The Bulls did all the things they needed to do: they stopped the offensive rebounding that had propelled the Pistons in the first two games of this series. They all got their three big guns (Hinrich, Gordon and Deng) at least 15 FGA each, and 80% of the total shots. They used the home court advantage to get off to a great start.
And they still lost. The key is the run the Pistons went on after falling behind 55-37 in the middle of the third quarter. Detroit started off by going on a 12-0 run, keyed by 8 points by Tayshaun Prince. Billups threw a lovel pass into the paint to Prince that lead to an easy dunk that cut the lead to 55-49. Prior to that, Ben Gordon missed a three (badly) then turned the ball over on the next possession (by dribbling too much without passing).
After Rasheed Wallace's huge three at the buzzer, Detroit had a 61-60 lead.
Later on, in the fourth, Hinrich missed a floater, Billups nailed a big three: 69-66 Detroit. Travelling again on Gordon (by carrying it).
Turnovers during the run was the big story for the Bulls. At one point it was Chicago with 10 in the half, versus 0 for Detroit. The Bulls' offensive managed just 30 points total in the second half (or less than what Detroit scored in the 3rd quarter alone). And with that, and with the Pistons' 3-0 lead in this series, the pressure starts to mount a bit on John Paxson. From True Hoops:
"You could have had Pau Gasol. Get up and watch the video again. He gets to the line. He draws double teams. He scores in myriad ways. He wins world championships.
Pau Gasol solves a big problem of yours, and causes problems for Detroit. With him, you could have won the East this year, and then who knows what would have happened in the Finals?"
We hate to beat a dead horse, but yeah... Paxson cost the Bulls a chance to be a legit contender this season. And while they are gearing up for an eventual title run someday in (near) future, their rivals the Cavs are taking over the East. Toronto is still around. Orlando could make some big moves. The point is that nothing is guaranteed, not Gordon's explosiveness, not Tyrus Thomas' health, not Deng's desire to stay in Chicago, not Ben Wallace's performance. The Bulls should have gone for it, but they didn't, and now they are one game from elimination.
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I look forward to your analysis. I agree that Deng is better than Pau. At first I didn't think so, but watching him through the playoffs, he's great.
However... this team is not built well. They need a low post presence. What they are is a team whose offense revolves around three jump-shooters (Gordon, Hinrich, and Deng). That's too limited. Trading one (Deng/Gordon), even if you are giving up too much, is worth it if it elevates your team to being a contender.
The other thing is, as Simmons said, the Bulls might have gotten the deal done without Deng. Gordon, Thabo, Tyrus Thomas, PJ Brown's expiring contract, the Knicks #1 - those are all assets. Two, maybe three, of those should have been enough to get the deal done.
Do you think Paxson tried hard enough to get Pau, and failed? Or do you think he didn't think the Bulls would need him? I believe he gambled on the latter, and cost the Bulls a season of Wallace at his peak?...
Anyway, I look forward to reading your post on this....
Unrelated, but have you seen this video?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sc4yz__akIU
I'm trying not to be a homer about it, but I honestly don't see an intentional kick there. I know you think Bruce is a dirty player, while I disagree, so I'm interested to know what you think about it.
At the very least, to me, it's nowhere near as egregious as the Kobe elbow thing.
And Stoudemire's comments that the Spurs as a whole are a dirty team is way out of line as far as I'm concerned. I think he's just putting it out there so he can fall back on that when the Suns lose the series.
Well, on Bruce Bowen himself: You are correct about my feelings - I do think he is dirty. I don't mind good defense - I grew up on those 90's Knicks teams that were all about defense. But I think you have to play within the rules; Derek Harper's hand checks were legal at the time. Bowen's tactics are not legal, but they won't get called because he does it when no one pays attention. For example, he'll stick his foot in under another player's foot, while they are shooting a jumper. This is what caused Steve Francis' ankle injury, and set Isiah off. That is technically a foul - you cannot interfere with a player until his feet are back on the ground. That's why I think he's dirty. As someone with ankle problems from years of playing basketball and rolling my ankles, I'm sensitive to that.
