When the Pistons and Bulls met last month for the first time this season, there was more on the line than simply divisional pride: Blogabull’s Matt Bernhardt and I had a little side bet going, with a winner receiving a free post on the loser’s blog. Despite having a rooting interest in the failure of Matt B.’s favorite team, I readily admit to being a fan of Blogabull, which has always been one of premier blogs in all of the basketball internets.
Instead of jumping at the first opportunity to gloat, Matt B. decided to hold off cashing in his winning chip until now, on the eve of the re-match in Detroit. The following are his words: a justification of Bulls GM John Paxson’s prudence on the trade front, a proclamation of Chicago’s team’s underrated core and a flattering admission of whose footsteps the Bulls are trying to follow.
By: Matt Bernhardt
Why oh why did the Bulls not make a deal at the trading deadline? A Rasheed Wallace-esque move (almost literally, considering the position they were going after) that would vault the Bulls beyond the scrum amongst the top of the East?
Well, I’m sure John Paxson tried, most notably to get Pau Gasol. But what made the Rasheed Wallace trade unique was that it was basically for spare parts. I would’ve loved to see a similar package landing Gasol(something including Andres Nocioni and Tyrus Thomas, for instance), but the price was much higher: reportedly Luol Deng (or Ben Gordon) and other quality assets. This is nearly the equivalent of the Hawks telling Joe Dumars two years ago they could have Wallace but only for Hamilton or Billups. Even if a Deng-for-Gasol deal made the Bulls better, it’d still keep them one player away from the elite.
(And besides, Luol Deng is potentially special. You may remember his first outing against Detroit where he completely overwhelmed Tayshaun Prince for 30 points on 11-19 shooting. On Friday night he scored 32 on the guy picked over him in the All-Star game, Caron Butler. Deng’s offensive game is kindof a paradox: he’s inefficient in the fact that he doesn’t get extra points by shooting 3s (3 attempts all season) nor getting to the line (under 5 FTA a game), but he’s incredibly efficient simply by making shots, shooting over 52% from the field. He’s doing this without getting plays called for him, mostly shooting mid-range jumpers. I eagerly await the expansion of his game to include more drives and 3-pointers, and at the age of only 21 he has plenty of time to do it.)
The big story for you fine readers at DetroitBadBoys is likely the return of Ben Wallace. Undoubtedly you’ve been following his first season as a Bull, from the headband incident to his often-lackluster play. Overall it’s been a disappointing season, but Wallace has really shined the past two games, with 14pts/19reb/7blk at Cleveland, and 8/12/5 against the Wizards. These are the teams that the Bulls will likely need to beat in the playoffs, and the Pistons are obviously on that list as well. Whether it’s the importance of the opponent, being on national TV, or just gearing up to face his old mates, Wallace seems to be rounding into his old form.
So feel flattered, as the Bulls over the past few seasons have tried to imitate the Pistons way of building a team. Not that either Joe Dumars or John Paxson wouldn’t prefer having a superstar in the line of Bryant, James or Wade, but assembling a bunch of really good players isn’t a bad fallback plan. The Bulls performed the ultimate act of imitation by taking Ben Wallace, but if anyone gets the Bulls team past Detroit and into the finals, it’ll be Deng, Ben Gordon, and Kirk Hinrich. They’re young, been playing together for years, and are only getting better. You might know them only as the guys the Bulls refused to trade for Pau Gasol, but when they’re on they make the Bulls the class of the East. And hopefully, after the pageantry of the Wallace’s return, a proving statement can be made on Sunday.
So there you have it — rational discourse from behind enemy lines. As usual, leave your responses to Matt B., as well as any thoughts about the game, in the comments.
Hinrich is the best white American basketball player. I bet the Celtics would have loved to have gotten him.
… or the Jazz.
will effin’ perdue
Deeeeeee-troit Zinc-in-the-river!
the only thing keeping us in this 1st half is the 3 fouls on gordon.
The Pistons can’t seem to defend the pick and roll or figure out the Bulls zone. I’ve seen this episode before and it doesn’t end well.
At the end of the 1st Half:
They shot 33% to the Bulls 57%
They’ve been out rebounded: 24-16
The Bulls have moved the ball better. 12 ast to 9
The only thing keeping it close is the free throws.
Lets hope the second half the Pistons show up.
if we keep this up, and then see these guys in the playoffs and get beat like this, then i’ll be more than happy to write the ticket for flip to return to whatever frozen glacier the university of minnesota floats on. and he can watch competitive dance into his golden years as a golden gopher.
I know I’m going to sound like a homer, but if Chicago is as good as “advertised” they wouldn’t have gone through that stretch of the 3rd and early 4th without holding on to the lead. In order for Chicago to compete with teams like Detroit they need to hold the intensity throughout the game and not “blow their load” in the first half.
They had a good win over the Wiz the other night, but the Wiz don’t play D.
Good game by both teams, Detroit didn’t play good enough to deserve the win, but they pulled it out. Good veteran teams always pull out wins like this..
Boney: I want to agree about Chicago not being as good as advertised, but the same can be said about Detroit — why did they slip into a 16-point deficit in the first place? They let Chicago shoot the lights out when they couldn’t get a bucket to save their lives.
All in all, we pretty much saw the entire season today: Detroit played horribly at times, and then they went long stretches where they were completely on top of their games. But still, this was one of the more entertaining games we’ve seen all year.
