“Three famous boxers – Jake LaMotta, Rocky Balboa, and Glass Joe.”
No Excuses Week wraps up with No Excuses Weekend!
Not long after having split consecutive games versus the Gasol Brothers, this weekend’s Creature Double Feature has our Atlanta Hawks taking on the Lopez Twins. It begins this afternoon with Robin and his Chicago Bulls (5:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL; WGN in Chicago) and concludes with another shot at Brook and the Nets tomorrow afternoon in Brooklyn.
The Hawks are aiming for a second-straight season-sweep of Fred Hoiberg’s outfit, last time storming back with 41 fourth-quarter points (five starters, plus Tim Hardaway, Jr., in double figures) to zip past Chicago in the closing minutes for a 119-112 victory at the United Center. The Bulls haven’t beaten Atlanta since a meaningless season-ending home win back in April 2015. A win today, though, could mean a whole lot more to a bunch of people on West Madison Street.
The Bulls simply haven’t had the graces that the Hawks enjoyed during the middle of the regular season. So in March, when Chicago followed up an upset of the lousy-shooting Splash Brothers with a deflating 1-7 stretch, their playoff prospects seemed dead in the Lake Michigan water. Things got even bleaker once second-leading scorer Dwyane Wade was put on ice for the season, after the Chicago native fractured a bone in his elbow a couple weeks ago.
The team’s third- and sixth-leading scorers (Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott, respectively) had previously been traded to OKC, for three Thunder players (Cam Payne, Joffrey Lauvergne, Anthony Morrow) who are hardly giving the team anything of substance. The Wade injury has pressed Hoiberg to make nice with pine-riding guards Rajon Rondo (now starting again) and Michael Carter-Williams. But just when things weren’t looking too hot for Coach Fred or the Garpax management crew, a funny thing happened.
Rondo (7.1 March APG) has been setting up the Bulls offense as well as ever before. Nikola Mirotic (March: 15.3 PPG, 49.6 FG%, 41.2 3FG%) has gone on an offensive tear. German rookie Paul Zipser has stepped into the starting lineup, and generally figured out how to stay out of the way, unless a clutch bucket or rebound is needed.
All of that synergy has taken pressure off star Jimmy Butler (last 7 games: 26.4 PPG, 54.3 FG%, 8.6 APG, 2.4 SPG), who hasn’t had to mope as much as Central Division contemporary Paul George in recent days. Since Dwyane waded off the court, only Toronto has posted a higher net efficiency than Chicago (+5.1 net rating since March 15, 7th in NBA) in the East.
Because of these developments, the Bulls have won four of their last six games and sit on the edge of the postseason in the ninth-seed. Yes, they did lose by ten to Philadelphia at United Center just 8 days ago. But Chicago also beat Utah and three division rivals (vs. Detroit, at Milwaukee, vs. Cleveland), all of whom are jockeying for playoff positions themselves. They also fell short by just two points in overtime at Toronto after failing to cling to a 15-point fourth quarter lead.
The Bulls (36-39) can move into a statistical tie with Miami and Indiana, and two games behind Atlanta, with a win today. If they do that, they’re as much in the catbird seat as any other low-level playoff contender.
They have a four-game road swing that begins tomorrow in New Orleans, who no longer holds a lotto pick and isn’t tanking. But after the Pelicans, the slate includes winnable contests in New York, Philly, and Brooklyn, then home games versus Orlando and Brooklyn to close things out. The playoffs are certainly within reach. But it behooves the Bulls to keep confidence high by first solving the Hawks today.
The Hawks (39-36) can just about seal up a playoff spot with back-to-back wins over the Bulls and Nets. The first order of business for Mike Budenholzer’s crew involves figuring a way to keep Butler (9.0 FTAs per game, 4th in NBA; 86.1 FT%) from piling up points at the free throw line without Thabo Sefolosha or Paul Millsap available to help defend.
The recently returning Kent Bazemore played with rejuvenated confidence in Wednesday’s 99-92 win at Philadelphia (4-for-5 3FGs, 2 steals and a block), but he and Taurean Prince (benefitting from Sefolosha’s tutelage) will need to share duties to help keep Jimmy Buckets, who averages more made free throws (7.7 per game) than field goals (7.3 per game), contained.
The second challenge will be making catches and looks tougher for “Threekola” at the perimeter. Philly helped the Hawks’ troublesome perimeter defensive stats by taking 21 more three-point attempts than Atlanta, but only sinking two more of those shots.
Chicago is taking 6.4 more threes per game than they were before the All-Star Break (Wade’s injury having much to do with that), and making 3.6 more of them. Rookie wing Denzel Valentine (35.3 March FG%, but 37.3 March 3FG%) has a 12-game Threak going while also helping with rebounding and defense.
The third challenge will be suppressing Dennis Schröder’s errors (last 5 games: 7.0 APG, 6.8 TOs/game), a product of Millsap’s missing touches and shifting rotations as much as it is the Hawks point guard pressing unnecessarily instead of resetting plays.
Coach Bud remains willing to ride-or-die with Schröder’s turnovers, not the least of which because Dennis has been making defenses pay at the free throw line (53-for-58 on FTs post-Break) when he can draw contact. Schröder (13 4th quarter points @ CHI on Jan. 25) has also shown a propensity for making up for some of those turnovers at the other end lately, his 1.4 SPG since the All-Star Break a marked improvement from the 0.8 SPG in the preceding games.
The final ordeal will involve Dwight Howard and Ersan Ilyasova holding the fort in the middle and keeping the league’s biggest offensive board-crashers (NBA-high 12.4 O-Rebs per game) off the glass. Lopez (3 total O-Rebs, 6.0 PPG and 5.0 RPG in 3 games vs. ATL) has been mostly neutralized by the Hawks this season so far, and hopes to bring as much fight to today’s game as he typically reserves for mascots and the air around opposing big men.
He gets less help with Gibson gone, but RoLo hopes to get some help off the bench today from Cristiano Felicio, who missed the past four games with a bruised tailbone, Lauvergne, and Bobby Portis, the second-year big who rebounds with vigor but is still figuring other elements of his game out.
Atlanta has a tougher schedule ahead after this No Excuses Weekend, but can make things easier on themselves down the road with a strong fullcourt effort today (and tomorrow). Sounder execution will keep them in this game, while a high offensive pace coupled with persistent defensive pressure will help the Hawks enjoy the Running of the Bulls without getting gored.
Let’s Go Bulls!
April Fool’s! Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
