Game No. 34 Preview, Bulls-Knicks: King of the Hill, Top of the Heap Pt. 3

Chicago Bulls (19-14) @ New York Knicks (23-12)

So, here we are again. Despite the Knicks' somewhat surprising season (I actually had a feeling they'd be pretty good, but not this good), they've struggled against the Bulls, dropping a game in both Chicago (Dec. 8) and more recently in New York (Dec. 21). In case you forgot, this happened the last time these two teams met: 

Good times. People were forced to go on timeout and many bad words were said. This just about sums up the New York perspective of this particular game: 

(HT @TheKnicksWall)

 The Bulls ambushed the Knicks with a 14-2 start and continued to lay it on as the game went on. Only at the end, after all Noah, Chandler, Anthony and head coach Mike Woodson did the Knicks mount a comeback of sorts that made the final score look much closer than the game actually was.

Chicago's aggressive defense frustrated the Knicks' potent attack, which, based on following several Knicks folks on Twitter, does not seem to be an uncommon approach for teams looking to beat the Knicks this season. 

Due to a lack of time, this preview will have to be a little shorter than normal. For the standard personnel rundown, check out my preview from the Dec. 21 contest. 

Anyway, things are a little different this time. Raymond Felton, who had been struggling mightily with his shot anyway, is out with an injury. Marcus Camby seems to have re-aggravated his plantar fascia injury last night in Indiana. This does not resonate as a huge blow on paper, but it does put a dent in New York's frontcourt, which often struggles when Tyson Chandler isn't around to patrol the floor and/or shooting laser beams out of his eyes.

Also of note, Rasheed Wallace is still out, so no change there. Speaking of Sheed, read this.

Since their 15-5 start, the Knicks have been thoroughly mediocre of late: they've gone 8-7 in their last 15 and come into tonight with a two-game losing streak (on the heels of a two-game winning streak featuring a thumping of San Antonio and a high-scoring W in Orlando). 

The Knicks took a tough loss against the similarly physical Boston Celtics, which you probably know about solely because of the post-game come-at-me-bro between Carmelo and Kevin Garnett. Last night, the Knicks got thoroughly Big Ten'd by the Pacers, an 81-76 defeat in which Carmelo was a DNP due to a one-game suspension stemming from the aforementioned incident. 

Combined with the fact that tonight is the back end of a back-to-back for the Knicks, New York's  less than stellar performance this week should at least allow for a solid shot at another win in Madison Square Garden for the Bulls. The Bulls didn't exactly look impressive themselves on Wednesday against Milwaukee, faltering in the fourth quarter after a big early lead (history, it repeats itself) en route to a 104-96 defeat. 

"Luckily," this game is not being played at the United Center. The Bulls have thrived on the road this season, having picked up big wins at MSG and against Miami more recently. Can they do it again? It comes down to this: 

• J.R. Smith and Carmelo Anthony combined for 55 points the last time these two teams met, but on a mediocre 19/45 from the field (42%). High volume, low efficiency. This is the formula, but it is easier said than done. Luol Deng and Jimmy Butler did a masterful job containing and frustrating Melo last time; Melo will likely look to come out shooting coming off of his suspension, so they will need to bring a similar effort. 

• Simply put, the Bulls starters need to get close to matching their shooting efficiency from the last meeting. Even Kirk Hinrich had an incredible performance, shooting 6/8 (4/5 from 3!) en route to a 16-point night and yet another underwhelming showing for Felton. 

• Transition, transition, transition. The Knicks' transition game losing a bit of zip with Jason Kidd running the show, but everyone knows that he is still capable of Jamie Moyer-ing his way to some nifty assists on the break. As always, the following chain applies: good shots=fewer long rebounds=fewer transition opportunities for the oppoent=fewer soul-crushing Steve Novak corner threes, terrifying J.R. Smith thunderdunks, etc.. The Bulls got demolished in transition Wednesday night, so you can be sure this was a point of emphasis in practice yesterday for Tom Thibodeau.

