2011 NBA Playoffs: Chicago Bulls Ride Derrick Rose MVP Performance, Crush Hawks
Derrick Rose led the Chicago Bulls to a road win to take back the home court from the Atlanta Hawks in the finest playoff performance of his career, scoring 44 points
While there's no question that the primary reason the Bulls crushed the Hawks, there's more to the victory than just Rose. In the following slides I'll recount the key reasons the Bulls that the Bulls won in such decisive fashion.
Atlanta Standouts
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While the Hawks were by and large crushed two Hawks players stood out and deserve some mention.
Jeff Teague continued to impress starting in place of Kirk Hinrich, scoring 21 points on just 13 shots. Teague added three rebounds and three assists. Even if the Hawks lose this series, what they've seen from their young point guard has to be encouraging.
The other player who played well was Josh Smith. While he wasn't phenomenal far from the basket, he was good close in, and overall he was 7-14 from the field, scoring 17 points, grabbing 13 boards, dishing four assists, and blocking four shots. Smith was Atlanta's best player on the night.
Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford
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Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford were just stopped. Between them they scored only 17 points on 14 shots.
They were trapped every time they got down the court with the ball. The Bulls defense was constantly shutting them down, not giving them open looks. It was a dominant performance by their entire defense.
Offensive Rebounding
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Joakim Noah, by himself, had just one fewer offensive rebound than the entire Atlanta Hawks team, with 18 offensive boards to nine for Atlanta.
Taj Gibson added seven of his own. Omer Asik, Carlos Boozer, and Rose each added one more.
For the Hawks Horford led the team with three offensive boards. Hilton Armstrong had two more in garbage time minutes in the last three minutes of the game.
Three Point Shooting
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Korver also broke out of his mini-shooting slump, hitting three of his four from behind the arc. Keith Bogans added two on his four attempts.
Luol Deng added another one on four attempts, but Rose, who took seven attempts, made an impressive four, certainly ending his slump. All in all, the Bulls made 10 three point shots on 20 attempts.
Meanwhile for Atlanta they made only one on six attempts. Joe Johnson made their only one.
The Bench Mob
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CJ Watson and the "Bench Mob" utterly dominated their bench counterparts, outscoring them 34-14. Taj Gibson and Kyle Korver were the only Bulls other than Rose to hit double digits, scoring 13 and 11 respectively. Watson added eight on his own, as well as two assists.
Now the Bulls bench did collectively play 15 more minutes, but the difference in points far exceeded the minute differential.
Jamal Crawford led the Hawks bench with only seven points. It's safe to say that if the Bulls have Watson outscoring Crawford, the Bulls are going to feel good about their chances. Every single member of the Bulls team was plus on their plus/minus.
The Starters
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At a glance you could think that with the exception of Rose the starters were outplayed by the Hawks starters.
Atlanta had a three-point edge among their starting five. However some of that was because of the exceptional play of the Bulls bench. Just as the Bulls bench played 15 more minutes, their starters played 15 fewer minutes.
Other than Noah and his rebounding, statistically the other starters don't really pop out at you, but the defense they played was just crushing.
Some of the team stats were muddled by the garbage time in the fourth quarter so it doesn't pop out in the team field goal percentages but before the starts sat the Bulls had nearly a 10 percent edge in field goal percentage.
When you combine that with the rebounding edge of seven boards in 15 fewer minutes, you can see why the Bulls were able to pull away.
The Bulls starters were all at least a +9 and the Hawks starters were all at least a -15. While the Bulls were playing their bench players, the Hawks were playing their starters, and they were getting outplayed by the Bulls bench.
MVP
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The biggest reason for the Bulls win though was the MVP of the league, Derrick Rose. It was not only the best performance of his postseason, it was one of the best performances of his young career. He scored a career high 44 points, on the same 27 shots which he took in the previous two games.
Needless to say this performance was far more efficient. Prior to the game Rose said that he was being too cautious with his ankle, and in the first quarter he proved he wasn't going to be hampered this game, scoring 17 points just in the first quarter alone.
Rose added seven assists, five boards, a block, a steal and only two turnovers. There was little to find fault with in this performance.
This is the Derrick Rose that won the MVP, attacking the basket, finishing strong, getting to the line, and playing big in big moments. He hit his final eight shots to put the nail in the coffin of the Hawks.
Game 4
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The teams seem headed in two different directions right now. (Like the way I worked that in with the picture?) After the Hawks upset the Bulls in the first game it looked like Joe Johnson was set for a series for the ages.
Now it's looking like a one seed versus a five seed. The Bulls have won the last two games by a total of 30 points and have retaken home court advantage from the Hawks. They are in complete control of the series right now.
For Atlanta Game 4 is crucial, and not just the game itself, but the first quarter of the game. If Chicago comes out and takes charge of the game from the beginning like they have in the last two, then Atlanta will be more or less done for the year.
Atlanta doesn't play well from behind, and Chicago has led since the six minute mark of Game 2. If they can control the pace again they will be printing their tickets for the finals and clinching the series before a jubilant home crowd next Tuesday.
