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Bulls Tue Apr 21 2009
Bulls Drop Game 2 In Beantown
Whoa. Boston-Chicago is a wooly series where, seriously, the Bulls are going toe-to-toe against the reigning NBA champs. Without the above trey by Jesus Shuttlesworth, aka: Ray Allen, the Bulls would be up 2-0 going back to the United Center for Game 3. Alas, Ray-Ray nailed the triple in spite of Noah's fro's best effort to block it and here we go, sportsfans, this series is getting good. [Duh!-Ed.]
So how are the much-maligned Bulls doing it? Two ways, toddlers, walk with me...
At least one Bulls is going OFF per game
This average won't last, but, yeah, Derrick Rose just happened to drop 36 igapersblock.comon (aka: BG7, aka: The Dude Brian Doesn't Like) went for a healthy 42 on 14-24 shooting. So, the Bulls have figured out that Boston can't guard the way they used to (No KG tends to do that to a team starting 3 players over 30) and have been exploiting the hell out of the guard mismatches all series long. Honestly, Rose, Gordon, Hinrich that's not what I call, ahem, a defensive juggernaut, but then again, wtf does Boston have playing defense at the guard slots? Oh yeah! Rondo with his dervish spasms on offense and utter lack of man-to-man defense and the reincarnated corpse of Ray-Ray*.
How else, you ask. Well, aside from the obvious algorithm of: No KG = Team Suffer and No Joy, the Bulls have been outhustling the Celts and making them work for everything on both ends of the court. Peep the box score, Boston had to hit nearly 50% and outrebound Chicago by 14! to win on a buzzer-beater? That is not a formula for playoff success and Boston should be very wary of trudging into the United Center against this young and terrifyingly "just don't give a f*ck" squad known as the 2008-09 Chicago Bulls.
Chicago got exactly what they wanted out of the first two games: at least one win in Boston and the added jangle of figuratively punching the Celts right in the kisser, now they just have to sustain the momentum in Chicago.
*Full Disclosure: At one point, like the 1990s, Ray Allen was a pretty decent defender, not great, but he wasn't gonna flub it up. Now? Well, let's just say it's fortunate that his shot is still so, so, so, so pretty.
