscored Indiana 16-1 down the stretch, and Rose was all over the place, feeding Noah for a dunk, scoring on a three-point play and making one of his twisting drives to tie the game at 99 and send the United Center into convulsions.
Rose is ‘a true warrior’
“He’s got that killer instinct,’’ Noah said. “Not only does he have unbelievable ability, but he really has the heart and the mind of a true warrior out there.’’
Rose is the reason Granger knew the game wasn’t over when Indiana owned that 98-88 lead.
“It’s like a crazy stalker ex-girlfriend,’’ he said. “Every time you tell her you don’t want to talk to her, she shows up at your door again. We kept making runs one after another, and they kept coming back.’’
When Kyle Korver hit a three-pointer with 48 seconds left, it gave the Bulls their first lead of the game, 102-99. It was over. The Bulls had found their strut.
You can bet that Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, a defensive guru, felt somewhere between defiled and violated by what he saw in the first 31/2 quarters. And you can bet that the Bulls will hear about it today at practice and in film study.
“[The Pacers] pretty much got wherever they wanted to with the ball,’’ Thibodeau said.
Saturday’s game doesn’t necessarily mean this series is going to be difficult for the Bulls. It means Saturday’s game was difficult for the Bulls. It’s up to them to knock the belief out of the Pacers.
“We knew it was going to be a hard game,’’ Rose said. “In the beginning, we were not prepared for it.’’
Game 2 is Monday. Tipoff is at 8:30 p.m. The Bulls might want to be on time for this one.
Comments Click here to view or make a comment