The Bernstein Brief: Hawks, Bulls Share A Problem
By Dan Bernstein-
(CBS) The Bulls and Blackhawks share both an arena and a problem.
Neither team is going to win anything significant until it's able to stop the opponent from getting good scoring chances, and they both seem to know it by what they say after it keeps happening. Then they can't do anything about it.
The Bulls lost to the lowly, out-manned Pistons on Friday night by not contesting shots or wanting to defend ball-screens, then showed all the same behavior in a ragged home win over the middling Suns a night later. Teams get the looks they want against the Bulls, regardless of score or situation. It's not good.
The same goes for the Blackhawks right now, as they are also struggling to defend teams they should be suffocating. It's easy to blame goaltending, but the root issue is the chances they are allowing. The goals are more a function of that larger concern -- allowing teams to cross the blue line with speed and numbers, committing bad turnovers in their zone and failing to block the shots they once did.
Stop the other team. Stop being bad at defense.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. Follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.
