The 99 was an outlier because they totally underachieved during the regular season. I know there were some injuries, but that team was stacked. And then they got exposed during the finals by the Spurs.
Yeah, and if you believe that then you can not also agree with the opening post. That's the whole point.
The problem here is humans aren't machines, they don't have gears that you can increase the way you can to a car. You either come to play or you don't, you can't give out 100% effort in regular season games and then suddenly give out 200% in the playoffs. To me, that just means you were slacking off in the regular season ala Robert Horry. With the Bulls, they got that record primarily because they played every team in the NBA, and not the heat exclusively. Chicago only has 3 offensive threats who can create their own shot: Rose, Boozer and Deng. Unfortunately for them, the Heat have two exceptional perimeter defenders in LBJ and Wade, and Boozer did his usual Loozer disappearing act in the playoffs.
Pretty apparent with the horrible plays we're seeing at the end of Game 4. DRose 1:1 against LeBum. No screens...no cuts...no ball movement...and Bosh with 5 fouls. Wonder what the Bulls record would be without a super-human PG. 45 wins would be my guess.
Spoelstra is an OK coach. Not great, but adequate. Thibodeau's problem is that he believes in that same stupid philosophy that jeff Van Gundy is always claiming. "You have to shorten your rotation in the playoffs." That is literally the dumbest basketball philosophy in the NBA. It does nothing but make your team exponentially worse. Unfortunately for Thibodeau, he apparently foolishly buys into this r****ded way of thinking. It is costing the Bulls this series. Then again, to be fair, how can the Bulls win when LeBron gets to travel 15-20 times a game. With that being said, Derrick Rose is the worst player of all-time to win an MVP award. He is just a ball hogging, shot chucking, brick or turnover waiting to happen.
No doubt that Rose has played horrendous during the series, but you have to also give Miami's defense credit. They just shut him down like no team has done this season. Very impressive. Now I'm interested in seeing if they can do the same to Dirk (I doubt it).
The starters get major minutes, but Thibs has been playing 10-player deep most of the playoffs. Gibson, Brewer, Korver, Asik and Watson have all played and have made contributions at different times. Not so much vs. Miami, but in previous series the bench have played big.
tell me you are joking that you think the bulls are losing because of a shortened rotation and not because of the talent of the heat. miami's top three playing huge minutes. the bulls teams with jordan then did it poorly when they won 72 games because they did not have another gear in the playoffs? if the bulls did not play hard and get homecourt, they would have lost to the bulls in the second round. it just keeps getting dumber around here.
It's not about a shortened rotation. It's about not having enough offense. The Bulls' flaming out just proved that the "defense wins championship" cliche is just a myth. Defense keeps you in games. You still need offense to pull away. The Bulls did not have enough fire power to pull away when the Heat was playing like crap for 45 minutes.
for people to criticize scott books for his offense. thibs offense is just as head scratching. i dont now why he runs he pick with noah instead of boozer. (bulls fans have complained about this all season).
