Open Directory Project at dmoz.org

Sunday, December 26, 2010

The Knicks win Christmas Day game 103-95

With the score tied at 87 a piece with 10:10 minutes left in the 4th quarter, the Chicago Bulls and NY Knicks looked as if they were heading to an epic finish.

That's when the drought started. And the Knicks capitalized, going on a 10-0 run, finished off by a Wilson Chandler 4-foot jumper with 2:27 remaining.

The Bulls failed to score until Carlos Boozer made a hook shot in the paint with 1:52 - yes 1:52 -- minutes left in the 4th quarter. But by then, it was too late.
You're simply not going to win playing so pathetically on offense in late-game situations. There was not much offensive continuity during the drought.

Carlos Boozer was brought to Chicago to provide a low-post presence, something that's needed come playoffs. However, I thought the Bulls didn't give him the ball in the low-post enough during the drought. Instead, they went with pick-and-rolls or Iso's, usually for Derrick Rose.

Rose had spurts where he looked like the best player on the court, and had a good line on the stat sheet -- 25 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds, and 6 steals -- however, he also had 7 turnovers, took 28 shots, and had several poor passes. Early in the game, I thought Rose was pressing a little bit, looking for his own offense instead of letting the game come to him.

Much of that, though, can be attributed to the poor start for the rest of the Bulls. Rose had 11 of the Bulls' 20 first-quarter points, but it came on 13 shots.

Boozer had an excellent game offensively, with game-high's in both points, 25, and rebounds, 19. Boozer was very successful when he went to backing down and bullying the Knicks' big-men. However, I thought he settled for the fade-away jumper too much, instead of just going with what was working, which was simply out-muscling the Knicks' big-men.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Share

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More