Bulls Vs. Pacers, Game 5: Can Derrick Rose Overcome Ankle Injury To End Series?

Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls need a little rest. With one more win, they'll get it, with the second round of 2011 NBA Playoffs not scheduled to begin until Saturday at the earliest. But should the Indiana Pacers pull off a second consecutive improbable win -- this one in Chicago, where the Bulls rarely lose -- the series will stretch another two days at least, and Rose's break will become a breather. If the Bulls expect to go to the conference or NBA Finals, that exhaustion could add up.

Or not. The Celtics have been able to, in the past, win long series early and perform well in late May and even June. Boston's 2008 run, in particular, was grueling, and the Celtics are the Andy Rooney to Chicago's Wayne Rooney. So perhaps the concern shouldn't be much about getting Rose time off the court as it is about fixing the apparently massive problems with the team's offense.

Chicago has been rather bad on offense in this series, with each of the Bulls' top three shot-takers -- Rose, Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng -- shooting worse than 40 percent against Indiana. Kyle Korver has hit an absurd 8-10 on three-pointers; the rest of the team is a combined 15-64, or 23.4 percent. That's bad!

Indiana's a good defensive team, but potential second-round opponent Atlanta's held the Magic to famously bad three-point shooting in the first round, and the Celtics and Heat have really wonderful defenses. Those teams are scouting the Pacers' defense to see what's gone right, and the Bulls really need to figure it out to prevent future heartburn.