• Prediction? The odds are against the Bulls shooting the lights out like they did last time, and the odds are also against Carmelo Anthony being as relatively inefficient as he was on Dec. 21. In any case, with both teams coming off of ugly losses (for vastly different reasons), I think the energy will be high on both sides. With the Knicks' resurgence, this rivalry has easily vaulted into first place for me as a Bulls fan. Nothing will ever bring back the sheer intensity and venom of the 1990s, but that doesn't mean this still can't be a great rivalry. Unfortunately, I have a hard time picturing the Bulls reprising their first performance in MSG. The scoring will be much lower this time, and I'm envisioning the standard script: a tough game throughout marred by a lack of big plays down the stretch by the Bulls. Bulls 92, Knicks 99.

Game 27 Recap, Bulls-Rockets: The Wet Bandits

Bulls (15-12) 120, Rockets 97 (15-12)

On Christmas Day, the Rockets came into the United Center, knocked everything off the shelves and mantle and left the water running on their way out. 

Early on, the matchup of the shooting guards, James Harden and Marco Belinelli, was the dominant storyline of the first quarter. As expected, Belinelli couldn't do much to stifle Harden's offensive game; Belinelli was pulled about 7 minutes into the game for Jimmy Butler. Harden was 2-for-3 from the field (4-for-4 from the line) for 8 points by the 2:55 mark. 

Luckily, despite looking a little worn down Saturday night in Atlanta, Luol Deng was on his game early, with 8 points on 4-for-6 shooting in the first period. It was a swift first quarter, featuring exactly zero turnovers. The Bulls took a 5-point deficit (27-22) into the second despite shooting 0% from beyond the arc (0-for-5), featuring one pretty macabre airball from Kirk Hinrich. 

However, with Noah on the bench in the second, Omer Asik was able to pick up some baskets at the rim. The Bulls offense also slowed down with the reserves in the game, allowing the Rockets to build a sizable 49-32 lead almost eight minutes into the second. 

This isn't exactly news, but without Deng and Noah doing their typical iron man act, the Bulls have trouble both scoring and, to a lesser extent, defending. People will continue to complain about the minutes Thibodeau gives these two, but I'm not too sure that an alternative exists.

Jeremy Lin drove by everyone en route to a layup that extended the Houston lead to 21, forcing a Chicago timeout. At this point, Lin was 6-for-8 from the field with 12 points; unlike the last meeting, Lin was not being shut down this time around. 

Simply put, when you lose the transition battle (Houston-16 pts, Chicago-4 pts) and allow the opponent to shoot 60% from the field, you probably won't be in the game. The 58 first half points the Bulls allowed in this one tied for the highest total thus far this season (the first being the 58 given up to Boston on Nov. 12).

Halftime Stats (Rockets 58, Bulls 41)

Bulls: 0.89 PPP

• Deng: 4-11, 10 pts
• Noah: 3-3, 6 pts, 6 rebounds
• Gibson: 3-4, 8 pts

Rockets: 1.31 PPP

• Lin: 6-8, 12 pts, 5 assists
• Harden: 3-5, 13 pts, 5 rebounds, 3 assists
• Asik: 4-6, 9 pts, 10 rebounds

Game #25 Preview, Bulls-Knicks: King of the Hill, Top of the Heap

Let's. Play. Ball.

Chicago Bulls (14-10) @ New York Knicks (19-6)

 (HT: not sure who created this thing, but I saw it via this

tweet...whoever you are, you are awesome)

The Opponent 

After a tumultuous offseason, the 2012-13 season began and Jeremy Lin was not a New York Knick. Instead, the Knicks plunged headlong into the season with 39-year-old Jason Kidd and Raymond Felton, fresh off a catastrophic season in Portland (where he couldn't seem to get back in shape post-lockout), as their top point guards. 

And, wouldn't you know it, things have worked out just fine for the Knicks, who are still wanting the services of Amar'e Stoudemire and Iman Shumpert. The Knicks appear to be a legitimate title contender for the first time since 1999, when they last appeared in the finals against San Antonio. It's been such a charmed season for the Knicks that they have even managed to unearth Rasheed Wallace and put him to good use. Unfortunately for Sheed, a left foot injury has sidelined him for the last three games, and I wouldn't bet on him playing tonight. Laugh if you must, but the Knicks' frontcourt is already sort of thin, so losing Sheed is not an insignificant blow. I guess you could say there's a...need for Sheed. I'll show myself out now.

