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By Sam Smith | 4.26.2015 | 9:45 a.m.
Almost a half hour after the Milwaukee Bucks Saturday stunned the Bulls and Derrick Rose with a backdoor cut layup at the final buzzer for a 92-90 victory, the last victim, Rose, still had difficulty believing it had occurred.
“Devastating,” Rose said shaking his head after dressing slowly. ”But we get to play again…”
Rose paused, the play seemingly spinning over and over in his mind like it was stuck on a faulty projector: Score tied after an 11-3 Bulls surge in the last 3:28 highlighted by a Rose reverse drive and pull up three pointer. The Bulls with a chance for the winner with 19.9 seconds left and the score tied at 90 after a Pau Gasol fast break three-point play on a Rose drive and assist. Jerryd Bayless then missed a drive. With Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau signaling a timeout, everyone missed it amidst the hubbub. Rose dribbled into the front court for the potential game winner and series sweep.
“I felt like if I got a shot off it was going to go in,” said Rose.
But the Bucks, as they had done so effectively all game in getting a near playoff record 20 steals and forcing a Bulls season most 28 turnovers, surrounded Rose and stripped the ball. Bucks coach Jason Kidd got his timeout with 1.3 seconds left to advance the ball and designed the play, a beauty. Jared Dudley was inbounding with Bayless under the basket looking like he would try to run to the left corner for a quick shot. Rose was cheating a bit, overplaying to perhaps get a steal or deflection. The decoy was a double screen on top for Milwaukee’s top shooter, Khris Middleton, which seemed where the Bulls were concentrating. As Middleton went over the top, Bayless made a baseline feint to the corner. But he then cut back to the basket, where Dudley found him for the layup as the final buzzer sounded, Rose’s shoulders slumping in despair.
“I thought Rose relaxed for a second,” said Kidd.
“Can’t believe it,” Rose would repeat later. “Can’t believe it, tell you the truth, can’t believe it. I messed things up. When you give up a layup for the game winner…. it’s hard, it’s hard. But, I swear, I’m built for it.”
It’s not quite high drama yet. But the young Bucks now are down 3-1 with Game 5 at 7 p.m. Monday in the United Center. Milwaukee really isn’t far from this being an even series with two last shot chances to win in Game 3 before the Bulls pulled away in double overtime.
But in many respects, the Bulls have been outplayed in this series. Their edge has been talent; but they have not been, with a few exceptions, the more motivated team.
Jimmy Butler was brilliant in Game 4, especially in the first half when he practically single handedly rallied the Bulls from yet another desultory second quarter and bench no show and 46-34 deficit. Butler dominating on both ends with a spectacular run down block and nine points in the last 90 seconds of the first half enabled the Bulls to be tied at 50. Butler had 23 points in the first half and a career playoff high 33 points for the game, though he dressed hurriedly afterward and declined interviews. Butler is averaging a team best 28.3 in the series.
Rose had 14 points, nine in the fourth quarter with an amazing block on seven footer John Henson’s layup attempt with 1:47 left and the Bucks ahead three. But Rose also had a team high eight turnovers as the Bucks’ activity, trapping, double teaming and overall effort has made them, for the most part, look like the team with title aspirations.
They seemed mostly thrilled just not to be swept as confetti rained down in a jubilant post game celebration after Bayless’ winner for a raucous and relieved home crowd happy to watch Bulls fans go numb.
“I don’t think today was our day to go home,” said O.J. Mayo, who was part of a massive Bucks 47-13 reserves’ domination. “We didn’t want to get swept, and obviously if we lose one more game our season is over. We had a such a great season being a young team and we wanted to keep it alive.”
Perhaps it’s the sort of wakeup the Bulls need if they are to get serious in these playoffs. After all, talent alone generally is not enough after the first round, assuming you survive. It’s then passion and effort, commitment and valuing each possession. The Bucks were tied for the league lead in steals this season, though they aren’t exactly the ’89 Pistons. But the Bulls have committed 80 turnovers in the four games for 96 Bucks points, a full quarter of the Bucks points in the series coming on Bulls turnovers.
“When we turn the ball over like that, you aren’t going to have success,” said Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau. “We made the run at the end, had a chance. We botched the play, but we botched a lot of plays before that. So we are going to have to straighten that out.”
