2015 NBA Playoffs

Lt J.R. Bell

Paully D wrote: »

How the Bulls Offense is Falling Apart (Again)

Hard to disagree with any of the points raised on the above piece.

Bulls look to have blown a huge chance. Couldn't have asked for a better opportunity to beat a LeBron-led team given the circumstances and probably won't ever get a better one again.

I have to say though, fair play to the Cleveland front office. The roster seemed to have quite a few holes initially but they've made a couple of moves that have really paid off. Mozgov especially.

Glad to see Mozgov get his dues. Was good at Denver

I think JR Smith has proven himself and back to the kind of form that won him the 6th MOY in 2013. Schumpert has been very good too. New York must really be a hell hole to play in


Is Noah really that worth it? Even in defence , they haven't being their usual selves (yes, injured alot). He does not come across as someone I would want in the last few minutes of a game ,defensively that is, because while he can pass, he can't and won't shoot even if open. He gets very emotional and prone to foul trouble and stupidity

NufcNavan

That loss is on Nene.

Nene deserved to get bulldozed. He didn't box out Horford and horford made him look stupid.

It's something you're taught as a child. If Nene boxes out properly, Horford has nowhere to jump and the only way he gets to the ball is by committing an obvious foul.

Horford treated that play like his season was on the line and Nene didn't. There's the difference in that game. Any ref that rewards Nene for standing there stupidly should be fined. The ref made the absolute correct call in letting the play go.

GoldFour4

So, do we reckon we get some game sevens in the two series being played tonight? Personally I'd expect the Clippers to see out the Rockets tonight.

Cleveland - Chicago is far more difficult to call. Paul says he's absolutely playing tonight so he could make a difference if he's in any decent shape. I think LeBron will close this one out though.

D2D

Fancy the Cavs and Clippers to close out tonight. Harden is saying he's battling the flu so he won't be at 100%

Soby

Bye bye Thibs.

BQQ

Soby wrote: »

Noah's fall from grace really is something else watching him the last few weeks.

It's not just recently. He has never really played like an All Star.
He just seems to get overrated because people like his hustle.

He only made the All star team because he's in the East and even then I'd argue Vucevic should have been ahead of him.

Bulls were atrocious last night. No Love, Kyrie gone before the half, Lebron not playing well .... and the Cavs still blow them out on their home floor in a close out game?

Gotta look at blowing up that team and starting again at this stage.

TheGoldenAges

Yeah only players on that roster that should be safe are Jimmy Butler and D Rose, the rest of that team was thrash this series. Bench production was non existent so the very least Bulls need to do is upgrade that.

ianob7

TheGoldenAges wrote: »

Yeah only players on that roster that should be safe are Jimmy Butler and D Rose, the rest of that team was thrash this series. Bench production was non existent so the very least Bulls need to do is upgrade that.

What about Gasol ?

D2D

What a strange bunch of games. For a Game 6, you'd think Chicago would play with some sort of intensity. Came out and put up 31 in the 1st and then put up 42 for the rest of the game..... Genuinely thought we were in trouble when Kyrie went out with the left knee problem but Delly put on a show!

Clippers just choked big time last night. Chance to go to the Western Finals, up to 13 going into the 4th and they go and give up 40 points and lose by 12 ............

TheGoldenAges

ianob7 wrote: »

What about Gasol ?

I'd have to look at his contract before saying anything? He's 34 after all and has maybe 2/3 years left?

Bulls fans right now:

padraig_f

Cavs 94 - Bulls 73

Alright, season over. I think the fans knew it was over after game 4. Disappointing not to at least push it to a game 7, disappointing to lose at home, and disappointing to put in a such an abject effort in what is probably Thibs' last game. For most of the time under Thibs, the team competed, made it hard for the opposition and got the most out of their ability....they did none of those things last night.

So a little sad to go out like that, but it's only one game, if it is Thibs last game with the team, it will be largely forgotten. I think he'll be remembered warmly in Chicago, but at the same time, I don't think there'll be an outcry if he does leave in the summer (which seems very likely now). While he has been good, it feels like it might be time to move on. He gets great credit for his defense, deservedly so, but the offense has often not been great, as we saw again last night, and often in this series. Was he getting the best out of the offensive talent? I don't think so. We saw role palyers step up for the Cavs, but not too many for the Bulls.


I'm optimistic for next season. Don't think the team needs a blow-up. Great to see Rose finish a playoffs healthy, when his future was in doubt at the start of the season, and after the mid-season meniscus surgery. If he didn't play to his previous MVP level, he played to a pretty good level over the playoffs, and I expect will come back stronger next season.

Jimmy had both a great season, and a great playoffs (holding Lebron again to 7-23 last night). Player of the season for the Bulls, and they'll happily give him a max-contract in the summer.

Mirotic has a ton of potential, he had a bad playoffs, but he's still learning the NBA, coming off the bench, and at times playing out of position at the 3. I expect he'll make a jump next year, esp if he gets a more established role.

Noah....tough to see him struggle this year, been the heart of the team for a number of years. Not been the same physically since his knee-surgery last summer. His future is a bit uncertain. Maybe he comes back next season better, but he never improved much throughout the season, and he's 30 now.

Pau wil be back. Not sure about Gibson, the front-court is a bit crowded now, and there probably needs to be a trade somewhere there, for some SG/SF talent.