25% free throw shooting by Big Ben!!
It was nice to see Tay play today. He and the Baby Eater with 3 blocks each were awesome! It also seemed he was looking for his shot a lot more, or maybe it was just that the matchup was better? Hope Sheed’s ankle isn’t too gimpy, but since they don’t play until Friday, he’ll have time to get it in shape.
I really like listening to Hubie Brown call a game. He is 102 and still shows excitement like a new fan. Love it.
Andres Nocioni. great werewolf, or greatest werewolf. you can only pick one.
Matt
Detroit shot terribly from the field in the first half, yet still kept themselves within range by being aggressive and getting to the free throw line. When the third quarter started it’s almost as if Detroit never made it out of the tunnel coming out of halftime.
They turned on the defense and cut down the open looks for the Bulls from mid to the end of the 3rd quarter. They kept the run going because they had the Bulls on the run throughout the 4th quarter. Even Hubie said it right around the 7 minute mark of the 3rd quarter… “You can’t let this team get it to within 5 points by the end of the 3rd quarter”… what happened? they cut it to 2 at the end of the 3rd and then they both played pretty equal in the 4th.
It took the energy of Maxiell and Tayshaun in the 4th to “preserve” the win. I hate to say it, but if Sheed had played significant minutes in the 4th, Detroit would have lost the game.
The Bulls lost the game with their 5 technical free throws (I believe 3 illegal d, 1 scott skiles, and 1 ben wallace). The Bulls lost the game when Skiles decided to leave Duhon on Tay. The Bulls lost the game whenever Gordon wasn’t in the game. The Bulls lost the game by Ben Wallace being aggressive on the block about mid-way through the 4th that caused him to go to the line and hit 2-8 from the free throw line.
Detroit won the game because they took advantage of all of the above paragraph’s situations. It’s not Detroit’s fault that the Bulls couldn’t keep their foot on the Pistons’ necks. It’s not Detroit’s fault that Ben Wallaces’ missed free throws down the stretch helped them secure a victory for once…
It was an ugly win, but you can’t win them all pretty. Detroit is something like 14-4 with Webb in the lineup, that’s not bad. All of us here always look at the negative in our boys because they were near perfect last season. They’ve been the toast of the Eastern Conference for the last 6 years… They’ve been on the pedestal for years, and they’re a target for doubters to continue to throw darts at. The reason why San Antonio and Detroit continue to “dissapoint” is because they don’t play superstar basketball. I hope to all hell that Detroit plays either San Antonio or Dallas in the Finals this year… and I hope that when/if Detroit ever does fall back to mediocrity (teal era) that it’s the young Bulls they played today that come together and take over the Eastern Conference just like it was back in the Early ’90s…
Give the Pistons credit for overcoming a very good Bulls team. They are every bit as good as I figured they’d develope into this season, and when it’s all said and done, I think we were looking at this year’s 2nd seed in the conference. I suspect that they will become a major obstacle next season, unless the Pistons make a couple of good moves to maintain a slight edge over them. Games like today’s build character in young teams with a solid nucleus accumulating playing time as a unit, and soon they will learn to finish on the road. Detroit’s saavy trumps the Bull’s right now, but they are no pushover, nor a team to be taken for granted. I fully expect a Detroit/Chicago ECF this year.
Maxey and Tayshaun were the heroes today when it mattered, along with C-Webb being in position to win the game. Lady Luck was on our side today, as Gordon’s open shot could have easily gone down. But a great game; a comeback to savor. Give credit to Flip Saunders as well; he flipped all the right switches today in the 4th.
“Detroit won the game because they took advantage of all of the above paragraph’s situations. It’s not Detroit’s fault that the Bulls couldn’t keep their foot on the Pistons’ necks.”
Well, that’s how great teams win in any sport — don’t make mistakes and take advantage of the other team’s mistakes. KISS.
I see I’m getting some love over at BlogaBull.. I don’t want to make it seem like I can’t wait until the 2nd coming of the “teal” era, but if it were to happen (our guys are getting older), then I would hope that it’s those same young Bulls from yesterday that take the torch and run it.
I would say that this Bulls team reminded me of the 2k2 and 2k3 Pistons, but then again the Bulls have a lot more talent than “Uncle Spliffy’s” Pistons team from those 2 years. I guess the only comparison is that the Bulls are a “Rasheed Wallace” pick away from dominating the Eastern Conference. They play well as a team, they’ve got a solid point guard with a stud shooting guard and up and coming small forward. They’ve got Ben Wallace down low to help on D… wait a minute, they do remind me of the 2k3 Pistons (Billups who was relatively unknown at the time, Rip Hamilton, Tay, Ben) compare to (Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Deng, Ben…)… Maybe Gasol wasn’t the answer, but they need a low post presence that can play solid D.
As a Pistons’ fan though, I hope that the albatross contract Ben signed restricts their growth from becoming a power while Detroit gradually circles out the old and brings in fresh meat to keep this run going.
I thought Rip said it best in the postgame interview: the Pistons decided to stop playing “Buddy Ball.” That first half was a replay of so many past banner-raisings, where the team comes out having fun instead of handling business. Guess it’s futile to wish it was otherwise at this point.
Yesterday’s game was a pretty good vindication of Flip’s benching of Ben in the playoffs. His shooting is a terrible burden at times, and it won’t get better for the Bulls.
PS: How about that Prince block on the Deng breakaway?