Westerlund: 5 Thoughts After Bulls-Bucks Game 6
By Cody Westerlund--
MILWAUKEE (CBS) – For the better part of three days, the questions persisted, and the Bulls heard them all.
How could your effort be lacking in the playoffs? Where's the consistency? What's wrong with Derrick Rose? This isn't what a championship contender looks like, is it?
They were aware of the lingering whisper too.
Could this actually become the first team NBA team to ever blow a 3-0 series lead?
When it finally came time for a call to action, the Bulls answered emphatically in Game 6 on Thursday night at the Bradley Center. In a 120-66 destruction of the Bucks, the Bulls both clinched a 4-2 first-round series win and set a franchise record for their biggest playoff victory. This 54-point laughter easily surpassed the 42-point win the 1998 Bulls had over the Jazz in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
"This was big for us," Bulls big man Joakim Noah said. "We had to do a lot of soul-searching the past couple days."
Now it's off to Cleveland, where the Bulls will open their second-round series against the Cavs on the road Monday night.
Here's the notes and observations from Thursday, with an eye forward.
1. As he made his way down the hallway to leave the Bradley Center Thursday night, Tom Thibodeau was all smiles. At this time of the year, it's an unusual emotion for the laser-focused Bulls coach, but it represented the sense of relief carried by him and his team.
For as much as basketball fans wanted to see Cleveland-Chicago, so too did the Bulls. It's what they've been eyeing in this injury-ravaged season, and now they get their chance while in one piece.
"Yeah," Noah said when asked if he always felt this season had to go through LeBron James. "Because that's the way it's been for quite a while now."
Added Taj Gibson: "We didn't know when, but like Thibs said, in the NBA, you can't go around anybody. You got to try to go through everybody."
After a 99-94 road loss to the Cavs on April 5 in which the hosts hit a handful of wild shots, the Bulls oozed extreme confidence for a team that had just lost. Despite losing the season series 3-1, they carried out of Cleveland the belief that if play to their capability, they're still the better team.
It's a belief they privately still hold.
"We just know when we play with that edge, we're tough," Noah said.
2. Long a tormentor of the city of Cleveland for its – how should we put this? – blandness, Noah playfully took the first jab ahead of the Bulls-Cavs second-round series.
"I never thought I'd say this, but I'm very excited to go to Cleveland," Noah said.
It was Noah who in the midst of a 2010 first-round playoff series famously said, "Cleveland really sucks," then doubled down.
"It's pretty depressing here, man," Noah said back then. "It's bad. It's bad. No – no going out in Cleveland, man. It's all factories."
Led then by James before he left for Miami and returned home, Cleveland easily won that series. Noah's comments Thursday night didn't at all come off in a derogatory manner.
He was full of respect for the Cavs, believing there's much to worry about even with star Kevin Love sidelined after dislocating his shoulder and with guard J.R. Smith suspended for the first two games.
"We know they have a lot of talent," Noah said. "They're not in that situation because of one or two guys. They have a great team, very good players."
The Bulls admitted that the absence of Love reconfigures the equation, but they just aren't sure how yet. Will James spend more time at power forward now? Will Tristan Thompson and/or James Jones get big minutes? What will become of the Cavs offense without the same floor spacing?
"Love (loss) changes them a little bit," Thibodeau said. "But the way they're built, they have great flexibility, whether they have Kevin or not. LeBron's a guy who can do everything, play five positions. You have to be ready for that. You have to be ready for their size. They can play big. They can play small."
Added Noah: "We're going to have to play our best basketball to beat them."
3. For all the good that came out of Game 6 for the Bulls, they may have lost a starter for Game 1 of the series against the Cavs.
In the opening minutes of the game, Bulls forward Mike Dunleavy appeared to hit Bucks guard Michael Carter-Williams around the neck/chin with a closed fist after the latter released a shot just outside the lane.
Puzzlingly, Dunleavy wasn't called for a common foul, and the officials never reviewed the incident. In the second quarter, Dunleavy's hand – less forcefully – found its way to Milwaukee wing Giannis Antetokounmpo's neck/face area for a shove.
The Bucks didn't forget about either incident. On the ensuing trip down the floor, Antetokounmpo used his shoulder to deck Dunleavy into the first row of seats on a 3-point shot. Antetokounmpo was assed a flagrant 2 foul and ejected.
In the second half, Carter-Williams took a shot at Dunleavy, pulling him down to the floor by the neck after Dunleavy was called for a moving screen. Carter-Williams was assessed a technical foul.
When asked postgame for his take on his first-quarter hit on Carter-Williams, Dunleavy acted clueless.
"I don't recall that," Dunleavy.
Asked later to clarify, Dunleavy again emphasized he wasn't yet aware of the incident.
"Look, there's a lot of stuff that went on," Dunleavy said. "Guys got tangled up a lot, a bunch of different things that went on. I don't recall anything, but in the heat of battle, guys get upset about stuff, especially when you're losing by a lot. No big deal. It happens, and we're moving on."
It's a near certainty that the NBA is aware of the incident and will review it. Only time will tell if it warrants a suspension, but given the recent decisions by the league office, it would be little surprise if Dunleavy is given a one-game suspension.
That would hurt the Bulls in a big way, as Dunleavy was stellar Thursday in scoring 20 points, including a 4-of-6 showing from 3-point range. For the series, Dunleavy was 17-of-31 (nearly 55 percent) from behind the arc.
4. There was much made of the Bulls' turnover troubles against the Bucks and understandably so after they committed a season-high 28 of them in a Game 4 loss.
From my perspective though, that's not a concern that will carry over against the Cavs. With constant double-teaming and a penchant for blitzing screen-and-rolls, the long-limbed Bucks played an aggressive style of defense rarely seen elsewhere across the league.
The Cavs won't present any such problems. For one, they don't have the same sort of length, and they don't rotate as well. And two, after their January trade for big man Timofey Mozgov, Cleveland actually became more conservative defensively.
What from the first round should be a carryover concern in the second round? That would be the easy baskets Milwaukee got at times. It wasn't evident in the Game 6 romp, but the offensively challenged Bucks got some really easy looks for parts of the first five games, buckets that made you wonder where the Bulls' interior defense was or how the guards had lost their man.
With James and Irving, the Cavs are far more dangerous offensively and adept at creating easy looks. Perhaps fittingly, in a season in which the Bulls were so improved offensively, it could still all come down to how well they play defense.
5. Can we come to a gentleman's agreement for the second round? As a collective viewing public, we're not going to whine about the big minutes that any Chicago starters play.
If Jimmy Butler goes 46 minutes, it's probably because James is going 45. If Rose is on the verge of exhaustion in the fourth quarter, take a timeout, because Aaron Brooks can't guard Kyrie Irving. If Gasol is dragging up the court, run a pick-and-roll with someone else for a possession, because you need his championship pedigree out there.
Bulls-Cavs is serious business. Not only is a favorable path to the NBA Finals on the line, Thibodeau could well be coaching for his job. If he's going to flame out, just accept that he's going to do so on his own terms.
Thibodeau's been in Chicago five years now and been highly successful – he's earned the right to coach the biggest series of his life how he sees fit.
Respect that, stay mum and just enjoy the best players playing a terrific basketball series.
Cody Westerlund is a sports editor for CBSChicago.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.