Rumour is the Bulls are after Fred Hoiberg, successful Iowa State coach, who previously played with the Bulls. I think a new coaching face would give a bit of life to the team. There were just some signs of staleness this season, and I think this was probably Thibs most disappointing season with the team. The intensity of previous years was never there. We'll see what happens.


Congrats to the Cavs. I suppose you'd have to have a pretty hard heart to deny them any success. Lebron annoying me less lately, he's more mature and there's less of the self-promotion that always rubbed me up the wrong way. I'm still not going to be rooting for him, but I don't dislike him as much as when he was on the Heat.

I don't think the Cavs will win the title, I think the winners are coming out of the West, but I suppose they have a good chance now of contesting it.

padraig_f

TheGoldenAges wrote: »

Bulls fans right now:

Not really, if we had a great chance to do something, it'd be worse. We saw over this series that we weren't close to contending this year. If we won game 6, we'd probably have still lost game 7. If we won the series, we were never contending for the title. You accept it more then.

Soby

Smith to Harden.

padraig_f

Damn, my favourite Bulls blogger is retiring too:

The Bulls season is over and so is my blogging career

Carcharodon

BQQ wrote: »

It's not just recently. He has never really played like an All Star.
He just seems to get overrated because people like his hustle.

He only made the All star team because he's in the East and even then I'd argue Vucevic should have been ahead of him.

Bulls were atrocious last night. No Love, Kyrie gone before the half, Lebron not playing well .... and the Cavs still blow them out on their home floor in a close out game?

Gotta look at blowing up that team and starting again at this stage.

I slightly disagree, I thought Noah was immense a few seasons back, heart of the team, hustle Is probably underrated as an attribute if anything.

Soby

BQQ wrote: »

It's not just recently. He has never really played like an All Star.
He just seems to get overrated because people like his hustle.

He only made the All star team because he's in the East and even then I'd argue Vucevic should have been ahead of him.

Bulls were atrocious last night. No Love, Kyrie gone before the half, Lebron not playing well .... and the Cavs still blow them out on their home floor in a close out game?

Gotta look at blowing up that team and starting again at this stage.

I agree with Carcharodon.

The Bulls fall apart without him the previous two - three seasons in my opinion. He was a consistent double double guy who could be relied upon for his offense, putting up monster numbers scoring wise every now and again to go with his obvious quality in defense. Now, he's entirely a one way player from what I've seen, one of whom other teams can expose through hack-a-Noah if they wanted to. I'm surprised the Cavs didn't do this more in all honestly. Even his usually superb vision at the top of the key in picking out passes for others has fallen by the wayside in comparison to before.

Paully D

Excellent from Zach Lowe on the Bulls:

A Eulogy for 'If Only': The Bulls As We Know Them Are Probably Done

In other news, I see Alvin Gentry is the early favourite to replace Thibs (who is likely off to the Pelicans). The front office will get their puppet then. Idiots.

GoldFour4

Just a quick note, I've moved all Bill Simmons related chats to a new thread here It's gotten off topic here so just a bit of tidying! (myself being guilty of that as much as anyone else)

Soby

/

Soby

How frigging cruel was that ? . Better of the 2 to stand any chance against the Cavs anyway. And thats only cause of HC advantage

chips1234

steph curry just WOW guy is amazing

Carcharodon

Yea baby, solid win by the warriors, great buzz around with steph just being freaking amazing.

Funny thing I heard today on radio, you could get an upper level ticket for tonights game in memphis for less than $30, you will have to pay $70 for parking pass at oracle...lol, that's crazy, I was there a few weeks ago and parking pass was $30 plus tickets for $180 each, git to love the bay area

Lt J.R. Bell

Hawks almost did everything to loose last night. Kroover who played well generally bar the shooting almost cost them twice. Horrible game too

The Truth nearly did it again

Wall was brilliant. Nene should be kicked out of that club, brutal

NufcNavan

Wall was terrible down the stretch though. Ball should have been in Pierce's hands a lot more.

Soby

NufcNavan wrote: »

Wall was terrible down the stretch though. Ball should have been in Pierce's hands a lot more.

Watching it live, he looked shattered in the fourth quarter as he was really the only one making plays other than Beal all game. Lost count of the amount of times he drove into the lane, kick it out before someone else bricked a wide open shot. Not much more he could have done.

I love Pierce, but he went 1-8 from the field or something like that too throughout the game, and the Hawks exposed him on defense with putting Carroll on him as the 4. Hope it's not the last we see of him as he apparently was inconsolable after the game.

Nene was trash like he has been throughout the playoffs.

Gortat had a nightmare game all round at both ends.

If any of them played anything near to their full ability, Wizards win and comfortably so.

Paully D

Clippers @ Rockets game 7 is on at 8:30pm our time tonight lads. Perfect way to round off the weekend.

That_Guy

James Harden appears to be rather good at this game.

Top top top top analysis.

Itssoeasy

I loled when Doc rivers stood on the floor after the refs couldn't hear him call time out. I thought he was going to have the time out on the floor.

Paully D

13 turnovers combined already with 5 minutes left in the 1st. Scrappy, but fun.

Itssoeasy

Jesus Jordan just cant hit free throws at all.