Playoff Adjustments: Chi-Town
Life without Rondo
The mercurial Point Guard who helped lead the Bulls against his former team is out indefinitely and the Bulls have been exposed in game 3. Being conservative here won’t help, the Celtics are far better.
Bulls it’s time to go big or go home.
Bulls PG — Jimmy Butler / Celtics PG — Isaiah Thomas
Bulls SG — Dwyane Wade / Celtics SG — Avery Bradley
Bulls SF— Paul Zipser / Celtics SF — Gerald Green
Bulls PF — Bobby Portis Jr. / Celtics PF — Jae Crowder
C — Robin Lopez / Celtics C — Al Horford
Match-Ups:
Take 5' 9 Isaiah Thomas and plonk 6' 7 Lockdown Wing Defender Jimmy Butler on him and see him shoot over that. If there was a match-up nightmare on both ends of the floor a Bulls fan could salivate over it’s this one. Perhaps the C’s will continue to put Avery Bradley/Crowder/Smart on him but they can’t stop Jimmy B, and he can cause so much disruption on the C’s leading scorer and focal point of their offense.
D-Wade can still play whilst the glue in his knee holds together, he can still score in bunches, can still blow by unsuspecting defenders, and still defend man-to-man. One of the most valuable players in the postseason is a Savvy Veteran, who has a bag of tricks collected from years of success and failure. You can’t hide IT on Wade because of his remaining offensive prowess. Avery Bradley could severely limit what Wade could do but he’ll be earmarked for Butler. Gerald Green would not be able stop Wade.
Paul Zipser. Who…?
The 23 year old rookie out of Germany is shooting a blistering 40% from 3 for these playoffs, granted it’s a small sample size but single series can be won by random role-players having a hot hand. If the Bulls risk putting IT on Zipper there’s no hope in stopping him shooting. Anyone of Green or Bradley could disrupt the Zips production.
Bobby Portis would match-up with a Small Ball Jae Crowder, would do his damage on the Boards. With a limited offensive arsenal from the midrange and an expanded 3 point shot he’s shown in the Playoffs he could be incorporated more into the offense by becoming Butlers pick-and-pop/roll partner. Crowder would have the run of him on the Wing but Portis has fast enough feet to stick with him, and will punish every miss with solid box-outs and rebounds. Portis’ emergence could be the X-factor for the Bulls if given an expanded role in this series. The C’s don’t have anybody who matches up well with Portis.
Robin Lopez it’s time to take all those years of your brother Brook beating up on you on the court and channel his offense through you. Al Horford is better than you. No doubt about it. All RoLo has to do is stick to his man, hard when Horford can hit 3s. That and create chaos in passing lanes. Lopez can play well enough to limit Horford, he won’t lose them them any games but it’ll take something extra for him to start winning them games.
