Westerlund: 5 Thoughts After Bulls-Pistons
By Cody Westerlund--
CHICAGO (CBS) – After blowing a 16-point lead, the Bulls made enough plays down the stretch to hold off the Pistons for an 88-82 win at the United Center on Friday night.
Here are the observations and notes of the night.
1. With the Bulls clinging to a one-point lead in the waning seconds, big man Pau Gasol came up with the play of the night when he converted a three-point play with a ferocious putback dunk off a Taj Gibson missed jumper and was fouled. The play stretched Chicago's lead to four with 5.7 seconds left and was a measure of redemption for Gasol, who with the Bulls leading by three in the final minute had been blocked by Andre Drummond on an ill-conceived post-up and then was beaten down the court by Drummond for a layup while he complained to an official.
"I do regret it," Gasol said of yelling at the official. "It's a mistake I made, and I should let it go quickly so I can get back to my man, not lose sight of him like I did."
In a display of emotion he doesn't often showcase, Gasol let out a primal scream after his dunk. He finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds, good for his NBA-leading 50th double-double.
"I was frustrated I'd made those two previous bad plays," he said.
Gasol's dunk came after Jimmy Butler was stuck along the right sideline with the shot clock in single digits. He hit Gibson on a cross-court pass, and while the Pistons played a quality 22 seconds or so of defense, they failed to rotate for the final boxout.
It was game over.
"We were one rebound away from having a chance to win," Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said.
2. For much of the season, it's been the Bulls' habit to play Jimmy Butler for the entire first and third quarters of games, giving him four-minute rest or so to begin the second and fourth quarters before he closes the halves. That wasn't the case Friday.
In playing 39-plus minutes, Butler got his breaks in the final one-third of the first and third quarters, then played the entire second and fourth quarters.
"I wanted to change that up," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. "I wanted to get a look at it, the group that starts the second and fourth quarters (were) a little different. We'll see how it works out. We got to find who's playing and who's not playing."
Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, Nikola Mirotic, Butler and E'Twaun Moore started the fourth quarter and spurred a 14-4 run that set Chicago on its winning way.
That wasn't the only experimenting that Thibodeau did Friday. He made offense/defense substitutions down the stretch about as liberally as he has all season, at one point putting in the ultra-defensive-minded lineup of Noah, Gibson, Butler, Tony Snell and Moore.
More than anything else, it just shows that 76 games into this disjointed-yet-hopeful season, the Bulls haven't had the health and means to find the best answers.
3. Among the many cliché storylines around this time of season is whether a team can flip a switch for the playoffs and take their performance to the next level.
"That's the plan, man," Noah said when asked if the Bulls were confident they could take their game up a notch.
Adding intrigue to this is that Bulls point guard Derrick Rose has expressed a confidence that he can come back at a high level quickly after a long absence from his right knee injury. Put another way more bluntly, Rose acts as if he can flip the switch when it matters.
So is it that easy? A two-time NBA champion, Gasol doesn't have quite the same view.
"There's not a magic button," Gasol said, speaking generally about the team. "What you see in the regular season is what you're going to get in the playoffs. So we have to try to be more consistent in the last six games that we have."
4. Rose will travel with the team to Cleveland for Sunday's game, Thibodeau said. Still, he isn't expected to play as he continues his recovery from a partial meniscectomy on Feb. 27 in his right knee.
In pregame comments, Thibodeau sounded somewhat guarded about expectations for Rose's performance when he returns.
"We have been through it so many different times," Thibodeau said. "I think our team has a good understanding of what we have to do. Of course, we have to see where Derrick is. We don't know where he is. We just want him to go out there, play to his strengths, cover up his weaknesses, run the club and we'll go from there.
"To me, he's still out. The important thing for the guys who are here and who are playing is we have to lock into who we have and what we have to do. Derrick has to continue to concentrate on his rehab. Then once he's cleared, that changes everything. I'll let Derrick handle his part, and the rest of the team has to handle their part.
5. Chicago improved to 46-30 with the win and moved into sole possession of third place in the East, one game ahead of Toronto, which fell to 45-31 with a loss to Brooklyn. If the Bulls and Raptors finish the regular season tied, Toronto will hold the tiebreaker due to its division title (barring a collapse by Cleveland in which Chicago ascended to the Central Division crown).
The Bulls and Raptors largely have a similar schedule in the final six games. Both face a two-game road swing in Florida against Orlando and Miami and have some inferior Eastern Conference competition awaiting. For the Raptors, that means two games apiece left against the Celtics and Hornets.
The biggest difference is that Chicago has a tough road game at Cleveland on Sunday. The Bulls' other three games come against the 76ers, Nets and a Hawks team that's likely to rest its starters in the regular-season finale.