The Bernstein Brief: Bulls Can't Sustain Winning Like That
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) The outcome was great -- any NBA win is a good one, especially against one of the contenders in the conference on opening night.
But that was an odd way for the Bulls to do it in their season-opening 105-99 win against the Celtics on Thursday night, and it will be hard to sustain success while deviating that much from what coach Fred Hoiberg wants from his system. It was one bail-out shot after the other for most of the night, the shot clock in single digits far too often after the first action of screen-and-roll was defended.
Isolation hero ball looks fine when the desperate heaves find their mark, but it's no way to live. Nobody wants them to need four 3-pointers each every night from Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade, and one from either Rajon Rondo or Michael Carter-Williams, let alone both of them. The numbers tell you that's not a reliable formula.
The better news is that the Bulls played at a high competitive level and tried harder defensively than I expected. They will have to do that to generate turnovers that lead to easy baskets in transition, taking the pressure off of a half-court offense that is going to need time to evolve.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.
