Take a moment and savor the playoffs in their current state.  We have eight teams left and two games per night.  Pretty soon that will be dropped down to one game per night and by the time you know it you’ll be watching golf. 

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NOW THAT YOUR ROSE IS IN BLOOM, A LIGHT HITS THE GLOOM ON THE GRAY

For a series that has been close and expectations high, it has been really hard to watch at times.  There are a lot of crapshoot players and matchups that can go either direction so the series has no flow, and that’s before you get to all of the isolation basketball. 

No player personifies that more than Derrick Rose. On one play he can look breathtaking and two seconds later he looks like he is single-handedly burying this Bulls team with bad shots and non-existent defensive play.  And to me, that has been the Bulls’ challenge in this series – can they reel in Derrick Rose and take advantage of a team concept, because in the long run Rose’s 7-of-24 bad nights will outweigh the good ones. 

Of course Rose’s big 16-point, nine-rebound, seven-assist line including three steals and one block is a force to be reckoned with.  He is playing with the heart of a guy that has been through hell and back, because he has been.  But he’s hitting just 37.8 percent of his shots on a whopping 23.8 attempts per game.  So much of what he does occurs in the aforementioned isolation and it’s just not bending the defense – or if I want to be even more accurate it’s not bending the defense to the extent he deserves to take 24 shots per game. 

This falls into the ‘less is more’ department and unfortunately for Bulls fans I don’t think Tom Thibodeau is going to make an adjustment here.  The Bulls will need not one but two ‘good Derrick Rose’ performances to advance to the next round. 

As I’ve mentioned in a few places, the Bulls’ real MVP is Jimmy Butler, who has alternated great games with mortal games while covering LeBron James, who went 14-of-24 from the field in a dominant performance tonight.  There is something to be said for giving one guy the task of stopping an historic basketball figure, and Butler has been as good as anybody could ask him to be, but I think the Bulls would be better served mixing up the coverage.  Butler scored 29 points on 9-of-18 shooting (3-of-8 3PTs, 8-of-8 FTs) with nine rebounds, three assists and a block in his spare time last night. 

He and Mike Dunleavy (19 points, four boards, four assists) are the only Bulls playing consistent ball. 

Taj Gibson (10 points, five boards, one block) was ejected and it was a terrible decision which I won’t cover in great detail here, mostly because he was on his way to taking himself out of the game mentally anyway.  A pair of calls didn’t go his way, then he missed a transition assignment, then he missed an ‘I’ll show you’ dunk, and then came the refs’ bad call to oust him. 

Still, Gibson needs to be a big part of what the Bulls do going forward, not just because he can help out on LeBron but also because his interior presence on offense is desperately needed. 

Speaking of the why behind that and burying the lede, Pau Gasol (hamstring) has to both play and be utilized heavily for the Bulls to have a chance going forward.  He gives them easy offense and he’s a natural deterrent to Rose taking shots at the first sign of daylight.  He’s questionable for Game 6 and one has to think he’ll play as long as it’s not a foregone conclusion he tears the thing. 

Joakim Noah is a shell of himself and one could make an argument he should barely be playing.  I know Nikola Mirotic (10 points, two boards, one block, 18 minutes) was bad last night, but he wasn’t Noah bad and as an offensive player it makes sense why he’d struggle watching Rose pound the air out of the ball.  Noah scored 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting with nine rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block, but his four turnovers were back breakers and he was a step late on virtually every play.  No joke – I’ve watched him fumble at least 10 rebounds in this series by either not catching them or trying to tap them to somebody else without realizing he can simply squeeze the ball. 

For the Cavs, the series tilted back in their favor once Pau Gasol’s injury became a big-time issue.  The Bulls simply needed the sum of their parts to equal more than the two-pronged attack of LeBron James (38 points, 12 boards, six assists, three steals, three blocks) and Kyrie Irving (25 points, five assists, three treys, one steal, one block, 9-of-16 FGs).  One reason I’d like to see the Bulls mix it up on James is so we could see what Butler vs. Irving would look like.  For now, Irving isn’t hurt enough for his status as the second-best offensive player in this series to be in doubt. 

If the Cavs don’t see any resistance on these two guys, then everybody else’s game opens up and you’ll see J.R. Smith (12 points, 5-of-11 FGs) and Iman Shumpert (6-of-10 FGs, 13 points, seven boards, three blocks) put up good complementary numbers.  Tristan Thompson (12 points, 10 boards, two blocks) will control the paint as penetration opens up the offensive glass. 

I don’t know what we’ll see in Game 6 but the Bulls will need to slow down one of these two guys to have a chance, and if they don’t then they’ll need an all-hands-on-deck approach to send the series back to Cleveland. 

ROCKETS BLAST AWAY OVERCONFIDENT CLIPPERS TEAM   

The TNT analysts were right there with me and most of Twitter waiting for the Clippers to put their big boy pants on and make a second half comeback against the Rockets, who led by 15 points going into intermission.  Instead, the Rockets rode that wave of confidence and some very indifferent Clippers defense to a 21-point win and another shot at survival as the series goes back to L.A. for Game 6. 

