Breaking down the opportunities that can lead to a Celtics win over the Bulls
The Boston Celtics will face an underachieving Chicago Bulls team on Sunday. On paper the Bulls should be better than their record. They have three proven all-stars in the backcourt and solid talent in the frontcourt. Note should be given that the Bulls have settled their lineup and ended the season on a tear.
The Bulls backcourt features three guys who can breakdown a defense and penetrate the lane. With Rajon Rondo, Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler this is their bread and butter. Once inside these guys can all finish or pass to their bigs to finish. While extremely capable in this area the Bulls have several weaknesses that must be exposed. One is that sometimes Rondo holds the dribble too long.
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If the Celtics can restrict his passing lanes the Bulls offense will run short on time and force up some bad shots. Another tendency is that Wade and Butler like to isolate. This again slows down the offense and leads to bad shot selections.
The biggest weakness the Bulls have is their three point shooting. I could not believe it when checking team stats that their most accurate three point shooter was Rondo. This means their bigs don’t stretch the floor and penetration doesn’t necessarily lead to open corner threes.
All this sounds good. We know what we need to do to stop the Bulls, deny them the lane and force them to shoot it up. However, it comes down to can you stop three all-stars from doing what they do best.
Defensively the Celtics have Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder who can each capably defend the Bulls front court. The weak link though is Isaiah Thomas, who will have a hell of a time with any of the Bulls stars. Rondo particularly could eat him alive. So how do you give Isaiah the help he needs when your hands are full with an all-star and if Isaiah sits where does the Celtics offense come from. That’s the series in a nutshell.
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As for front court match ups the Bulls bigs are good rebounders and they will likely out rebound the Celtics. What they don’t do as well is cover stretch bigs. Look for Al Horford and Kelly Olynyk to have plenty of three point opportunities.