Despite what at the time seemed like a potentially foolish decision to let Lin walk, the Knicks have soldiered on, playing an exciting and effective brand of ball. Carmelo Anthony has missed a little bit of time due to injury, but he has otherwise been having a MVP-worthy season thus far (28.0 ppg, 26.4 PER).

However, the Knicks haven't gotten to 19-6 by virtue of Anthony's play alone; the Knicks have been at or near the top of the league in 3-point shooting all season, which should provide a depressingly stark contrast with the Bulls' own horrific shooting from beyond the arc. The Knicks are currently third in the league, shooting 40.4% from downtown as a team. Anthony is shooting a sterling 46%, while Jason Kidd, who hasn't exactly been known for his outside shooting throughout his career, is hitting 45% on about 5 attempts per game. 

Of course, leading gunner Steve Novak is shooting 44% and is a classic FIND THE SHOOTER guy. The Bulls cannot afford to let him settle into that corner spot he likes so much, or he will kill the Bulls all night. Novak was out the other night against Brooklyn with flu-like symptoms, but I would imagine that he'll be ready to go tonight.

Raymond Felton, who I've always kind of liked for some reason, is having a very nice bounceback season (15.9 ppg, 6.6 apg). Unlike Rajon Rondo, Felton does have an outside shot to threaten his defender with, and so Kirk et al will have to respect that while also keeping the former Tar Heel in front of them.

The Knicks started out the season playing lights out defense, allowing less than 90 points in six of their first nine games. Since the, the Knicks D has loosened up a bit, giving up over 90 in 11 of its last 16 games (100+ in six of those games). New York is currently 10th in the league, giving up 96.2 points per game.

The Knicks were not able to handle Jeremy Lin on Monday and Deron Williams had a solid double-double on Wednesday in a Brooklyn loss (16 pts, 10 assists); unfortunately, the Bulls do not have a point guard of the caliber of either of those guys. Well, they do have a guy better than Lin, Felton and Kidd combined times infinity, but he is busy rehabbing his knee.

 

Points of Concern 

Defensively, it all starts up top for a number of reasons. Penetration by Knicks guards might as well be an actual bell, tolling for thee. With Novak chilling in the corners waiting to blow dart 3-pointers into your neck like a ninja and Tyson Chandler hanging around the basket for lobs, the Bulls cannot afford to let Felton --and, fergodsakes, Kidd-- get into the lane with regularity. Anybody that watched the New York-Brooklyn game the other night saw what a dunkfest it was for Chandler. It wasn't much different for the Bulls against the Clippers, when Lob City reigned supreme in the UC. 

Carmelo has been pretty much unstoppable all season, and the Bulls will need Deng/Butler to really bring it. Butler had some success against Carmelo that one time, when Butler basically shut Carmelo down in the fourth quarter in what became a 3-point win. This probably sounds like I'm entering Uncle Rico territory here, but unlike unlike Uncle Rico we have visual proof of Butler being good at something. Just stay with him, don't fly out of the picture when he jabs and challenge the shot as best you can and hope he misses. After going to the game at the Garden this past April, I still have nightmares of Carmelo nailing shots over the outstretched hands of Bulls defenders.

Last season, Carmelo shot 55% from the field and 63% from three with Luol Deng on the floor*. If that happens tonight, well, hamburgers. 

With Jimmy Butler on the floor at the same time** as Melo (i.e. ostensibly matched up on him), Melo only shot 29% from the field (sample size caveats, yada yada yada). Butler obviously doesn't give you even a sliver of the offensive capability that Deng does, but maybe Thibs ought to consider playing the youngster a little bit more in this one.

*22-for-41 from 2, 5-for-8 from 3.

**I'm not sure why Marquis Teague's picture is there instead of Butler's on that NBA.com player comparison generator, but whatever.

What Needs To Happen 

•  Kirk Hinrich needs to exist. Please. We need something, anything from our starting point guard. It's getting to the point where I'd suffer Nate Robinson's terrible defense and make him the starter if it were up to me. Of course, this will never happen. 

