# Playoff Fears



## taco_daddy (Jun 13, 2004)

I can't lie, I'm terrified of Miami. They're putting a beating on Boston and I have to believe Miami will be in the ECF this year.

P.S.: A Dwight Howard-led Magic ain't no joke either. I hope we're ready.


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## Pay Ton (Apr 18, 2003)

Dwight Howard.

Not even the Magic.

Just Dwight.

Dwight and the bitterness that me might feel from seeing Rose awarded the MVP trophy in the second round.


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## eazy8o5 (May 15, 2010)

the lakers


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## Luke (Dec 7, 2008)

As Pay Ton said Dwight Howard is going to kill you inside. It's not going to be pretty. That being said you're lucky he has nothing but garbage around him so I can't see the Magic knocking the Bulls off.

That being said, if you guys do end up facing Miami, please beat them. K thanks.


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## PD (Sep 10, 2004)

In the East, my only fear is Miami.

In the West, the Lakers.

As great as Dwight is, he doesn't have a very good supporting cast. Unless he can bring up the ball, shoot 3s, and get his teammates involved along with his current great rebounding, scoring, and defending, he is no threat.


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## Pay Ton (Apr 18, 2003)

Miami, of course, is a fear.

But in sports, my biggest fears are always the ones more imminent, and even though I'd (cautiously) predict we beat the Magic. I also see it being a long, grueling, drawn out six to seven game series for us.

Plus Derrick Rose driving it in on Dwight Howard still scares me a bit from last season.

Here's a question: Is Boston a fear for anybody anymore here?

Because they aren't for me. And that may sound like a knee-jerk response to their recent struggles, but it's honestly not. I don't see it in them anymore.


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## thebizkit69u (Feb 12, 2003)

VanillaPrice said:


> As Pay Ton said Dwight Howard is going to kill you inside. It's not going to be pretty. That being said you're lucky he has nothing but garbage around him so I can't see the Magic knocking the Bulls off.
> 
> That being said, if you guys do end up facing Miami, please beat them. K thanks.


Well it took 39 Derrick Rose points to beat that pile of garbage, they are a dangerous team even without Howard just because they can shoot the 3 ball like CRAZY, when they came back from like 25 points to beat Miami it was because they shot like a bunch of 3's and made them and not because of Howard. 

My biggest fear is can the Bulls beat the Heat in a seven game series with Carlos Boozer being mediocre and Noah at times playing horribly. Noah is the wild card IMO, if he can play at the level he played at the start of the season I don't worry as much but his game of late has been very unimpressive. 

The Bulls rely on Rose to do it all, can he do it all in the playoffs's?


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## BullFan16 (Jun 2, 2003)

Im not worried one bit... We played bad today, heat played good... Doesn't mean anything...Remember when the heat lost to the cavs? The difference between us and them (and the reason were 1st) is they are more inconsistant...were more consistent...They can't finish a game if their life depended on it, it's rare to see us not finish a game. We have a better leader (rose > lebron) and we have better chemistry. They have no bench and we have one of the strongest in the league. We play better defense and have found ways to get around/ contain wade and/or lebron. If we get them, theres no worries.. It will be tight but as the whole nba knows, the heat cant close a game.


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## mvP to the Wee (Jul 14, 2007)

PD said:


> In the East, my only fear is Miami.
> 
> In the West, the Lakers.
> 
> As great as Dwight is, he doesn't have a very good supporting cast. Unless he can bring up the ball, shoot 3s, and get his teammates involved along with his current great rebounding, scoring, and defending, he is no threat.


This.


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## garnett (May 13, 2003)

Dwight Howard doesn't scare me, the 3pt shooters around him scare me. Dwight can score as much as he wants for all I care just don't let those shooters go off. Don't really fear Boston anymore though I still think they could be dangerous again come playoffs. 

One thing I do fear is that Rose is pretty much our only playmaker and competent ball handler. I think that might be a problem in the playoffs if teams start double-teaming him GSW style.


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## giusd (Apr 17, 2003)

Just my thoughts. First, the bulls played yesterday and it was their 3rd game in four days that include a very emotional game against Boston last Thursday, then had to travel to Cle, and then had to travel to Orlando for a noon game and come on the bulls were tried. The Magic on the other hand had bee off since playing last Wednesday. When you combine that with the fact the bulls had just clinched the east i think the bulls played pretty well on Sunday.

