Bulls Scouting Report

by HighTops on Mar 20, 2011 11:00 PM PDT

The Kings crushed the Twolves in the 4th quarter of Sunday’s game but the Bulls aren’t the Twolves. Minnesota is the 5th worse defensive team in the league but the Bulls are the BEST defensive team in the league. Minnesota after their lost to the Kings have the 2nd Worst record in the league and Chicago is tied for the 2nd Best record in the league. While the Kings and Minnesota are both top 6 rebounding teams and the Kings won that battle, Chicago is the #1 rebounding team in the league. So, no one should expect the same type of game as we had against Minnesota when we play Chicago.

The Bulls are 49-19 and tied with Boston for the lead in the East. Chicago is 29-6 at home and they’ve won all 4 of their home games in March. They’ve won 8 of their last 10, beating New Orleans, Atlanta, Utah, and Washington at home and Orlando, Miami, Charlotte, and New Jersey on the road. Their two losses came on the road against Atlanta and Indiana.

Chicago leads the season series 1-0 after beating the Kings in Sacramento 96-85 back on Nov. 27th. The two teams split the 2009 series 1-1, after the Kings made their infamous 35 pt comeback to pull out the win in Chicago.

In the Nov. 27th game, Sacramento jumped out to a halftime lead, 57-44. But, as a Tom Thibodeau coached team is apt to do, the Bulls stepped up the defense in the 2nd half. By the end of the third quarter, the Bulls trimmed the lead down to nine, 76-69, by holding he Kings to 19 pts. Chicago went on a 9-0 run to start the 4th and with 9:05 left they led 78-76. The teams exchanged baskets a few more times and with 6 minutes to play Donte tied the score 83-83. The Bulls then went on an 11-0 run to take a 94-83 lead with 2:07 remaining. The Kings could only manage 2pts on a layup by Cousins in the last 6.02 of the game.

The Kings turned the ball over just two times in the first half and scored 57 points. The Bulls defensive pressure forced the Kings into 13 turnovers in the 2nd half. Chicago limited the Kings to a total of 28 second half points and only 9 in the fourth quarter. The Kings shot just 31.6 percent in the fourth quarter and were outscored 27-9.

Tyreke got off to a hot start with 13 points and six assists in the first half but scored just four points in the second half. DeMarcus Cousins got in foul trouble and scored six points and grabbed five rebounds in just 15 minutes. Thompson led the Kings with 18 points and nine rebounds. Tyreke Evans contributed 17 points, six rebounds, nine assists, one steal, and two blocks. Donte Greene added 13 points and Samuel Dalembert recorded 12 points.

Derrick Rose scored a game-high 30 points and Luol Deng added 22. Rose also recorded seven rebounds, seven assists, and a steal. Chicago turned the Kings 15 turnovers into 21 points and out rebounded the Kings 44 to 43.

But in the end, the game came down to defending without fouling and the Bulls did the better job. The Bulls sent the Kings to the FT line 17 times on 19 fouls, while the Bulls got to the FT line 33 times on 23 fouls by the Kings. Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, and Derrick Rose combined to hit 26 of 31 from the FT line to outscore the Kings by 12 at the charity stripe in the Bulls 11 point victory.

The probable starters for Chicago are Rose and Keith Bogans in the backcourt and Noah, Deng and Kurt Thomas in the frontcourt. Rose is averaging 25 pts/ 7.8 asts/ 4.3 rebs. Bogans has started every game this season, but only averages 4 pts on 38% shooting in just under 18 mpg. Thomas in his 16th season has started the last 4 games in place of Boozer. Thomas has started 34 games replacing Noah and Boozer, and averages 5.3 pts/ 7.5 rebs in 28.6 mpg when starting. Noah has played in only 37 games this season and 13 since December. In the last ten he’s averaging 10 pts/ 9.7 rebs in 30 mpg. Deng is the iron-man having started all 68 games averaging 17.7 pts/ 5.9 rebs in just under 40 mpg.

Kyle Korver, Taj Gibson, Ronnie Brewer, CJ Watson and Omer Asik have all seen action off the bench in 68 games. Asik the 7-0 rookie averages 3 pts/ 4 rbs in 12 mpg at center. Gibson a 6-9 second year player averages 7 pts/ 5.6 rebs at PF. Korver is averaging 8.4 pts/ 2 rebs in just over 20 mpg. Brewer the 6-7 shooting guard averages 6 pts/ 3.3 rebs in 22.5 mpg. While 6-2 PG C.J. Watson averages 5 pts/ 2 asts in 12 minutes backing up Rose. Korver is the real 3-pt threat shooting 42%, but Rose is shooting 33% on over 400 3pt attempts and Deng is shooting 33% on just under 300 attemps.

Chicago hasn’t made any roster changes since we last played while the Kings have added Marcus Thornton. They should also see a different DeMarcus Cousins for the most part has been staying out of foul trouble. Cisco was out of the last game with the flu, so the Bulls will be seeing a much different starting lineup with Dalembert and Beno the only players that will start in both games.

Carlos Boozer was still recovering from offseason surgery in the last game. But since his return he’s averaging 18pts/ 9.6 rebounds. He’s missed the last 4 games with a sprained ankle, and is listed as day-to-day so it’s possible that he might miss this game as well. If he doesn’t play the Kings may have the chance to out rebound the Bulls who are currently 1st in Total Rebounds. The Bulls rely heavily on their defense to hold teams under 100 pts, but when they don’t they are 3-13.