Though comfortably leading in the series and heading home, the notion is the Bulls are in a good situation. They are. After all, they were on the verge of a sweep.
“That was the key tonight really, 28 turnovers,” agreed Pau Gasol, who had 16 points and 10 rebounds along with five turnovers. “That’s 28 less shots or possessions we kind of gave away. In a two-point game it’s a big difference.”
But if you didn’t know which team had the four All-Stars and which team won 15 games last season, you might be surprised.
The Bucks have constantly stymied the Bulls offense, just the superior talents of Rose and Butler transcending Milwaukee’s ferocious efforts. The Bucks have taken advantage of the Bulls’ tendency to run so many set plays by pressuring up on the ball handlers, taking a few more precious seconds for the Bulls to get into the plays. So the Bulls then have found themselves in numerous late clock bailout shot situations and an inability to employ multiple opportunities.
For example, the Bulls want to go inside/outside to Gasol to take advantage of the Bucks double teaming of Gasol. But by walking into their offense, there’s often not time for a postup and repost once the second defender drops off. The Bucks activity has many zone principles they way they help and switch, which requires quick ball movement. But the Bulls often get into their sets so late they end up with one pass and not that second swing to the weak side. The clock is running down so often and the bench is yelling “five seconds” for a shot to be taken that the Bulls end up in so many isolations.
The Bucks, meanwhile, have come off as the more efficient offensive team, in activity if not results. Their starters are poor shooters, so their percentages have remained low. But the Bucks bench has dominated the Bulls reserves in this series 140-83. The Bucks’ reserves also have averaged about 30 minutes more per game than the Bulls reserves as through injuries and seeming lack of faith, Thibodeau has drastically cut back the Bulls’ bench minutes in this series. Aaron Brooks has seven total points the last three games and hasn’t played 10 minutes in any of those while Tony Snell only played seven minutes Saturday.
In the series, the Bulls have outscored the Bucks overall by 26 points while the Bucks reserves have outscored the Bulls reserves by 57 points.
The Bucks, meanwhile, have few play calls and play more of a reaction game with drives and spreading the floor, giving them more good open shots. They’re not good shooters other than a few of their reserves, so they miss a lot. It’s why the triangle offense is so good despite so much media misinformation about it. It’s essentially a read and react system without play calls. So it’s much more difficult for the defense to load up and anticipate, like the Bucks have done with the Bulls.
The Bulls are fairly predictable with dribble handoff and post up actions that the Bucks have flooded. If you get into those sets late or don’t move the ball quickly and two or three times, the defense can collapse and help, thus causing the turnovers.
That last Rose turnover was an example, though extreme as Thibodeau had substituted a defensive team and then missed the timeout. So the Bulls had Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson and Kirk Hinrich on the floor when Rose tried to drive in. The defense dropped off all three knowing none would take a long shot. So Rose got triple teamed with two other Bucks in the paint. It’s been Rose’s amazing speed and driving ability that has even enabled him to get to the basket as much as he has. The driving lanes for the Bulls have been smothered by the Bucks with the Bulls failing to swing the ball to the weak side. Sometimes it’s getting into the offense so slowly; sometimes it’s without enough shooting. Though give the Bucks credit the way they close fast to the perimeter. They’re certainly outworking the Bulls as well.
The Bucks’ aggressive tactics also seemed to have caught the Bulls by surprise the way Bucks players have been ripping at the ball for takaways. The officials aren’t bailing you out in the playoffs.
“We are going to have to be a lot stronger with the ball,” pointed out Thibodeau. “They are coming through us. We are going to have to hold our ground. We have to hold our space, we have to tuck it on the catch, we have to run to the pass and we have to stop dancing with the ball. I think the biggest thing was their intensity, their ball pressure. They were very active with their hands, popped the ball loose. When you are aggressive like that and you are making someone react to you, you have an advantage. We have to make the right play. When we did, we got great shots; when we didn’t, we had problems.”
Instead, the Bulls have tried the same postups for Gasol the Bucks keep denying and trapping. Maybe place him on the weak side with a play that’s worked with Butler and Noah on the strong side and then Gasol cutting off them. Gasol’s a good finisher and can catch the ball and Noah’s probably better at times inside passing rather than on top where the defense can lay off and close down driving lanes for Rose. The Bulls need to give the Bucks some different looks.
