Do The Bulls Have What It Takes?
Yes, Bennett Salvatore’s phantom whistle was confusing, and yes, the game could’ve ended a whole lot differently had something gone differently in the way that was handled, but the way Game 4 ended in Atlanta had little to do with one odd play and everything to do with a game plan that just isn’t going to work every night.
Actually, both the Chicago Bulls and the Atlanta Hawks have game plans that are flawed. In Atlanta’s case, it’s all about hitting jump shots and getting the most out of the team’s versatility on defense, and for Chicago it’s pretty much all about giving Derrick Rose the ball and getting the heck out of his way.
As we’ve seen in this series, when these teams get their way, they win the ball game. When they don’t, things get very frustrating very fast. In Game 3, Atlanta’s shots just didn’t fall and Rose got everything he wanted. On Sunday night it was the exact opposite, and that’s what ended up costing Chicago the game.
While we knew Atlanta had flaws long before the postseason began, Chicago’s inability to close out games against a streaky offensive team like the Hawks has shown how vulnerable they really are in these playoffs. Great teams have a game plan that can’t be stopped no matter what anybody else does, but Chicago has shown time and again over the course of the last few weeks that shutting them down isn’t as impossible as, say, shutting down the HEAT or even the Mavericks.
{AUTHOR_BOX}If the Bulls do make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, they’re primed to face a team in either Boston or Miami that is versatile and experienced enough to exercise their game plan against a young Chicago team making their first real run at the postseason. That lack of experience is going to catch up to them eventually. Had their first two opponents in the playoffs not been so beatable, it might have caught up to them already.
The fact is fans in Chicago truly believe their team is going to win the championship this year, and with the Lakers out of the equation there’s a slightly increased possibility of that happening. But winning 10 more games over the course of the next month isn’t going to be easy, and as the Bulls continue to prove, they aren’t the most dominant #1 seed in the history of the league by a longshot.
They’ve shown they can exercise their will, and when that game plan gets executed they’re probably the best team in the NBA. When Derrick Rose shoots thirty shots and only makes a third of them, though, it’s hard for the Bulls to hang in there.
Everything hinges on Rose, and that’s such a dangerous thing.
Unless, of course, Rose is killing it, in which case the Bulls could very well be your 2011 NBA champs. But there’s a whole lot of hoop to be played before that happens, and until Chicago can prove they can be consistently good, it’s hard to buy into them as champs, at least for this year.
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