The Jordan Rules and Offensive Rebounds

[niremetal]

[Edit: Yeah, I know, it's 2-1, not 2-2. Too late to edit the subtitle though. My bad. Read on.]

Well, the Bulls' blueprint is now in the open - they will win by killing us on the glass and by pulling out the Jordan Rules on JJ and (to a lesser extent) Jamal.

Ironic since the "Jordan Rules" strategy was first used against the Bulls and JJ is hardly Jordan, but the Bulls guarded him tonight as if he was. Even if he caught the ball 30 feet from the basket, he was trapped within 2 seconds whenever he touched the ball or brought it over the half court line. If he somehow managed to drive inside 20 feet from the basket, EVERY defender converged on him. They did the same thing to Jamal, except they made sure either Bogans or Deng stayed home on JJ.

I'd say it's a minor miracle that JJ/Jamal combined for just 3 turnovers, but it's not really because this was a different type of double teaming than they've seen during most of the year. In the past, JJ always looked stunned when a double-team came, and he often panicked and turned the ball over. JJ wasn't caught off-guard by these double-teams. He knew they were coming, and he knew to make a decision with the ball quickly. The only smart thing for him to do on most possessions was to pass before the trap closed on him. Tonight, JJ looked way more stunned the 3-4 times that he WASN'T immediately double-teamed (and even on those, he still had either Bogans or Deng in his grill).

The Bulls were determined to make someone other than JJ or Jamal score. Teague did. I thought Al would too, but he looked like he got hit with whatever they hit Barkley with in Space Jam in the first half, and by time he got a rhythm back it was too late.

The Bulls' defensive strategy for the rest of the series is pretty obvious. They are going to try to force the ball out of JJ and Jamal's hands. Those two will be lucky to get more than 3 clean looks per game the rest of the series. I just don't see a way for us to score 90+ points against that.

I think that if we get back into this series, it'll have to be by grinding it out. In order for THAT to happen, we can't allow 15+ ORebs per game. Josh and Al might have had ok looking box score rebounding stats, but that doesn't tell the story. I'll just copy-paste what I said in another thread on that:

One downside to athletic Josh is that he never learned to box out. I was really stunned when I saw how many rebs he and Al had in the box score, because the number of times Gibson and Noah have punk'd them on the glass has been embarrassing. Josh never bodies them up. He just jumps at the ball. If the ball bounces right at him, he'll get the board because he can outjump them. If it doesn't, it seems a good bet that the man he's assigned to (usually Noah or Gibson in this series) will find a way to get it because they'll go around him with no resistance.

Well, now we know what to look for going forward. Let's hope the Hawks do too...

Edited May 7, 2011 by niremetal

[ngc7]

great post

[TRUEINTELLECTPLAYA]

what do you mean by it's still 2-2, it's actually 2-1 Bulls.

[Supporter]

what do you mean by it's still 2-2, it's actually 2-1 Bulls.

same, I would feel a lot better if this series was 2-2 with the way the Hawks are playing

[niremetal]

what do you mean by it's still 2-2, it's actually 2-1 Bulls.

Yeah, I know. I can't edit the subtitle after it's posted though. My bad.

[TheTruth]

Great post.

You are right, since it looks like they are hell-bent on shutting down JJ and Craw, and they aren't superstar quality enough to overcome it, we will have to resort to playing stellar D and securing more rebounds. Not surprisingly, we did that in the first game (it also helped that JJ and Craw combined for 56 points), and we won the game. Ever since that game, Thibs has made nice adjustments that have limited out two best offensive weapons' games, and the defensive and rebounding prowess of the Bulls have only increased.

We are a lazy team that won't do the little things like boxing out and staying in front of your man on D consistently enough to combat what the Bulls throw at us. There is still time, but someone needs to tell our bigs to box out and outrebound their counterparts, and Drew also needs to make it clear that if we play solid D alongside that, it will give us a good chance to hang in there.

[Diesel]

Our bigs have to go inside and work.

We have no hard hats in Atlanta. Teague is the only one who drives. When Joe and Jamal is trapped, sombody is open. It's up to LD to show those guys their options and coach a response.

[BusBoyIsBack]

I wish they would give the ball to Teague through some of those double teams. As much as they leave Teague open he would have 40 points himself if they kicked the ball to him and let him get dribble penetration because the Bulls are showing him no respect

BUt I guess the rest of the team hasn't bought into Teague considering it's not like he's had a lot of PT before this series, but they need to wake up and see this kid is for real .