UMFan83

maybe the Pacers didn't get to the line much because they were making 60% of their 3 pointer attempts and Hansborough was pretending like he was casually shooting 15 footers at the Pacers practice facility.

It's terrible in the sense that it handcuffed the rest of the team and we had to rely on fringe NHL talent on the third and fourth line. While it may not be a terrible contract on the open market, it's absolutely a terrible contract with this team. You have a Norris Trophy caliber defenseman as your #1 defender and he's paid like one (even though he didnt play like one this year), you have a fantastic (IMO) compliment to him as your #2 guy, who is now being paid like one. You have a young #3 defender who played really well last year making something like 3.75m. That's fine too. But then your 4th defender is making more than the other 3, and is skating into the defensive zone like a forward and gives you negative in terms of physical play, doesn't get in front of shots very often, and the next time a hit by him knocks the glass loose will be the first time. If he was making $3m a year, he'd be a valuable piece for what he is. At 7 million, he pretty much better cover his role and Kris Versteeg's.

Those are just the more glaring examples. I heard a funny comparison to Campbell's performance this playoff series. They described him as Pavel Bure masking as a defender. I think Campbell was a better fit for last year's team that he was for this year's team. Huet we thankfully ridded ourselves of, but it would have been nice if we could have had a player of value on the team with his cap space that could have fetched a decent cheaper option to help us this year instead of simply jettissoning his contract to Finland or wherever he went. Maybe that means we don't match Hammer's offer sheet, who knows. The contract essentially gave us less options this offseason. The point was that Tallon's moves that caused us to strip bare the depth of a championship team, are part of the reason we weren't that good this year, but at the same time, that blame, to me, is excused because any scenario where you win a Cup is good enough in my book.

Temperature should be around 38-39 degrees at game time. The good news is, the snow has likely been melted off the field and seats, so we got that going for us.

He's just trying to balance out all those fouls Rose didn't get called the past 2 years. Plus he still feels bad about the Jordan suspension. I thought the no call on the Russell pushoff was Stern's "sorry for suspending you big guy" intervention? I'm pretty sure Saturday was a "sorry, I just went back and looked at all those tapes your crazy fans set me, kirk hinrich really did get fouled all those times now that you mention it, i guess its because hes unathletic and white so we didnt realize it and plus your team wasn't very interesting" make up for the Bulls

guy who controls the ball. It's how Rose got his triple double, on a backtap off a missed shot.

Yeah, I understand the need to be patient and move the puck around waiting for an opening because if you just fling the puck recklessly at the goal, your PP is going to be worthless once they start clearing the puck when you don't get the rebound. But if everyone is just kind of standing around, you can't go more then 15 seconds of being set up in the zone on a 5 on 3 without taking a shot. Especially because its often not the initial shot that goes in but the quick rebound score with the goalie out of position. And also, I know Scott isn't a legit scapegoat, as he clearly wasnt on the ice enough to really ruin our season. It's what he represents. He is a marginal NHL talent at best that was brought in to pretty much replace both Eager and Byfuglien with one player. He represents the stripping away of our depth and trying to strike gold by hoping their scrappings were undervalued by other teams. The sad thing is, I still believe in just about everything Stan did this summer. We knew this was going to be a rocky year, we just believed in our core a little more than we should have, and we got unlucky with injuries. I'd put the blame for this season here: 40% - Lack of depth/NHL caliber talent on the 3rd and 4th lines and 3rd and 4th defensive pairings 20% - Injuries that further stripped our depth 20% - Stanley Cup hangover that zapped that extra gear that they had last year. Both mentally and phsyically (from the 100+ game season, olympic tournament and shortened offseason). 15% - Dale Tallon for setting up this situation with Campbell, Huet, Hossa, etc. This is immediately dismissed because these moves brought us the cup so you can argue he could have set us up better but you can't prove that he could have set us up better AND won us the Cup last year. 5% - CT

There probably were some iffy calls but what do you expect. Stop getting beat off the dribble and letting him get to the rim and there won't be calls. Derrick Rose has proven he can go recklessly to the rim and finish better than just about anyone in the NBA so its hard not to give him the benefit of the doubt when he beats his immediate defender and shuffles through a small hole in the defense. It's not a part of his game I'm proud of, mostly because I've hated it since Iverson was doing it back in the early 00's and loathed it when DWade would stand at the top of the key and just look at the paint to get 2 FTs during the 06 finals, but as long as its a part of the game, its gonna happen. I do think there was enough of a backlash that its going to be a little different tonight, and certainly different at Conseco later this week. But he's still gonna get some of those iffy calls if your defense is getting beat like that.

It's a lot more likely he goes 2-8 at the rim again, than 7-10 from 15-23 feet. He did have a couple of point blank misses inside that I remember. One he beat Boozer on the baseline and ran in and shot a leaner which went around the rim and out. 2 inches the other direction and its a bucket. Normally he's hitting that.

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. Yes but there is still a time limit forcing them to get into a rhythm to hit the shots. Sitting around casually shooting jumpers in a gym with no stakes changes things too. Maybe 70% is too high by 60% seems like a sustainable number for most NBA players.

