2011 NBA Playoffs: Chicago Bulls Hold off Atlanta Hawks, Take 3-2 Series Lead
The Chicago Bulls dominated the fourth quarter behind the play of Derrick Rose and Taj Gibson and a suffocating defense to take a three games to two lead over the Atlanta Hawks by beating them 95-83.
The Bulls outscored Atlanta 26-15 in the fourth quarter with 21 of those points coming from Rose and Gibson.
The game was tighter than the 12-point margin might indicate as Atlanta fell behind 15 but scrapped back slowly until they took a one-point lead near the end of the third quarter. However, they gained some separation by dominating in the fourth quarter.
Read the following slides to find out who the key players were and what the key moments in the game were.
Jeff Teague
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The loss of Kirk Hinrich is looking more and more like it might have been a net gain. The minutes that Teague is beyond what anyone could have hoped for in Atlanta.
His play throughout the series has been fantastic, averaging 16 points on 52 percent shooting for the series.
Tonight he scored another 21 with eight for 11 shooting. He hit all five his field goals in the third quarter, opened the fourth with a sixth, and added a free throw. Teague was the biggest reason for the Hawks 15 point come back.
Without a doubt, even if the Hawks lose this series they know they have their point guard of the future on their team. If there's any criticism of Teague, it's that he had been only averaging 3.8 assists per game during the season, but tonight he had a series.
The Benches
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The Hawks bench was helped in the second quarter by Zaza Pachulia who was three of four from the field and three of three from charity stripe and the unexpected scoring burst from the normally defensive minded backup center was a big factor in the Hawks cutting down the lead.
For the Bulls the biggest bench presence was Taj Gibson who was just amazing in the fourth quarter. He hit all five of his field goal attempts, grabbed two rebounds, blocked a shot and held Josh Smith without a field gaol.
Defensively Ronnie Brewer and Omer Asik were also stellar. It's hard to show how much a strong defensive presence can have on a game, but consider this.
From the 11:18 mark to the 1:37 mark, almost a ten minute stretch, the Hawks only manage two field goals and four free throws. Over that same stretch Chicago scored 24 points.
This was a game where the defense was the reason the Bulls won the game.
Carlos Boozer
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Carlos Boozer might have had his best game in the playoffs yet.
It doesn't show much in the stat sheet, but he was his most explosive, in terms of getting to the rim, in terms of rebounding and in terms of just getting himself psychologically into the game.
If the Bulls can close out this series, and would presumably play the Heat barring a historic comeback by the Celtics, then they're going to need Boozer to be at his best.
He hasn't been there yet this postseason, but this was the first game where he started to look like he could gain the form that could help the Bulls to have a chance in the finals.
Luol Deng
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Luol Deng spent most of the night guarding Josh Smith. While Smith had his moments, he was nowhere near as effective as he was in Game 4.
At the same time offensively he was the second option that Derrick Rose needed, particularly in the first quarter.
On the whole Deng scored 23 points on eight of 18 shooting and added four rebounds and three assists.
It was another one of the "Glue All" nights where the Bulls glue man was doing whatever they needed him to do when they needed him to do it.
Derrick Rose
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It's going to be tough for his critics to find fault with this performance. Rose scored 33 points on just 24 field goal attempts.
He was able to utilize different teammates and get them into a scoring mode at different points in the game, whether it was Deng in the first quarter or Gibson in the fourth.
It was a game where he didn't necessarily have a great shooting touch, but still was able to take over the game in the fourth quarter by getting into the lane, pushing the ball up the court and creating shots for his teammates.
It was the most mature game of his postseason. It was the first time he was able to dictate his will on a game in the fourth quarter without being "hot."
Game 6
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The Bulls are a young team, and Rose is the youngest of them all.
They've been growing through the postseason. Rose stated in the press conference that coach Tom Thibodeau told the team "We have to walk through the fire together."
This has not been the perfect postseason for the team, but they've grown through the adversity and now they are one game away from reaching the Eastern Conference finals.
On the other hand Atlanta has shown much more heart than they've shown as a team throughout their time together.
That they made it to the second round was deemed by many (myself included) as enough of a success to cause Atlanta to rest on their laurels. They've done no such thing. They've fought and scrapped in every game.
For the most part the team which has set the tone in the first five minutes of every game has gone on to win it. Expect both teams in Game 6 to come out extremely aggressive. Whichever team comes out aggressive without being out of control, will win the game.
For the Hawks two players could make or break them. If Josh Smith decides to rediscover his jump shot, he could take Atlanta out of it. If Joe Johnson returns to his "iso-Joe" ways, then the Hawks could be in trouble.
However, if both play the way they have in the Hawks wins in the series, they could be the reason the Hawks win.
For the Bulls the key will be Derrick Rose. If he plays the way he did tonight where he spent a lot of the first part of the game getting his teammates involved, he'll force the Hawks to defend the rest of the team. When he's done that the Bulls have been virtually unbeatable.
If Luol Deng comes out with the aggressiveness he did today then that will make things easier for Rose. The same goes for Keith Bogans.
When the Bulls get at least two three pointers from the combination of Ronnie Brewer and Bogans, the Bulls are now 46-4 including the regular season.
Whichever team's star can excel without playing outside of himself should have the inside track to winning this game. Game 6 will be Thursday night in Atlanta.