As for Amare's comments: That was dumb. You don't need to piss off the entire Spurs team. If he had attacked Bowen, and just Bowen, it would have probably been okay (especially after the footage of Bowen kicking Amare's heel showed up). But by saying "the team as a whole" is dirty... well, it may be true in some way, but it ain't gonna help.
As for the actual play - that was dirty.
And for the rest of the series - the Spurs will take two at home now. They will go back to Phoenix up 3-1, maybe lose game 5 (maybe win), but definitely ending this in game 6. My problem with the Suns remains that I don't think they can beat a legit team. They don't have a strong defense, and their offense is two-dimension - all threes or fast breaks or layups. Stop the paint pentration, and close out on the arc, and force the Suns to hit jumpers. That's why they put Kurt Thomas into the game in Game 2, and it worked - he can hit a 12-20 foot jumper (most of the time). But if you offense is dependent on Kurt to step up and carry it... gotta bet on the Spurs....
PS: Jack Cobra (see his post today at yaysports) and Bill Simmons both called that Poppavich gave up on Game 2, and decided to wait until Game 3 to make the adjustment to the Suns adjustment (playing Thomas). That is very plausible. I am looking forward to Game 3 just to see if that is the case, and, if so, can the Suns respond and take a game in San Antonio, or will they fall behind 3-1?
By the way, I caught most of the GS win tonight, but there will be no post. I am not surprised by it (I put money on it), and I will bet they win Game 4 at home, too, in a similar fashion. Then cames crucial Game 5 in Utah. If things are tied up, I will post a preview of what I think will happen, but, barring injury or something, I believe the Warriors can win three more in a row. The key is to not play a close game (i.e. score 104 points by the end of the 3rd quarter), or they are in trouble. The Warriors can't finish a close game (FT problems), and the Jazz definitely can.
AK's defense can lead to a defensive stop when needed, Boozer can grab a needed rebound, and Okur is amazingly clutch with the threes - those are the three things, besides free throws, that determine who wins a close game.
Look at the Knicks close games this year (I cite them because I am quite familiar with how their season went): They won games late because of David Lee's rebound and clutch threes - Francis in DC; Curry in Milwaukee (Curry! Curry?), Frye against the Pistons. They lost because of FTs (Marbury against Seattle). They lost to the Nets because they couldn't get the needed defensive stop. That's how close games go. The Jazz are superior to the Warriors in all four category. This is sort of what Simmons was saying today, too, but he broke it down differently. It's true, too.
One last Simmons thing - I liked how pointed out the double standard (via an e-mail) of the Josh Hancock DUI death versus a black athlete. We were going to do a post on this, but as you can see we haven't been around all day. There really isn't much more to add on our part, but we will compare that to Sebastian Telfair Sunday (we are off tomorrow all day).
I'll get into this more one the series ends, but I the Bulls did the absolute right thing by not trading for Gasol.
Memphis wanted Deng AND Gordon and Tyrus was being talked about as a throw in. That would have been the stupidest fucking trade ever. I wouldn't even think about doing Deng for Gasol straight up. Deng is 22, a legit small forward who's a hard worker and a really good basketball player. And people, Just how good exactly is Pau Gasol? He is not a superstar. He's good, but he's not that good. I think people in Chicago want Garnett so bad that they tried to make Gasol into him- Gasol isn't that good. I honestly think Deng is just as good right now. Granted Pau is 3 inches taller, he's five years older, and only avgerage exactly 2 more ppg.
Pax did exactly what he should have done- shit tight. There was a time here in Chicago when people said the Bulls needed to trade Pippen and Horace Grant because they couldn't get by Detroit. They held onto them and that worked out pretty well. Obvisouly the Bulls now dont have MJ, so the comparison makes little sense, but its 1:30 right now and im looking for stuff to prove my point. You dig? Anyways, keep everyone, let them grow, good things will happen.