But, no matter who plays, the Kings have no answer for Derrick Rose, who penetrates and gets to the rim 6 times a game or can shot over 40% on the long ball. And, the Kings have shown little ability to beat the press with their ball handling. And, as Iguodola said after the Sixers game, you don’t have to press the Kings very hard; you just have to wait until they turn over the ball all by themselves. The Kings aren’t going to be able to beat the Bulls at their own game, Defense, so they’re going to have to outscore them. They’ll need to improve their shot selection, get 2nd chance points of the offensive glass, and protect the leather. Good luck with that, Sacramento.

(This is a FanPost from a member of the Sactown Royalty community. The views expressed come from the member, and not Sactown Royalty staff.)

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Your Sacramento Kings...Where Our Offense IS Our Defense!

Great write-up HT. I hope this isn’t the 76ers game, revisited. The weird thing is, you never know if you’re going to get the Magic/-beating Kings or the Kings who let the Cavs beat us in the battle of the worse in the league.

All I ask is that they give effort (much like they did yesterday) and keep the game fairly close.

by clicc916 on Mar 21, 2011 11:04 AM PDT reply actions

I think our frontcourt can at least stay competitive with theirs...

The real problem is that we have no answer for Derrick Rose (and really, who does?) Especially with Tyreke still out, I don’t think we have anyone who can slow Rose down, I expect a double-double from Rose before halftime.

I just hope that the Kings team from a few weeks ago that beat Orlando, took Boston down to the wire, etc. shows up for this game, and not the team that got embarrassed by Philly and self-destructed against Cleveland the other day. I don’t expect a win guys, just keep it competitive, please!

by rpmonkey on Mar 21, 2011 12:54 PM PDT reply actions

Thanks for the comments Clicc and rp

Coming into this season, all I was expecting was improvement. And, like yourselves, I don’t see any. Here we are with 16 games left, and we have no idea how the Kings will play. There is no consistency except that we lose consistently.

What team will show up? The team that won only 2 games in the months of Oct, Nov. Dec. & March or the team that won 6 in Jan. Will it be the team that that beat the Lakers and Magic or the team that lost back to back road games to the Raptor and Wizards.

The most disheartening thing to me, is that after 2 seasons under the present coaching staff we still can’t run or defend simple screen & rolls and we have the 5 highest foul rate. We’ve probably lost as many games as we’ve won because we were outscored at the FT line, not just because we didn’t make ours but because we sent the other team there too often. This team is not improving.

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by HighTops on Mar 21, 2011 1:58 PM PDT reply actions

Pick and roll, you are our nemesis...

I get that our guys aren’t good at playing team defense (nor individual defense), and that’s one reason why our pick and roll defense is horrible. For example, there was a stretch during a Suns game where Steve Nash and Marcin Gortat were P&R’ing the hell out of us and we just couldn’t stop it. Sometimes, our guards just can’t fight through/around a screen, which forces a switch, resulting in a mismatch in favor of the other team. That’s fine, chalk it up to a young team inexperienced with defense at the NBA level.

However, when we have the ball (and haven’t come out of a timeout), it seems like we run an isolation and then only default to a pass if convenient. In the course of a season, this happens often on many teams, but they have the talent to either score the ball or make the pass. Since we don’t have that kind of talent yet, we should be running more plays. The coaching staff needs to cater to the team’s strengths (DMC in the post, Thorton on the wing), and curb the streetball.

Pookey’s asked me what I’d do if I were Westphal, and alluded that I’d run more set plays before concluding that our players aren’t talented enough to run multiple plays. Still, I’d like to see our weaknesses reduced (ie, no Dalembert at the elbow facilitating and no DMC/Dalembert facing up to the basket and putting the ball on the floor inside of 5 ft) while focusing on our strengths.

We turn the ball over many times because guys make the wrong decisions. Our frontcourt players drive into traffic, our guards penetrate then kick out to…nobody, and we don’t know when drive to the rim and come back out (a la Steve Nash). If everyone knew, “We’re going with play X, and if you don’t see the opening, we’ll default to play Y—if you still don’t see anything and there’s 7 seconds left, give it to DMC or Marcus Thornton,” we’d probably be in a much better boat. Let the guys know what the options are when the play breaks down or you don’t like what you see.

Also, I know that management wants to let all the young guys play in order to feel out the NBA pace but could it really kill you to call a timeout when the other team scores two quick baskets (or gets the momentum going the other way)? Would I call a timeout? Yes. Would it help win games? Who knows? It might stop a run, or it could allow the team to get their offensive rhythm going…but can it really hurt to call a timeout if you’re going to be a lottery team anyway?

by clicc916 on Mar 21, 2011 2:26 PM PDT up reply actions

Pookey’s asked me what I’d do if I were Westphal, and alluded that I’d run more set plays before concluding that our players aren’t talented enough to run multiple plays. Still, I’d like to see our weaknesses reduced (ie, no Dalembert at the elbow facilitating and no DMC/Dalembert facing up to the basket and putting the ball on the floor inside of 5 ft) while focusing on our strengths.

Great clicc. Now go out and do it. Good luck.

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by pookeyguru on Mar 21, 2011 4:43 PM PDT up reply actions