As for Orlando in the playoffs i would like to remind everyone that the bulls have beaten the Magic twice since the trade with Howard in the line up. Once 6 weeks ago in Chicago and three weeks ago in Orlando and both games were coast to coast wins. Finally, the Orlando trade may help the team against Atlanta or Boston but Vince Carter always killed us and Orlando now has a hard time matching up against Deng and they have no one to play "The Boz". So i personally don’t think Orlando has the horses to play us in the playoff.

Now as for Miami i agree they could go all the way but they will need to beat Boston first. And yesterday does not say much. Like the Bull Boston was playing its 3rd game in four nights and were beat and Miami was just resting and waiting for the bulls on Sunday. Up until yesterday Boston has owned Miami and while everyone can agree Boston is flat i would like to point out that Boston was the 3rd seed last year and they beat everyone include James and CLE so lets not just pencil in Miami into the finals.


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## Dornado (May 26, 2003)

We haven't been good long enough to take any of Miami, Boston or Olrando for granted... I think we're justified in being fearful of any of those matchups.


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## Job (Feb 28, 2011)

PD said:


> In the East, my only fear is Miami.
> 
> In the West, the Lakers.
> 
> As great as Dwight is, he doesn't have a very good supporting cast. Unless he can bring up the ball, shoot 3s, and get his teammates involved along with his current great rebounding, scoring, and defending, he is no threat.


I agree.

The Heat are a team built on confidence. I feel that the first game in Chicago is the most important. If the Heat win the first game they could take the series. If the Bulls win it will be the Heats fourth straight loss this season and doubts may start to creep in.


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## thebizkit69u (Feb 12, 2003)

> and come on the bulls were tried.


Really?

Derrick Rose did not look tired and he does it all, no excuses right now.

This team at times play's like oh well its ok if we take it easy for a quarter because Derrick will just win us the game later, that is not championship winning basketball. The only two guy's on this team that play 100% hard every game are Derrick and Deng. Boozer needs to wake his ass up and start playing like a beast and Noah needs to get healthy and fast.


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## yodurk (Sep 4, 2002)

Dornado said:


> We haven't been good long enough to take any of Miami, Boston or Olrando for granted... I think we're justified in being fearful of any of those matchups.


This. 

While the Pacers shouldn't be a major problem in round #1 (I'd be surprised if it went to game 6), all subsequent playoff matchups could easily go 7 games.

We don't match up well with Orlando. Dwight is obviously the biggest problem, but don't underestimate Jameer Nelson and J-Rich, both of whom are capable of getting hot at any given time. We saw that yesterday and hope that was a good reminder. And Ryan Anderson is a very capable "stretch 4", which makes Boozer even more worthless on D. This series can easily go 7 games, and I wouldn't be staggered if we lost in 7 (though hugely disappointed of course).

As for Boston & Miami -- while I know we are capable of taking both down in 7 games, I think they are equally likely of taking us down. I like the odds against Boston more so than Miami. Like I said a few days ago, Miami is ridiculously good when they play together like a real team and cut down on the Lebron/Wade isolations. If they play team ball, the Bulls have a very small chance at winning. 

The Bulls have a good chance at making the Finals, but to be honest I think they're just as likely to not make the Finals. That is not me being negative; the same can be said of virtually all teams entering these playoffs.


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## jnrjr79 (Apr 18, 2003)

yodurk said:


> If they play team ball, the Bulls have a very small chance at winning.



Really?


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## thebizkit69u (Feb 12, 2003)

Who would have thought that with the season wrapping up we would still have some of the same question marks that started the season.

Who will step up to be our #2 option?
With Boozer's at times good at times worthless play, can we even say we have an inside post presence?


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## yodurk (Sep 4, 2002)

jnrjr79 said:


> Really?


Well, "they" is referring to Miami. Sorry for the confusion, though maybe you knew that. 

Yes, that's just how I feel. Miami looks very beatable when Lebron and Wade fall into their habits of going 1-v-1 to the rim all game. The Bulls are well equipped to stop that.

If Miami is moving the ball well (well, that and playing hard on D), I don't see anyone in the East who can beat them. 

It is of course a big "if", which is why I do think the Bulls have a decent chance to win.

Despite the Bulls being a 60+ win team (and that is VERY impressive), the load for Derrick Rose is extremely big and it might be too much for any one man to carry. Even Jordan needed Pippen.


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## bullsger (Jan 14, 2003)

My biggest playoffs fear: Bulls not playing good basketball.


