Each day, we are going to preview the night's NBA Playoffs action by looking at the adjustments that can be made by the losing team and showing what they can do to win.
Chicago Bulls’ Game 5 Adjustments: More Creative Post Ups, Defend Off Ball Screens Better
After fighting off the Indiana Pacers three times in a row, the Chicago Bulls finally succumbed to the Pacers' effort, losing Game 4. If the Bulls want to come away with the "Gentleman's Sweep" they need to make a few adjustments.
Offense: More Creative Posts
While the Bulls didn’t have the most effective post offense during the regular season (22nd in the NBA with a PPP of 0.82), they are struggling even more during the playoffs posting a PPP of just 0.71. One of the reasons for their struggles is that they are no longer running their post offense. Instead when the Bulls do enter the ball to the block, it is a straight post, allowing the defense to push the posting player off of their spot and make the post extremely difficult.
Here, Derrick Rose brings the basketball up and the ball gets entered to Carlos Boozer off of a straight entry pass. Without any movement, Boozer is unable to establish a strong post position. Getting the ball farther away from the basket than he would like, Boozer is forced to face up, where he commits the turnover.
On this play, Taj Gibson gets the ball not off of a set, but off of a broken down transition opportunity. Again, Gibson is unable to get strong post position and he is forced to face up. When this happens, Gibson is forced to try and take a pull-up jumper, one that he misses.
The Bulls’ post offense relies undersized post players (Boozer and Gibson in particular). Because they are undersized, the Bulls use a lot of cross-screens to help the bigs establish post position (this helps because with Boozer’s/Gibson’s man trailing him, he is able to get to his spot and prevent the defender from pushing him off of the spot). On straight posts, this doesn’t happen and you can see the result. Bigs catching the ball way too far out, being forced to faceup, and turnovers/misses.
Defense: Defend Off Ball Screens Better
One of the things the Pacers really succeeded with on the offensive end during the regular season was working off of screens away from the basketball. They have been even more effective during the postseason, posting a PPP of 1.13. This is because the Bulls’ defense is struggling when chasing Pacers’ wings around screens:
Here, Luol Deng gets detached from Danny Granger on the initial screen, giving Granger the freedom and space to come off of another pindown screen. There is so much space that when Granger comes off of the screen, he is able to catch, square up and then shoot before Deng can contest the shot.
The Pacers probably have noticed their ability to knock down shots coming off of screens away from the basketball. Expect the Pacers to do this more in Game 5, and if the Bulls don’t adjust, they are going to get beat by it again and again.
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