NBA: *** Official 2015 NBA Playoffs Thread ***
- Thread starter CycloneRulzzz
- Start date
I don't really agree with that. The Bulls aren't going to shoot like that again and the Cavs are still feeling this lineup out.
The pick n roll defense with Gasol was atrocious until the 4th though, for sure.
The Bulls can't rely on shooting those kinds of percentages going forward, especially where they were in the first half.
They can feel it out all they want, if you have five playoff quality guys and are trying to cobble minutes together from a combo of Mike Miller, James Jones, Shawn Marion, and Matt Deladova, that's trouble. They get Smith back after next game but if they fall behind 0-2, that's not a good spot to be in. Cleveland doesn't have that defensive gear that Miami had when they needed it. The Cavs are going to need some 44/13/8 type of games out of LeBron to win this series. That can happen but it's not going to be easy for them.
Well no ****
And no, the Cavs just need to play better defense and Chicago needs to not shoot out of their *****.
Cleveland has the horses. They have Kyrie and LeBron. Role players just need to hit jump shots.
Mozgov and Thompson did what needed to be done tonight minus defending Pau on those jumpers. The Bulls hit some crazy ******* shots way late in the shot clock tonight, and obviously they can't rely on Dunleavy to do that again.
Rose
Butler
Noah
Pau
vs
LeBron
Kyrie
Thompson
Shump
is plenty even. It's all about whose role players hit shots and I'd expect Game 2 to turn more in the Cavs favor, simply the law of averages.
And once JR Smith comes back they will be fine. Cleveland will be favored on Wednesday and should win the game. Chicago got a big win though and now obviously has the edge being +1 on the road, CLE will have to steal one now.
But lets not pretend like the Bulls are shooting 56% from 3 again and Gasol is hitting 8 jumpshots again (5 in one quarter).
Not to mention the Cavs shot 27% from 3 and 42% from the field after their worst 1st quarter all season.
Cleveland hasn't proven they can defend at a high level all year long(20th in Def Eff). Don't know why you would expect them to transform into a great defensive team at this point.
Other than a couple by Derrick, most of the shots the bulls made were open. Even saying that Rose only shot 2 percentage points above his season average in this game. Dunleavy has been on fire pretty much the entire playoffs(54.8% from three) and if you give players like him, Butler, Gasol room, they're going to make more than they miss.
If Blatt starts Miller again in Game 2 he should be fired on the spot.
Chicago shot 15% higher than their season average and they were up 30% higher than their average the first 3 quarters.
Cleveland doesn't have to be elite defensively against Chicago because Chicago really isn't that good offensively... they were extremely reliant on jumpshots and they will come back to their average.
And the Cavs defensive efficiency rating is really pulled down by the first half of their season. They were much, much better in the 2nd half once they traded for Mozgov, Shump, and Smith.
Again, Pau crushed them on the pick n roll/pop in the 3rd but the Cavs shut it down in the 4th and had much better rotations and defense.
Rose has scored 25 points twice since mid February. And it took him 23 and 25 shots respectively. The Cavs missed some rotations and allowed a few open jumpers, but that happens. They also forced a lot of really tough shots and the Bulls just hit them. Hats off. But it's foolish to think they can continue at that pace. And to win a game on the road in the playoffs, that's what you have to do. I don't think they'll do it again on Wednesday.
But seriously:
Pau 14 of 15 shots were jumpshots
Rose 17 of 27 were jumpshots
Butler 12 of 16 were jumpshots
Gibson 3 of 5 were jumpshots
Obviously Dunleavy had 5 of 6 that were jumpshots
Noah didn't even score. The Cavs took him out of the game completely.
Brooks, Hinrich, and Dunleavy combined to go 5/6 from 3 and 9/13 from the field. That's not happening again.
Last edited:
You're probably correct that their shooting percentage will go down in the upcoming games. I won't dispute that, but that doesn't change the fact that most of the bulls looks were pretty open other than a couple here and there. Those shots will still go down, just maybe not at that high of a clip.
Until Cleveland's role players prove to me that they can keep up in this series, I don't think the bulls have to keep shooting at this high of a clip anyway.