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## jnrjr79 (Apr 18, 2003)

yodurk said:


> Well, "they" is referring to Miami. Sorry for the confusion, though maybe you knew that.
> 
> Yes, that's just how I feel. Miami looks very beatable when Lebron and Wade fall into their habits of going 1-v-1 to the rim all game. The Bulls are well equipped to stop that.
> 
> ...



Yeah, I understood you properly. I just think the Bulls have much better than a "small" chance to win even if Miami is playing a team game. I think you're giving them too much credit. Miami's big 3 are very skilled, but their skill level beyond those players is very poor. Even playing well, they are far from unbeatable.


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## SWIFTSLICK (Aug 22, 2009)

I'm not afraid of Miami. Not LBJ, Not Wade, Not that string bean they call a PF. 

Not afraid of Boston. Not Pierce, Not Rondo, Not Kevin "Faux Tough Guy" Garnett, Not Ray Ray (okay, Ray's Mama scares me a little). 

Not Afraid of Orlando. Not Dwight. Or any of the jump shooters surrounding him. 

No. My FEAR is the Zebras. The people who influence the game with their goofy, inane, or often stupid calls. You all know what I mean... Those, "Hey, you're not allowed to breathe on LeBron" handcheck B.S. calls that can guarantee the outcome of a game. Tilting it in one veteran team's favor(*Ahem. **Cough** Lakers/Kings Game 6. 2002 WCF **Cough**). Teams don't scare me, No. The Tim Donaghy's, Dick Bavetta's, Bennett Salvatore's, Joe Crawford's, and Violet Palmer's of the world. That's who scare me.


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## roux (Jun 20, 2006)

since i dont think you will have issues with indy ill go right to round 2... with noah battling nagging injuries dwight howard would scare the hell out of me.. even if noah was 100% he would scare me but noah being nicked up it could implode on you.. i still think you are better than orlando everywhere else but visions of dwight controlling that paint in round 2 would give me nightmares


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## yodurk (Sep 4, 2002)

roux2dope said:


> since i dont think you will have issues with indy ill go right to round 2... with noah battling nagging injuries dwight howard would scare the hell out of me.. even if noah was 100% he would scare me but noah being nicked up it could implode on you.. i still think you are better than orlando everywhere else but visions of dwight controlling that paint in round 2 would give me nightmares


We do have good fall back options at least. If Noah proves ineffective on Howard, then go to Kurt Thomas and Omer Asik.

Asik probably matches up the best physically in terms of being huge (bigger than Howard) and mobile for a guy his size. But Asik is still very foul prone. Still, it's a helluva lot better than most options that other teams have.

Kurt Thomas is a good different look to throw at Howard just to rough him up a little in a way Noah and Asik can't. Although Howard's quickness will give Kurt problems.

Honestly, I think we'll do OK on Howard as a collective unit, I'm more concerned with Howard's intimidation in the lane when Rose is trying to drive. Already injured him twice last season. 

I also get worried about when guys like Nelson, J-Rich, and Ryan Anderson get hot from deep, though when we're playing playoff quality defense I have a hard time seeing them stay hot for 7 straight games. 

I think we'll beat Orlando in 6, though it will be rough and difficult, and I could easily see it going to 7 games.


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## caseyrh (Jun 10, 2003)

Howard is a monster and will certainly be a problem for us on both ends of the court. But the thing I am next most worried about is the style Orlando plays. We try to force teams into chucking up J's and Orlando almost wants to. So if they get hot it will be a nightmare for us. That being said I think we win this series in 5 or 6.


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## thebizkit69u (Feb 12, 2003)

caseyrh said:


> Howard is a monster and will certainly be a problem for us on both ends of the court. But the thing I am next most worried about is the style Orlando plays. We try to force teams into chucking up J's and Orlando almost wants to. So if they get hot it will be a nightmare for us. That being said I think we win this series in 5 or 6.


I honestly hope the Bulls take the opposite approach and go the let Dwight do whatever he wants route. Noah can't guard him anyways so I really see no point in trying to send multiple guy's at him and leaving those deadly 3 point shooters open. Shut down the 3 point shot and the Magic are an easy out IMO, but try to shut down post with constant help D and I think they have the shooters to really hurt us and knock us out. 

As for Miami who know's, they are just as capable of sweeping anyone as they are capable of being swept. If the Ref's give Lebron and Wade 10 FTA per game its going to be VERY hard for anyone to beat them.