“We are letting them be too proactive and dictate a lot of what’s happening,” said Gasol. “I think we put ourselves in a position to try to win it at the end. But I don’t think we played with enough sense of urgency throughout the 48 minutes. At the end, we picked it up and made some plays. But last play they drew it up well. Thibs wanted tried to call a timeout; the referees didn’t hear him. You try to get the clock to expire on your last shot, but they forced him into another turnover and they had a chance to call timeout. And get that last bucket. Mistakes will happen in a basketball game. But it could have been prevented if we did a better job early on.
“They’re active, they scramble,” noted Gasol. “They are aggressive to the ball. So they force you to move the ball and find the open guy on the weak side, and that’s what we have to be willing to do, get rid of the ball, move it, find the open guy and then crash the glass where I think we only had five offensive rebounds. If we are going to go with a bigger lineup we should try to be aggressive on the boards and make them pay that way; didn’t quite happen. They spread us out on the other end. We’re letting them have the initiative, be the aggressor, putting us on our heels. We’ve just got to do a better job of protecting ourselves, standing our ground and protecting the ball. And making them pay for that aggressiveness.”
The officials had to get control of the game early as Mike Dunleavy and Giannis Antetokounmpo drew a double technical wrestling after a rebound while the Bulls led 23-19 after one quarter. Then in the second quarter, Mayo drew a flagrant foul on a takedown of Taj Gibson and then Brooks drew a flagrant and Bayless a technical when they got into a scrap. That was with the Bucks on a 21-2 run for a 40-30 lead midway through the second quarter. Once again as in Game 3, the Bulls reserve group with Noah to start the second quarter couldn’t score and fell into a huge hole. Butler’s play made it 50-50 at halftime.
“Jimmy was playing great,” said Gasol. “Shot the ball incredibly well tonight. He was aggressive even though they tried to take away a lot of stuff; they are loading to the ball when he gets it. So tonight unfortunately we didn’t take advantage of how well he was playing offensively later on in the game because I think he had 30 (28) pretty much at the end of the third. He is a great player playing at a high level and the rest of us have to be ready to make plays and make them pay for their commitment to certain players.”
The lead see sawed back and forth in the third as Dunleavy added a three. But Dunleavy got just three three-point attempts in the game even though he is 13 of 23 for 53.6 percent on threes in the series. He’s been by far the Bulls best three-point shooter, but is only getting about seven total shots per game. It’s a further example of the failure to move the ball after the initial play call and then someone having to force up a quick isolation. Dunleavy has been devastating with weak side threes. And the way the Bucks flood one side there’s no way to get back with quick ball movement. The Bucks surely are grateful the Bulls have not tried it.
It was 73-71 Bucks after three and it looked like Milwaukee would pull away in the fourth, going ahead early 83-75. But Rose made a tough drive and off balance 17 footer and then the Bulls got a break when a Mayo three that gave the Bucks a 90-81 with 3:02 was overturned in a review. Butler followed that with a three and suddenly it was an 87-84 Bucks lead with 2:28 left. Rose then made three big time plays with his block on Henson, a pull up three and terrific assist drawing the defense to him for Gasol’s three point play. Rose then went down for the winner, and it soon became a shocking loser.
“I put that all on me,” Rose offered quickly, though Thibodeau said he told the team afterward the loss was hardly about one play. “Just wasn’t paying attention to the ball. I don’t feel bad for myself; I feel bad for my teammates. Knowing we could have forced overtime, I messed things up.
“Tonight was a hard one,” said Rose, standing tall to take the blame. “We had 20 some turnovers; I think I had like 20 of them, felt like 20. Only thing I can do from it is learn from it, watch film and come ready the next game. I wasn’t forcing; just playing, trying to get my teammates going. Jimmy did a great job with holding us up and making sure we were comfortable throughout the game. I was just trying to stay out of the way here and there and times that I did, got to cut down on my turnovers. Next time when I am in that situation, make the right play.
“If this was the last game or Game 7, it would have been totally different,” said Rose. “But we play again soon, so get this game out of my mind. We’re going to come out and play hard. I can say that.”