I know the Clippers are tired and it’s hard to ride them too hard after a win over the Spurs, but this was an example of what separates them from a team with championship experience.  They played with extreme confidence throughout the first half, like a team that knew they had more games in their back pockets.  They took the first shot they had available on offense rather than seeking matchups that the Rockets had no chance of covering, and defensively they were a step slow.  They would eventually be exposed when DeAndre Jordan (13 points, 11 boards, one steal, one block, 24 minutes) got into foul trouble. 

Eventually, you could tell that even though the Clippers never looked like the less talented team, they had just given up too many buckets to ever bounce back.  More importantly, they missed out on a huge chance to get their ailing squad some extra rest. 

Chris Paul played like a guy who knew what those stakes were, scoring 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting with 10 assists, one steal and four threes. If anything, he should have been more aggressive with the ball because he has either Jason Terry or Pablo Prigioni covering him much of the time. 

The rest of the squad was impotent as J.J. Redick hit just 3-of-12 shots for nine points and three assists, and Matt Barnes hit just 1-of-8 shots for five points and not much else.  Barnes had to get his left ankle taped up but what else is new.  Jamal Crawford was ice-cold with 2-of-10 hits for five points and nothing remotely positive in the rest of his game.  The Clippers even dusted off Spencer Hawes because they were so desperate, and he hit 5-of-7 shots for 11 points, five boards and one steal in 20 mostly ineffective minutes. 

They’ll need to step it up defensively in a big way in Game 6 now that James Harden (9-of-20 FGs, 26 points, 11 boards, 10 assists) has his mojo back.  It looks like he might have figured out Redick, and I think the hack-a-Jordan stuff out of Kevin McHale actually hurt him, too.  Harden’s postgame comments after Game 5 that didn’t exactly support the strategy and the lack of that strategy last night would speak to that. 

Once Harden was going then everybody else joined the layup line, with Dwight Howard going for 20 and 15 with a steal and two blocks.  Josh Smith started and put up nine points, seven boards, four assists and a back-breaking three, and Trevor Ariza hit 8-of-12 shots for 22 points, eight boards, three assists, three steals and four treys.  Terrence Jones scored 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting off the bench, Corey Brewer went 5-of-8 for 15 points, Jason Terry hit 4-of-10 shots for 11 points, four boards and seven assists, and Clint Capela even scored eight points. 

The Rockets ended the game hitting 54.1 percent of their shots and by the time the Clippers figured out that they were in for a game it was too late.  I don’t think they’ll be so lucky on Thursday when I’ll be taking the Clippers minus whatever. 

NEWS AND NOTES

Tony Allen is questionable due to a sore left hamstring tonight and if you believe that I have some swampland in Florida to sell you.  There is some serious cat-and-mouse going on with the game plans for both sides and I’m wondering if Dave Joerger has the balls to go small if the Warriors implement their Off-Allen defense again. 

The idea here is that you gotta try something when a gameplan minimizes Allen the way it did in Game 4, because he is the key to keeping the Warriors’ backcourt in check. 

Staggering the minutes of the two Memphis centers and putting Jeff Green at power forward against the starters would force the Warriors to either take a big off the floor, or give the Grizzlies the advantage of playing faster than the Warriors.  This is probably sacrilegious and impossible, but again if you believe you have to do *something* let’s get weird here. 

Neither Warriors big has an incredibly destructive post-game, and the gamble is that Tony Allen can better survive in an up-tempo game where his athleticism pays off. 

In this crazy scenario, which is as crazy as putting a guy like Bogut on Allen one might say, my preference would be to stagger Zach Randolph’s minutes against the Warriors’ second unit.  Festus Ezeli can’t cover him, Marreese Speights is hurt, and David Lee is generally a liability.  In Game 4, Ezeli gave Marc Gasol a little bit of trouble, too. 

What is more likely is that the Grizzlies look at more conventional ways to help Allen out.  More creative dips and dives are likely on the way, because the answer certainly isn’t for him to shoot more, at least according to the percentages. 

In any event, Memphis has to figure out that matchup or they’re donezo. 

Andrew Bogut had precautionary X-rays taken on his ribs after Game 4 and he’ll be playing tonight.  It’s just a reminder that the Warriors’ playoff hopes could take a severe hit at any moment. 

Monty Williams was fired and the only take you’ll get out of me is that it seems abrupt and like the Pelicans know something about Anthony Davis’ future.  He is a middle of the road coach – and an exemplary person – but his inability to corral his trigger-happy players, recognize rotation trends, and advance the offensive side of the ball were all liabilities. 

John Wall (hand) is questionable for tonight and if he plays my sense is that he’ll be risking re-injury, but that’s what basketball players do when faced with critical games in the playoffs. 

DeMarre Carroll (hip) will play tonight and he’s a guy to watch closely if you’re tracking the Hawks.  He has been their best player in the playoffs but he has looked slow lately.  Factor in his benching on the ill-fated Paul Pierce play in Game 3, there’s just a lot of smoke here.