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## caseyrh (Jun 10, 2003)

thebizkit69u said:


> I honestly hope the Bulls take the opposite approach and go the let Dwight do whatever he wants route. Noah can't guard him anyways so I really see no point in trying to send multiple guy's at him and leaving those deadly 3 point shooters open. Shut down the 3 point shot and the Magic are an easy out IMO, but try to shut down post with constant help D and I think they have the shooters to really hurt us and knock us out.
> 
> As for Miami who know's, they are just as capable of sweeping anyone as they are capable of being swept. If the Ref's give Lebron and Wade 10 FTA per game its going to be VERY hard for anyone to beat them.


Problem with "shutting down the 3pt line" is that it's hard to keep guys from chucking 3's. I mean really you want teams chucking 3's, it's good D. Yeah you don't want them getting open looks, but if your playing good D and the other team is content with sitting around the perimeter chucking J's so be it.

Personally I think we should put as much emphasis as possible on shutting down dwight and keeping him off the boards. Make him earn everything, by fighting through doubles and beating him up, putting on the foul line when he beats us, etc...

Dwight is likely not going to beat us by passing out of double teams... He only gets 1.4 apg, and makes 3.6 tpg. That means he is one of the worst passers in the NBA. Force him to make decisions in double teams, Foul him when he gets close, have KT and Asik beat him up, make him work hard to keep Noah off the boards and run with Noah in transition. basically make this a nightmare series for Dwight. If the rest of that garbage team beats us by sticking a ton of J's, then so be it. If Dwight beats us by going Vlade on us and passing/hitting Ft's, so be it. But don't let Orlando beat us cause we single cover Dwight and he punishes us all series.

I have a feeling that when they start chucking 3's, and those long rebounds come out... then Rose will be killing em in transition.


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## jnrjr79 (Apr 18, 2003)

If all else fails, Hack-a-Shaq should be a fine strategy.


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## yodurk (Sep 4, 2002)

I will take the middle ground between casey and bizkit. Don't give Howard any special attention and instead focus on shutting down the other 4 guys from 3-pt land. Use 1-v-1 matchups on Howard. Just NO open looks from their shooters. Go above screens, not under.

And the reasoning is because like casey said, Howard is not a good passer. He will probably make alot of mistakes with the ball. The last thing we want is open shooters sitting out there asking to be passed to. Howard will not carry a team himself solely off dunks.


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## roux (Jun 20, 2006)

offensively thats a fine strategy but he is still the most dominant big man in the paint and your two best scorers are a post player (boozer) and a driver (rose) and his off ball defense is going to be a huge problem for both of those guys.. rode has improved his outside game tremendously but if that driving ability is even somewhat limited to where rose has to fully rely on his jumper you could also be in trouble.. d12 is a matchup nightmare on both ends of the floor for you guys


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## caseyrh (Jun 10, 2003)

yodurk said:


> I will take the middle ground between casey and bizkit. Don't give Howard any special attention and instead focus on shutting down the other 4 guys from 3-pt land. Use 1-v-1 matchups on Howard. Just NO open looks from their shooters. Go above screens, not under.
> 
> 
> > And the reasoning is because like casey said, Howard is not a good passer. He will probably make alot of mistakes with the ball. The last thing we want is open shooters sitting out there asking to be passed to
> ...


Yeah but Howards not going to pass if he's in single coverage. No need to. If we apply pressure to him, double him, then we can force him to make a decision. Take a difficult shot, try to beat 2 guys, or make him pass. Guys tend to make bad decisions and turnovers when they are pressured. If we don't apply pressure to him then don't expect him to make many bad decisions.

It's like the game when he went for 40 on us, we single covered him the whole game, he had the ball a ton, took 20 shots and only made 3 TO's (2 assists). Then the next time we played him we doubled him a lot more, put a ton of pressure on him and he only got 8 shots (albeit he made 8 of them) a ton of ft's (4-12) but had 0 assists and 7 turnovers.

I liked that third matchup against him the best. We forced him to make decision, put him on the ft line, and we were rewarded with poor decision making from howard, and poor ft shooting.


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## Bulls96 (Jun 25, 2003)

Keep DH under constant double teaming and let him fight thru, give him a hard foul, 
get under his “skin”…his ambitious will not allow him to change his game and look around for other option. On other hand Boozer should attack (post) him on offense, just to drain his energy and make a pass without even trying to score, but threaten to do that.


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## taco_daddy (Jun 13, 2004)

I admit Indiana wasn't one of my fears, but now ... If we are struggling with them then the question is........(???)