• Offensive glass. Simply put, the Bulls probably won't be able to keep up if the Knicks are even somewhat on from outside. The best shot they have is turning this into an ugly Big Ten-esque slugfest. Limiting possessions and more importantly winning battles on the offensive glass will give the Bulls the buckets they won't otherwise get in first chance half court sets. The Knicks are not a good offensive rebounding team but are one of the best in the league on the other end, only allowing 10 offensive rebounds per game and maintaining a defensive rebounding percentage of 74.5% (6th in the league). In short, Joakim Noah needs to win more battles than he loses against Chandler or the Bulls are toast. 

• FIND. THE. SHOOTER. As always, pace and perimeter defense go a long way toward preventing an opponent's top gunner from getting good lucks. If the Bulls take good shots and don't turn it over, the Knicks won't have many shots at finding Novak for open transition treys. Likewise, Bulls guards need to keep Felton out of the lane, as the lob to Chandler is always an option for them at that juncture of a play.

Useless Prediction Time 

• The Bulls are better off letting Nate Robinson do his thing; Hinrich simply does not possess the playmaking ability to be an asset, even against a relatively unathletic PG duo like Felton and Kidd. I guess this isn't so much a prediction as it is a hope, dream, aspiration, a raising withering in the sun-like glance of Tom Thibodeau. 
• Tyson Chandler doesn't quite get 16 boards like he did the last time the Bulls went to MSG, but he will do enough to keep Noah from truly killing the Knicks. 
• Tyson Chandler will eye laser at least two Bulls players, with Vladimir Radmanovic probably being one of those guys...poor RadMan :(. 

• It will be close entering the fourth, but if the game is close down the stretch, I don't see this Bulls team outdueling Carmelo in the Garden. Knicks 95, Bulls 86.

There and Back Again

(HT: Keith Allison) 

This is not about Michigan. The person above does not play for Michigan. This is only tangentially related to Michigan. This post is not about Michigan football or basketball. Okay. 

The Chicago Bulls will take the United Center floor tonight to take on the Sacramento Kings. The lights will go down, the bulls will run, and Tommy Edwards will announce the starting lineup. From a lonely corner in the United Center or from a couch at home, Derrick Rose will look on, hearing Kirk Hinrich's (or Nate Robinson's) name called instead of his own. Perhaps he will watch as he works, sweat dotting the floor of a fluorescently lit workout room, little archipelagos revealing a constantly changing map of resurrection. 

On April 28, Rose went down clutching his knee near the end of Game 1 during the Bulls' first round series against Philadelpha. It was a movement and a response that sports fans have seen many times before. An unseen ligament tears, an unheard pop sounds, revealing itself only to the ear-space of the player in question, and a hush reigns. If the eyes are the window to the soul, the athlete's knee is that soul's infrastructural binding. Lacking structural integrity, the rest falls apart in a pile of rubble and a cloud of dust. Fellows in hard hats and stethoscopes poke and prod and survey: what went wrong here? We thought this was sound, and our faith is shaken, for how could anything be sound after this?

When Denard Robinson went down Saturday, it was a familiar feeling; he had gone down and gotten up before. When it became clear that he would not return to the field, even while Michigan flailed away on offense for the rest of the game, I felt comfortable knowing that he would likely be back next week or the week after. All was lost Saturday, but it seemed--seems--a self-contained event on a microscopic event. Denard has taken the intermittent slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and stood back up each time, eventually. 

When Rose went down, there was no such feeling of assurance, no hopeful reasoning, no sense of immediate return. 

With the Bulls up 12 with a little over a minute to go, Rose held the ball at the top of the key, the point on the floor where all things are possible. He jabbed left and executed his exaggerated jump stop into the lane, seemingly covering the distance between Chicago and Springfield in one thrilling maneuver. 

"Holding on to his knee, holding on to his knee and down."

Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah ran to the place of the fallen. Rose had gone up after the jump stop, perhaps ready to knock in yet another one of his patented tear drop shots. Upon reaching the highest point of his ascent, the realization hit: no. He dished the ball to out to Boozer. He didn't take the shot. 

At that point, it was clear what had happened. The season was over. A low frequency white noise lorded over this spot of the floor, contained within the United Center in a sort of greenhouse effect. The fumes of that hush are trapped by the United Center ceiling, bouncing off of rafters and banners in hopes of escape, only to slowly return to the locus of its origin. This reactant noise has nowhere to go, and so it suffocates everything in sight. 

