NBA Playoffs 2011: Chicago Bulls vs. Atlanta Hawks Post-Game 6 Reaction
There's not many words that adequately describe what the Chicago Bulls did to the Atlanta Hawks tonight, but the word "smite" comes to mind. The Bulls did pretty much everything right, and the Hawks did pretty much everything wrong.
The timing couldn't be better as the win clinches the series, and the challenge in the next series will be much tougher, as the Bulls will play a seven-game series to see who goes tot he finals. In order to win that series, the Bulls will need to play the way they did tonight.
In the following slides, I'll recount the reasons that the Bulls were so dominant and who the stars were.
Josh Smith
1 of 8
The only Hawk that didn't have a bad game was Josh Smith, who scored 18 points on 15 attempts, and added five rebounds, three blocks and two steals. Joe Johnson scored 19 points, but he took 18 shots to do so, and did little else.
On both ends of the court the Hawks were just completely outplayed in front of their home crowd.
Jamal Crawford, who was talking a fair amount of smack during the series had yet another awful game, going only 2 for 10 from the field, scoring eight points and little else.
Omer Asik
2 of 8
Omer Asik scored five points, grabbed three rebounds and blocked two shots, but more importantly, he again, just shut down the Hawks on defense. When Asik has been on the court this series, the Bulls have had a defensive rating of 87.77 compared to 96.28 when he's on the bench.
Asik, and All-Defensive team second team teammate, Joakim Noah, will be manning the middle again in the Heat series, and will be crucial to the Bulls chances of winning.
Luol Deng
3 of 8
Luol just continued to play impressively on both ends of the floor, guarding and shutting down Joe Johnson for much of the night. In addition he added 13 points, five boards, five assists, and five steals. Deng's performance was exactly what the Bulls need from him, a little bit of everything.
Joakim Noah
4 of 8
Joakim Noah has been a defensive monster in this series, holding his former Florida teammate to just 10.8 points per game during the series. Noah averaged 10.6 himself, and if he's getting the same number of points as Horford, then the Bulls will gladly take that.
Tonight Horford was only 2-10 from the field, and was held to just seven points. Noah scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds and an assist.
Carlos Boozer
5 of 8
For the first time in the postseason, you could argue that the best player in the game was Carlos Boozer, who had 23 points on 16 attempts, grabbed 10 rebounds and added five assists. It was the game that the Bulls have been waiting for and paying him to have. The Bulls will need this version of Carlos Boozer to advance to the finals.
Derrick Rose
6 of 8
Rose had a remarkably efficient game, one which the box score doesn't fully display. Though he did have 19 points on just 14 attempts and added 12 assists, the entire offense was set up by Rose and he was the reason they were so remarkably efficient.
His numbers just don't show how dominant he was in this game. Boozer's big night was clearly a result of a conscious effort by Rose to get him involved though.
Teamwork
7 of 8
This was a win that really was a result of fantastic teamwork on both ends of the court. The help defense was absolutely suffocating, and the Hawks had almost no good shots all night. They were only 27 of 74 from the field (.365).
Additionally on offense the Bulls were sharing the ball smartly and that was a big part of the reason they shot .532. They created shots for themselves by passing. and 34 of their 41 field goals were assisted. Putting that in perspective the Bulls had seven more assists than the Hawks had field goals.
Up Next: Miami Heat
8 of 8
The Miami Heat seem to be convinced they already won the championship, and they might. But they'll need to actually beat Chicago before they even get there. Derrick Rose, the league's MVP and the Chicago Bulls, who have the league's best record might have something to say about that.
While most of the talk has been about how the Heat are heavy favorites, the Bulls swept the regular season series. Either way it goes, it will be a tough series, but with the home court advantage the Bulls probably have a much better chance than many are giving the credit for, particularly if Carlos Boozer can play like he did tonight.
