Chicago Bulls: The Genius of the Game Winning Play Against the Atlanta Hawks

The Chicago Bulls shot a paltry 33.8 percent from the field against the Atlanta Hawks, yet still managed to pull out the win 76-74.

In just their second home game, Chicago came out flat and slow. They got themselves into a large deficit thanks to a volume of scoring, early on by the Hawks.

You would’ve hardly guessed that Atlanta just played in Miami the night before, while Chicago had a day in between the Hawks and the Grizzlies.

The Bulls only managed 26 first-half points, two off of their franchise record low. Atlanta’s lead swelled to 19 in the third quarter. Chicago seemed completely incapable of hitting a shot.

In the fourth quarter, Derrick Rose scored 17 points and Chicago stormed back in a major way setting up the opportunity to steal another victory in the last seconds.

Conventional wisdom tells any coach that with the game on the line, the ball is going to a hot hand. Since that hand belonged to Rose, it was easy to guess to whom Atlanta would be focusing their attention.

The game-winning play executed by the Bulls in the closing seconds speaks tremendously of Coach Tom Thibodeau’s dedication to studying and learning from last year’s shortcomings.

Normally, Chicago would’ve just cleared out the court and let Rose go to work on whomever's task it was to defend him.

It worked against the Lakers on Christmas Day, but that wasn’t so much of a drawn up play than it was a go-to-set, which was appropriate for the situation. Chicago immediately isolated after they got the steal off of the Lakers' inbound and Derrick Rose took advantage of a slower defender.

Against Atlanta, Chicago had the opportunity to call timeout to plan their next move after a couple of Hawks' free-throw attempts.

Thibodeau started off by making the smart substitution of Joakim Noah for Omer Asik, seeing as how Noah is the better passer.

The play was set up to look like Noah would screen for Rose. Deng would inbound him the ball to allow for another one of those familiar isolation moments. Unfortunately for the Hawks, Rose was merely decoy and bit hook, line, and sinker.

The true nature of the play was to have Noah pop out after feigning a screen to receive the inbound on the high post position. Deng then cut behind Rose and Luol's defender collapsed on Derrick to prevent the isolation on the wing. This left Deng with a clear lane to the basket where Noah hit him with a spot on pass for the go ahead score.

This play serves as a message to the rest of the league. Thibodeau is putting everyone on notice that charging at Rose in the late moments is no longer an option.

It’s plays like this along with the balance they had exhibited against the Memphis Grizzlies, that shows the Chicago Bulls are establishing themselves as a team far removed from the completely dependent-on-Derrick squad they were last season.

Last night’s game winning play showed significant growth in Thidodeau, that he understands his players’ capabilities and his ability to sense what the opposing team is expecting and adjust accordingly.

The Bulls are starting to get it together. The leadership on the court and on the sidelines will pay big dividends as well.