The players, coaches and fans looked on, breathing in the fumes of the end. 

---

With the end comes a beginning. The Bulls begin the 2012 campaign back at home Wednesday, with the starting lineup returning mostly unchanged. Boozer, Noah, and Luol Deng return at their respective spots. Richard Hamilton returns as well, looking to acquit himself much better than he did last year during his debut season in Chicago. 

Even one of the Bulls' "new" faces, Kirk Hinrich, is a familiar player, having played for the Bulls for seven seasons after being drafted out of Kansas in 2003. The Bulls also signed 5-foot-9-inch Nate Robinson, who, despite enjoying a surprisingly successful preseason, has had a career that doesn't necessarily scream reliability. 

On the other hand, the Bulls' so called "Bench Mob" was gutted. With players like the sharp-shooting Kyle Korver, the towering Turkish defensive stalwart Omer Asik, reliable utility guy Ronnie Brewer, and backup point guards C.J. Watson and John Lucas III all moving on for various reasons* --contractual or otherwise--the Bulls are left with an increasingly precarious imbalance, one that existed even when Rose was healthy.

Most importantly, all signs point toward Rose's absence continuing well into the new season, if not throughout its entirety. Many assume that Rose will return at some point this season, giving the Bulls the push they need to either acquire a respectable seed in a weak Eastern Conference or, more pessimistically, to propel the Bulls into the playoffs, period. 

These iterations of the Chicago Bulls and the Wolverine football team are not so dissimilar. Both subsist on grinding defense, a Gradgrindian execution that stems from a monomaniacal obsession at the top with that side of the ball. Tom Thibodeau paces the sidelines, always on the precipice of losing his voice as he barks his orders like a commander at Helm's Deep attempting to fend off the malevolent hordes of Evil. Greg Mattison paces, chewing gum like someone who has done this thing many times before and gesticulating when necessary, all the while thinking that this is not good enough, no matter how good this is. 

Offensively, both are a paradoxical solution of modesty and pyrotechnics. These teams are the guy that goes to work at his modest, ordinary office every week in a suit and tie and then goes to rock concerts on the weekends in war paint. Whether out of necessity or a subdued internal raison d'etre that occasionally escapes its cage, these teams rely on one man to make it all happen; they are the marshmallows in your Lucky Charms. 

These are modest offenses that do rational things like running plays or sets while also knowing, deep down, that these attempts at an imposition of order are as ephemeral as a sand castle built dangerously close to shore. 

You call a play and the pocket falls apart, and so he goes. You run a set, and the clock is at 7. You swing it back around and say go. Don't worry about the particulars, you'll say, for you know them better than I ever could. 

These teams, in a sense, are a case study in the different shades of loss, both heartbreaking, simultaneously continuous and continual. You forget about the loss, but it's always there. With Denard, it is a latent sort of dread. It happens, and then it's okay. But it could happen again. 

With Rose, the Fates decided to snip the string in one motion rather than opting for a gradual defraying of the line. Even more discouragingly, the end of the journey, if there is one, does not even promise a return to the same place at which Rose started. After all, even when Odysseus returned home, things were no longer the same. Things were very different. 

*I would be remiss if I didn't also mention the departure of one Brian Scalabrine, the greatest player in the history of basketball. 

---

How the season unfolds for this Bulls team is anybody's guess. Preseason predictions have exhibited a range of opinion bridged by a roiling chasm of Unknown, where potential outcomes pop up and disappear like little volcanic pockets of inflamed earth. 

The Bulls have enough to hang on; after all, they were 18-9 last season without Rose, albeit with a much different roster and a superior bench. However, one thing stands undisputed: the Bulls are not going anywhere near a title without a healthy Rose. Likewise, the Wolverines will not reach the conference championship game or the Rose Bowl without the compliance of the network of nerves within Denard Robinson's arm. 

Gain and loss, loss and gain. These are the components of life, and, to a less meaningful extent, sport. As the Bulls season begins and Team 133 forges on, these elements, always linked no matter how disparate they may seem, will form the chassis of the future. 

Of course, something sits in between these two elements, a derivative sub-element that connects and binds. There is a third element: reaction. Everything in life is a response to gain and loss in some way, and nowhere in the world of sports is that more true than in Chicago and Ann Arbor, right now.