bukie

He also mentions that Hansbrough scored as many points the previous meeting against the Bulls, but much more on shots at the rim than outside, and that Boozer was likely playing off him on purpose to make him hit shots from deep.

Hollinger stuck up for the Bulls in his insider article today.

No, not even close. The 1995-96 Bulls went 72-10, 14-1 in the playoffs, and then tanked a couple to win at home. That has GOT to be a conspiracy theory. Well, it's a bit suspect that their two worst offensive games of the year just happened to be those two games in the NBA Finals, after they blitzed a terrific Seattle team three times, and then coasted to victory again in game 6. The Bulls lost 3 games all that year by double digits, and the third took a lights out offensive performance by the Knicks combined with bad offensive game from both Jordan and Pippen. And they were still worse offensively overall in those other two games. It's a moot point, though, because the Bulls won't go 16-0 in the playoffs (even if I predicted it).

No, not even close. The 1995-96 Bulls went 72-10, 14-1 in the playoffs, and then tanked a couple to win at home.

As long as Rose is isolating on Collison, he's getting to the rim at will. The Pacers need to trap him out high to keep it from happening, because Rose can avoid a charge pretty easily, at which point the Pacers are left either going for the block and likely fouling regularly, or not contesting the shot closely and letting him take whatever he wants at the rim.

Just doing a bracketology at this point indicates as such.

Dwight Howard a near-unanimous defensive player of the year. Keith Bogans picked up one first-place vote, for realsies. Howard was first on all but 6 ballots, 2nd on 5, left off one.

What's really odd is he basically pegged the batter with no repercussion besides the balk. That seems exploitable to some capacity.

Not according to thebaseballcube.com They have him at a 12.56 WHIP :banghead: Always thought their stats were reliable. Lesson learned. http://thebaseballcube.com/profile.asp?P=Joseph-Coleman I think they're somehow multiplying his WHIP by 10. Don't know why or how, but it matches up.

I was under the impression that the "impossible to draw a charge on him" was a subtle dig at the officiating as well.

Castro is currently on pace to hit over .400, who cares about a hit record at that point? :P

Here's a question I don't know the answer to: On a rebound where a big taps a ball back to a guard, who gets credit for the rebound? Is it the initial tap, or the guy who eventually controls the ball?

There may have been 1-2 like that, but the vast majority of the time Rose drove the lane, the Pacers' bigs were fouling hard to make sure he didn't get the shot in. Rose is historically extremely good at avoiding contact when the opponent doesn't jump into him or hack at him. The one notable play I can remember is near the end when Rose got the and-1, when Hibbert initially was set for the charge, Rose jumped around him to the right, and Hibbert proceeded to slide into him with the body. Even though his hands were straight up, he still slid into him, and it was a pretty clear foul. Looking again, the diciest calls were the first one in the first quarter, the first in the 3rd quarter and the last in the 3rd quarter. Two of them, it looks like Rose did something similar to the one I mentioned at the end where he jumped to the right, and the defender slid over and hip-checked him (before falling backwards). The other play Hibbert jumped straight up, but he was well inside the charge circle, too.

Yeah, Hoopdata is awesome. EDIT: You should check out the in-depth box scores for each game. It's insane.

There may have been 1-2 like that, but the vast majority of the time Rose drove the lane, the Pacers' bigs were fouling hard to make sure he didn't get the shot in. Rose is historically extremely good at avoiding contact when the opponent doesn't jump into him or hack at him. The one notable play I can remember is near the end when Rose got the and-1, when Hibbert initially was set for the charge, Rose jumped around him to the right, and Hibbert proceeded to slide into him with the body. Even though his hands were straight up, he still slid into him, and it was a pretty clear foul.

http://hoopdata.com/oteamshotlocs.aspx For the season, Bulls opponents average 3.5 makes and 10.2 shots from 3-9 feet per game, for a 33.9% clip. From 15-23 feet, Bulls opponents average 8.5 makes and 22.8 shots per game, for a 37.1% clip.

There's a big difference between allowing open 10 footers and open 22 footers. If the defense is keyed on making the opponent beat you with 15-23 footers, which is the lowest-percentage shot in the NBA, and the opponent makes 60+% of them, it's still not a bad strategy. Yes, Boozer can play him closer, but I'd still rather see Hansbrough taking long jumpers all day than Hansbrough driving by Boozer all day and getting actual high-percentage shots.

