Trouble With the Eight Seed

Pretty much no one expected the Bulls to have so much trouble with Indiana. I certainly did not, but I'm not at all surprised at the ways in which they are struggling. First off, I'll say that Indiana deserves a lot of credit by playing as hard as they possibly can and not being intimidated by the team with the best regular season record. But the Bulls have themselves to blame for not having an easy first round series.

Carlos Boozer, my biggest concern going into the playoffs, is reason number one for the Bulls' troubles. He's been absolutely horrible in this series, completely outplayed by Indiana no-names like Tyler Hansbrough. Deng, the other Bull I'm always worried about, hasn't been great either, but nowhere near as awful as Boozer. Rose has been excellent, but often not his usual superior self. He has too many turnovers, is missing a lot of outside shots, and seems uncomfortable with the Pacers double teams. Brewer seems bothered by the thumb injury he received in that last, meaningless regular season game. Really, only Noah has shined, along with Korver hitting some clutch shots at the end of games.

Now Rose has a tweaked ankle and Indiana has the confidence of knowing that they've have played the Bulls even for four games despite being down 3-1. I'm thinking the Bulls should still be able to close them out at home, but they need the right their ship quickly before moving on to face more talented opponents.

Fortunately, Orlando is struggling, to the point where they might not make it past Atlanta. Atlanta is a team the Bulls have difficulty against anyway, so they will need to improve in any case, but at least they will face a team with some flaws next round.

I'm at the point now with Boozer where I'm actually happy when he picks up his second stupid foul in the first quarter and has to go to the bench. I think that if he's off, which he has been for most games in recent memory, then the Bulls should be giving more time to Thomas and Gibson. I know it is hard to bench a guy whom the Bulls have invested so much money and hope, but the playoffs are no place to leave a guy in who keeps screwing up.