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. You're seriously underestimating Hansbrough and NBA players in general. Almost every played in the NBA would hit 70% of "long" 2-point jumpers in an open gym. Those guys are really, really good -- even the non-shooters. Now, I doubt Hansbrough hits seven of 10 again this series, but it's not like most of his shots were really contested. The Bulls are still going to win this series in five or four games, and will likely win by a whole lot tonight. However, the Pacers are better than some have given them credit for -- they were above .500 and Vogel. I also think the Bulls are a bit of a "regular season team," as they're going to struggle against better teams as they advance because they have literally one player that can get his own shot (he's a stud, no doubt, but as you advance, other teams have studs too). As someone who once saw Ben Wallace knock down 8 out of 10 3 pointers shooting around before a game, I'll give you the first point. The funny thing is that the Bulls beat every single 'elite' team they played after December 8th this year, and struggled against a lot of the mediocre teams like Indiana, Charlotte, Philly, etc. Sure maybe we beat some of those elite teams because we caught them on a low energy night, but to beat all of them (we're talking Orlando 3 times, Miami 3 times, Boston 2 times, LA, OKC, SA, Dallas, and a lot of those were without Boozer and/or Noah) to me shows that beating good teams is not the issue despite the 1 guy offense. I think its a certain style of team we have trouble with, and Indiana fits that bill. I'm personally not expecting a blowout tonight. I'm thinking the first 45 minutes will be an exact opposite of game one where the Bulls lead most of the way, but never by more than 8-10 points, and Indiana keeps hitting big shots to stay in the game, drawing it to within 2, then back up to 7, etc. My hope is the last 3 minutes will be in the Bulls favor too.

I gotta believe what bukie says to be true, most players can't hit 7 of 10 with any consistency from outside 15 feet. I wonder what Luol Deng's numbers were in that sweep against Miami 4 years ago. I just remember him draining mid range jumper after mid range jumper. Not saying Psycho T is the caliber of player Deng is, but I guess its possible that its sustainable over a 4 game series. That said, I doubt you'll see a ton of Boozer on him for very long if he starts doin that [expletive] again. If Boozer is on him and he starts draining those, I'd like to see Boozer actually get up in his face and put a body on him. If he has to shoot FTs, so be it. If he pump fakes and drives past Boozer, he has to trust his help D, and not stupidly foul. Like bukie said, the Bulls defense is designed to lock up the paint, so its obvious that if someone is draining those shots, the shots that the Bulls defense is designed to force you to take, the defender should be up on top of them preventing those shots from occuring.

Speaking of Ichiro: http://cutfour.com/2011/04/the-new-ichiro/

on pace for 303, which would beat the old record by 41. eat your heart out Ichiro!

Not at all. I think there were 4 on the AL team a few years ago. I'm sure some other SS will emerge over the years but other than Tulo and Hanley, there are only 2 other SSs off the top of my head that legitimately can compete most years for an AS team in the NL and they are Reyes and Rollins. I'm sure I'm missing someone though Braves - Alex Gonzalez? No. Nationals - Ian Desmond? Pirates - Ronny Cedeno? Astros - Angel Sanchez? Cardinals - Theriot? LOL Reds - Paul Janish? Brewers - Yuniesky Betancourt? HAHA Dodgers - Jamey Carroll? Diamondbacks - Stephen Drew? Giants - Miguel Tejada? Padres - Jason Bartlett?

To be honest with you, John Scott didn't play too poorly. He had some hits and didn't blow any big defensive assignments. He had an open shot and put it on net, but didn't score. I'd be more worried about Marian Hossa missing in action and Duncan Keith allowing that guy to get behind him for the 2nd goal. I dunno, when his job was to go out and hit people (as he said pre-game), and hes constantly looking for someone to hit, I consider it a failure when he goes after and hits someone without the puck right in front of the ref and draws a penalty that leads to a Canucks score. In 5 minutes of ice time he managed to alter the game in the Canucks favor.

Also, why the [expletive] was John Scott out there with the PP unit? John Scott is my scapegoat for the season. Proof that your enforcers have to actually have some hockey skill. Oh and they also need to, you know, enforce.

SOG: CHI 32 VAN 26 PIM: CHI 4 VAN 14 Takeaways: VAN 4 CHI 9 Faceoffs: VAN 27 CHI 33

http://img857.imageshack.us/img857/2378/wowv.png

Rest is the key. Those 2 extra months of rest will really help some of the guys, and the sting of likely getting swept in the first round to a rival will refuel the mental fire and hunger that has obviously been lacking at times this year.

Yup...just about everything went right for us tonight and we still lost. 2/7 on the PP in a must win game Is not gonna cut it. The bottom line is that we just aren't good enough this year. We have a good core but the 3rd and 4th lines consist of borderline NHL players. You can't win with that depth and you certainly can't win when some of your good players get hurt. It was a very bad year for injuries in a year we needed to be fortunate with them. Just wish we could have gotten 2 more points and actually had a competitive series that we could hold our heads high after win or lose. Sucks giving up that mental ownage of Vancouver that we had.

I Don't know how you can say that. You honestly think they can hit 60% of their 3s, several of them contested again? The bulls had the best 3 point shooting defense in the league this year an the Pacers go 10-18 from 3 and it's nothing unusual?

Just get swept at this point, whatever

That was vancouver's strategy the last 2 years

We're on home ice, we have our backs to the wall, have had like 5 more PPs than them, including a 5 on 3, and still can't beat them