So, the Bulls didn’t look all that outmatched Sunday in their 102-87 defeat of the Detroit Pistons to stay alive and provide some hope in their forlorn playoff series. They played with a seriousness from beginning to end that seemed more real than any other time in this series. From the beginning, they got the ball inside with great passing and ball movement that the Pistons defense could not keep up with. At times the Bulls seemed to be playing the ballgame that beat Miami.
Although the Pistons would have some leads in the first half and the Bulls seemed in danger of collapsing as the fourth quarter rolled on, they held on and closed out Detroit with a youthful display of movement, crisp passing (although some passes were horribly forced and resulted in some buck -ugly turnovers), and tough D. Where in game # 3 the Bulls collapsed in the third quarter, this time they extended the lead and looked ready to really womp the mo-town crew. Although there was some unsteadiness in the fourth quarter that looked like another disastrous collapse in the making, they held on and gained a lot of confidence. There was no disaster: the Bulls held their own and won.
The list of contributors was great. Ben Wallace had a 17 boards and hit 5-8 ft’s. Kirk Heinrich had a great game on both offense and D. And Ben Gordon, after a nothing 1st half, had a solid 2d half on the way to 19 points that was highlighted by an incredibly important three point shot late in the game that helped stunt the Pistons comeback. And Luol Deng continued his outstanding and continually getting better play. Luol was the only player not to sit the entire game. However, it was the playing great as a team to-gether that won the game. I can guess that the practices the team had in preparing for this game had a huge effect: the Pistons were the same team- it‘s not like they had a bad game- but now the Bulls seemed to have answers. The biggest change was getting the ball inside and actually scoring. The Bulls tried that in the first three games, but only now did they succeed when the game was on the line and not hopeless over.
The future? Methinks it ends Tuesday nite. We got what every team wants in a series down 0-3: that first win. But Detroit has such a good team and they so dominated the Bulls in The Palace that I have little hope for a game six. But one never knows: as I stated above, there was no collapse and the Pistons were beaten. If they can somehow survive another game in Michigan, maybe…………………
Although the Pistons would have some leads in the first half and the Bulls seemed in danger of collapsing as the fourth quarter rolled on, they held on and closed out Detroit with a youthful display of movement, crisp passing (although some passes were horribly forced and resulted in some buck -ugly turnovers), and tough D. Where in game # 3 the Bulls collapsed in the third quarter, this time they extended the lead and looked ready to really womp the mo-town crew. Although there was some unsteadiness in the fourth quarter that looked like another disastrous collapse in the making, they held on and gained a lot of confidence. There was no disaster: the Bulls held their own and won.
The list of contributors was great. Ben Wallace had a 17 boards and hit 5-8 ft’s. Kirk Heinrich had a great game on both offense and D. And Ben Gordon, after a nothing 1st half, had a solid 2d half on the way to 19 points that was highlighted by an incredibly important three point shot late in the game that helped stunt the Pistons comeback. And Luol Deng continued his outstanding and continually getting better play. Luol was the only player not to sit the entire game. However, it was the playing great as a team to-gether that won the game. I can guess that the practices the team had in preparing for this game had a huge effect: the Pistons were the same team- it‘s not like they had a bad game- but now the Bulls seemed to have answers. The biggest change was getting the ball inside and actually scoring. The Bulls tried that in the first three games, but only now did they succeed when the game was on the line and not hopeless over.
The future? Methinks it ends Tuesday nite. We got what every team wants in a series down 0-3: that first win. But Detroit has such a good team and they so dominated the Bulls in The Palace that I have little hope for a game six. But one never knows: as I stated above, there was no collapse and the Pistons were beaten. If they can somehow survive another game in Michigan, maybe…………………
No comments:
Post a Comment