2 of the best PG's in the league
What a fucking game!
Obvious headline, Rose drops 36 and 11, ties Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's record for playoff points by a rookie and the Bulls beat the Celtics in OT.
Tyrus Thomas hits some BIG shots (tying basket and winning basket) while playing great defense all game. Noah was outstanding (17 boards), and our D held Pierce and Allen to 27 total points.
Unfortunately, it is (how to put it gently) nearly fucking impossible that all (any?) of these things occur again in combination during this series.
Tyrus Thomas hitting a game winning 25 footer? I assure you, there were more people than just me yelling NO! NO! NO! at the screen when he took that shot. Ray Allen going 1-12? Once every 100 games (if that). Paul Pierce missing the game winning FT? He's 83% from the charity stripe this season (Jordan's career FT percentage was 83.5%). And I don't care how awesome he is, there is no way Rose has another game like this during the series. Oh and let's remember, we still needed a missed FT and overtime to win the game. Let's be prepared to come down to earth in game 2.
Nevertheless - doesn't mean we can't enjoy a big time road win over the defending NBA champs!
If we can protect the house at the UC, we could make good on Ty's quote to be "the most dangerous team in the league right now." I'm a career pessimist, but if we win two in Boston, I'm going to be pretty fucking stoked.
Go Bulls!!!!
-KEG
3 comments:
we must win!!!!!! that game was amazing. game 1 winner wins 79% of 7 game series. just saying. i agree that boston will win game 2. what we need is to keep game 2 close and keep our confidence up. if we go home with home court advantage and confidence, then we could reel off 2 wins and go up 3-1, then finish them in game 5 or game 6 back in UC. If we lose big in game 2, it might be hard to get momentum back for game 3 in chicago. Of course if we somehow win game 2 (not impossible), then we're totally in control of the series.
Great to see you on the board Haas!!
79%? Really? Seems high... outstanding news for us.
I like your thought process: if we can give them a run in game 2 (but lose), we've got a decent chance of taking 2 in a row at home. 3-1 is a commanding lead, even against the defending champs.
Any thoughts on Tyrus? Last time we discussed this (I think you were there - at the BP, with Gabe and Gonzo, I don't remember everything lucidly) everyone was hating on him Noah, Hinrich.
Kegs - great to be here. Long time listener, first time caller. I kept looking for a post on the bulls game over shabbat. I was dying for my fill of the Dong. here's what i think about tyrus, noah, and hinrich. and brad miller.
Tyrus: great performance in OT, although I was screaming for him not to shoot every time. He's very athletic, and if he can add an automatic 18 foot j to his repertoire, he will be dangerous. He's young, so the sky is really the limit. Having Rose on his team has to give him all sorts of confidence he needs to develop. His FT % has increased from 60% to 78% since his rookie year, so that means he's been working really hard on his shot. If you work hard enough on your shot and you're not a full retard, eventually it gets good. I don't think we'll get another game like this out of him this series, but hopefully this is a glimpse of what he'll look like long term. Hitting Js, playing d, getting some boards.
Noah also impressed. His defense was fantastic, even though that foul at the end was unthinkably stupid. (We dodged a bullet with the Pierce miss. I really don't know how that happened.) Noah's not very talented, but he works hard. If the Celtics had had Garnett, that would have totally shifted their entire front court lineup and they probably would dominated Noah. But against mediocre competition, he's proven he's a pretty good defender.
Hinrich is amazing and could start for many teams. The only problem is the Bulls need scoring desperately and Rose, b"h, is 10000x times the scorer Hinrich is. He's a great backup pg, very reliable. Even though his stat line doesn't show very much in the way of scoring, assists, or really anything, the Bulls were +9 on the celtics when he was in. This shows 1) his defense; and 2) his ability to coordinate the rest of the offense.
One comment about Brad Miller: his offense is awful. It's amazing that you can be 7 feet tall, have ten years of NBA experience, and not be able to do anything productive when you get the ball undefended in the middle of the lane 8 feet from the basket. This happened multiple times. The celtics really didn't have to guard him. In fact it was better if they didn't, so that he would get the ball and then miss/turn it over. He had 4 pts, 9 missed FGs, and 3 turnovers in 20 odd minutes. 2/11 shooting for a center. unbelievable. 60% of Rose's turnovers, 1/11 of Rose's assists.
So - I was all ready to write the above paragraph totally slamming him when I looked at his stats and saw something truly surprising. The bulls were +9 when he was in. The only other people in the positive were Rose (+8) and Hinrich (+9). This is surprising given his awful shooting, which stagnated the bulls offense and basically gave the ball back to the celtics for free. His only other good stat was 12 boards. I am not sure how Miller managed to add so much value, but it's something to look out for in the upcoming games. Hopefully his offense won't be quite so stinky either and he'll start to hit his 8 foot jumper.
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