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## calabreseboy (Nov 17, 2004)

FYI, in 2008 Boston was in 7-game series in the first two rounds of the playoffs, before beating Detroit 4-2 in the ECF. 8th-placed Atlanta and 4th-placed Cleveland both took them to 7 games. So "struggling" against an 8th-placed team really means nothing. Sometimes a team matches up well with opposition, sometimes it doesn't. Indiana has been able to beat down on good opposition all season. Anyone that thought this was going to be an easy series was kidding themselves. This team can go all the way, although I doubt they will. But being 3-1 up against a tough Indiana side is hardly something to worry about imo.


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## Pay Ton (Apr 18, 2003)

calabreseboy said:


> FYI, in 2008 Boston was in 7-game series in the first two rounds of the playoffs, before beating Detroit 4-2 in the ECF. 8th-placed Atlanta and 4th-placed Cleveland both took them to 7 games. So "struggling" against an 8th-placed team really means nothing. Sometimes a team matches up well with opposition, sometimes it doesn't. Indiana has been able to beat down on good opposition all season. Anyone that thought this was going to be an easy series was kidding themselves. This team can go all the way, although I doubt they will. But being 3-1 up against a tough Indiana side is hardly something to worry about imo.


I'm tired of this comparison.

Boston had/has Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce.

We have Derrick Rose.

I think there are occasions where you can say, "Yeah, this team struggled and went on to win it all." And there are occasions where you say, "This team struggling is a sign of some problems down the road in the playoffs."

I feel like our situation is the latter.


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## BullsBaller (Oct 6, 2002)

taco_daddy said:


> I admit Indiana wasn't one of my fears, but now ... If we are struggling with them then the question is........(???)


If anything this series will help them. Indiana is a tough nosed team. That is the only way they can win. They are clearly out hustling the Bulls all series, yet the Bulls have been able to still win without great performances from some of there top players. This series will help the Bulls build more character by overcoming the adversity. Also, Indiana has shown a blue print on how to stop Rose. This will help the team learn how to counter that when the next team implements it in the next round.


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## BullsBaller (Oct 6, 2002)

I think the Bulls do have some holes that need to be fixed before they ever win a championship. I'm not, nor was expecting them to win the hole thing this year. It is clear by watching other teams that the Bulls aren't yet ready, but I am not worried about a 1 game loss to the Pacers. We will make it pass the 1st round. 1 game at a time.


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## yodurk (Sep 4, 2002)

It's concerning how bad our offense can be, however I wouldn't discount the matchup factor.

The Pacers have a set of very big, very scrappy, very physical big men. They also have a few athletic wings (George, Jones, Rush) that are tall and fast, and can defend the heck out of our guys when they want to. That is exactly the type of matchup that neutralizes our advantage under the basket.

Miami and Boston don't have a corps of big men who can play like that. Orlando doesn't have anything beyond Howard, unless Ryan Anderson decides to play like he did a few weeks ago. Atlanta doesn't really scare me either.

That's not to say we won't be challenged (we will), but we're getting beaten down pretty bad under the basket in a way that is hard to imagine in later series.


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## narek (Jul 29, 2005)

yodurk said:


> It's concerning how bad our offense can be, however I wouldn't discount the matchup factor.
> 
> The Pacers have a set of very big, very scrappy, very physical big men. They also have a few athletic wings (George, Jones, Rush) that are tall and fast, and can defend the heck out of our guys when they want to. That is exactly the type of matchup that neutralizes our advantage under the basket.
> 
> ...


The Hawks worry me a bit, but I'd still rather see them than the Magic. Matchup issues for Noah in that series.


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## jnrjr79 (Apr 18, 2003)

They're up 3-1. It's a tough matchup against a team with size who has been playing well of late. No real cause for concern yet, outside of perhaps Boozer.


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## BullsBaller (Oct 6, 2002)

yodurk said:


> *It's concerning how bad our offense can be*, however I wouldn't discount the matchup factor.
> 
> The Pacers have a set of very big, very scrappy, very physical big men. They also have a few athletic wings (George, Jones, Rush) that are tall and fast, and can defend the heck out of our guys when they want to. That is exactly the type of matchup that neutralizes our advantage under the basket.
> 
> ...


That is one of the holes that needs to be addressed during the off season. Management needs to get another scorer. If Boozer would step up in the scoring department, then I think a lot of pressure would be taken off of Rose. I wouldn;t mindseeing Jamal Crawford back here as a 6th man.


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