He was also 3-9 from inside 15 feet. Inside 15 feet, the Bulls were contesting shots more closely, and Noah/Thomas/Gibson/Asik (for a minute) were getting involved. 15-23 feet shots were mostly on Boozer only. Well you can't explain away his good shooting by saying he's just not good enough, then explain away his bad shooting by giving credit to the defense. I'm relatively sure Hansbrough's been defended throughout his career inside 15 feet, not just this past game. Considering the Thibodeau defensive strategy is lock down the paint, defend the 3, and allow long range jumpers (which I'm sure you're quite familiar with, watching the Celtics the past few years), the shot distribution is very in-line with what the defense typically allows, but Indiana was simply making their long-range jumpers at an unsustainable rate.

He was also 3-9 from inside 15 feet. Inside 15 feet, the Bulls were contesting shots more closely, and Noah/Thomas/Gibson/Asik (for a minute) were getting involved. 15-23 feet shots were mostly on Boozer only. EDIT: 2-8 at the rim, so he only took one shot from 3-15 feet?

Career stats for Hansbrough aren't gonna tell you much. He's basically a rookie due to his vertigo last year and had very inconsistent rotation minutes/buried on the bench until JOB got fired. His midrange jumper since he started playing under Vogel has easily been his most improved attribute, and made him basically the most viable pick n roll threat to pair with Collison. When his jumper gets going he's a damn good player and Boozer can only watch hopelessly as Hansbrough utterly devours his life soul. I initially posted career numbers, but changed it to his numbers for the year. Hansbrough doesn't hit 70% of his long jumpers in an open gym, so I don't expect the rate to continue. 43% of long jumpers is average to above average for an NBA player. The Bulls defense is designed around locking down the paint, playing off to allow long 2's, and limiting 3's. The Pacers hit some open 3's in the first half, but Granger was hitting some silly shots in the 3rd, and Hansbrough was hitting shots at a clip he couldn't maintain in an empty gym. I doubt Indiana will have that type of offensive performance from long range again this series. What's with referencing an open gym not once but twice. That's just weird and no one said he would maintain a 70% shooting percentage. It's very simple, he's improved his midrange jumper dramatically in the latter half of this season and its not a miracle he hit 7 of them in 1 game, especially considering he has Boozer the disappearing act defending him. I'm saying that even if Boozer plays off him all the time, it's still more challenging than hitting them in an empty gym, and he's not hitting 70% of his shots there, so I'm not expecting it to continue. The Bulls defensive strategy was apparently to make the Pacers beat them with long-range shots, and the Pacers hit 60% of them. I don't think that should make the Bulls change their defensive strategy, because that's unsustainable.

On average, NBA teams historically make about 75% of their free throws. That is a 15-foot shot from straight on, no contesting, and every player in the league shoots and practices them constantly. The best shooters in the NBA make 3's at about a 60% clip in the 3-point shootout (that's just the average make % of the winners, it's much lower if you average all contestants). Again, that's unguarded, spot up shots from the 5 highest percentage spots behind the line, and only counting the best shooter in the NBA each year. The average NBA player does not make 70%+ of their 15-23 foot shots in an open gym. Tyler Hansbrough is an above-average jump-shooter, and he hit 43% of his long twos this year, making under 2 per game. He is not going to continue to hit 7+ long range shots a game, even if Boozer is playing off to prevent him from getting actual high percentage shots.

Also, not that Rose should make a habit of shooting 9 3's in a game he absolutely dominates from the paint, but when the Bulls are pulling down half the offensive rebounding opportunities, a missed 3's almost as good as a lob pass.

HoopData shows it better than I can...Bulls lock down paint, Pacers (Hansbrough in particular) light it up from long range: http://hoopdata.com/blogengine/post/2011/04/16/Bulls-Heat-Survive-Early-Scares.aspx

Career stats for Hansbrough aren't gonna tell you much. He's basically a rookie due to his vertigo last year and had very inconsistent rotation minutes/buried on the bench until JOB got fired. His midrange jumper since he started playing under Vogel has easily been his most improved attribute, and made him basically the most viable pick n roll threat to pair with Collison. When his jumper gets going he's a damn good player and Boozer can only watch hopelessly as Hansbrough utterly devours his life soul. I initially posted career numbers, but changed it to his numbers for the year. Hansbrough doesn't hit 70% of his long jumpers in an open gym, so I don't expect the rate to continue. 43% of long jumpers is average to above average for an NBA player. The Bulls defense is designed around locking down the paint, playing off to allow long 2's, and limiting 3's. The Pacers hit some open 3's in the first half, but Granger was hitting some silly shots in the 3rd, and Hansbrough was hitting shots at a clip he couldn't maintain in an empty gym. I doubt Indiana will have that type of offensive performance from long range again this series.

In game 1, Tyler Hansbrough was 7-10 outside 15 feet. For his career, Tyler Hansbrough is a 43% shooter from outside 15 feet, and makes an average of under 2 per game.