How to Beat Chicago in the Playoffs/Vulnerabilities

After watching the Heat/Bulls game last night, the Bulls exposed their vulnerabilities.

The bulls are not a physical team, yes, even with Ben Wallace.

Chicago is vulnerable to trapping and and man to man defense, result; numerous turnovers, Miami would have won this game but were unable to apply that same defensive pressure in the second half.

The pistons are younger and more athletic than the heat, therefore, we will successfully apply the pressure.

The Pistons must play physical ball for a full 48 minutes, limit chicago's fast break points, and force the bulls to play pistons tempo. Love to see more mm defense and less zone in this series. Hopefully Flip will unleash his infamous full/half court press if we meet the bulls which seems highly likely.

All this works for me as well................

I said all along that Miami was the team we had to worry about. Miami is as good as history. I believe the Chicago series will be tough, but I pick the Pistons in 5. Chicago has two weaknesses which will doom them. One, they really don't have a backup point to Hinrich. Billups can get Hinrich in foul trouble and really mess badly with Chicago's offense.

Next, Chicago has no inside game. With Detroit already one of the top perimeter defensive teams, it will only get worse for Chicago as we don't even have to worry much about guys like Ben Wallace and PJ Brown. When Nocioni comes in, he is just another outside shooter really. We have them beat on height on the perimeter, and have plenty of quickness. Sure, if we do not adjust a bit, Chicago could manage to drive inside on us, but Jason Maxiell or Dale Davis will end up getting enough minutes to stop that. Chicago will have a terrible time trying to score.

On our side, we will score readily. Again, the height on the perimeter is all to our advantage. Deng is a decent defender for instance, but Tay will shoot over him all day. Ditto for Rip over Gordon, while Billups will simply take Hinrich right out of the game by muscling past him, forcing him to foul. Webber will score a bit inside for us, if he plays that much, but JMAX will be scoring inside if its not Webber. We will have a post game for Chicago to contend with. No way they will stop our post game while at the same time shutting down our excellent perimeter game. Chicago does have a lot of fire power. The Pistons more and better.

Onto Cleveland. A cakewalk after beating Chicago. Pistons in 4. Next is the West. Who will come out of the West is anyones guess. I believe the worst case for us would be Golden State making it thru. We have not done well vs. GS this year, but its just a matter of one simple adjustment. With Davis and Richardson being so able to get to the basket, no way Webber can play much in that series. JMAX and Dale Davis will be playing instead, and Golden State will be reduced to a jumpshooting team. Tay will be guarding Jason Richardson out on the perimeter, and Tay will shut the guy down. After that, GS is toast as they can't make up for Richardson's scoring, and they are not much of a defensive team.

Lee makes many good points.

I do believe that the Pistons defend the perimeter with the best of them, it's the defense of penetration that they have a problem with and..

1) The Bulls tend to fire off the jumpers in lieu of this

2) Their lack of inside offense will allow our bigs to play help defense more freely than if a guy like Shaq was manning the middle.

3) No D Wade

4) No D Wade

5) I cannot stand flopping crying making up booboos D Wade

I am worried about Deng. Guy has gone crazy. Tay needs a good series.

Good overview by Lee. Duhon played OK last night but backup point is a weakness for sure.

It looked like, for a moment last night Miami was back in control and Chicago was losing it's poise. But when they came back to win...what a confident and hungry young team they have become.

I'd say inexperience is a weakness we can exploit but it's almost becoming a strength for Chicago.

Inexperience becomes a key when you can throw a youngish team off their game. The Heat were able to run up a big lead when the Bulls kept turning it over, but Miami wasn't able to sustain anything positive once the Bulls got their act together and started taking care of the ball better. The Pistons will have to sustain some real defensive pressure in order to get the Bulls rattled in any way.

It's true, as well as Flip S. I don't believe him.

Lee and Amy have made many good points. Lee, if we get by Chicago as we all suspect, what I worry about is Stern's officials siding with Le Bron. Will we get a reasonably called game? The only team left in it that I fear is the Spurs.

The Bulls can't handle pressure on the ball. They are poor at the end of the game. We must pick up Gordon at the half court or he will put up that quick three.

We have to get up on their shooters (I would actually prefer to see either of their guards drive). Take away that initial look. Our bigs ( Sheed, Dice, Maxiel (he should play) can block a lot of their shots. They are not great finishers, ok, but not great.

We have to take away Brown's short jumper and that will be it for him.

The big thing is: No Wade and no Shaq. We don't have to adjust that much and we can play our game.


We should be able to get what we want offensively provided we move the ball a bit and not stay predictable. If Tay takes 5 years to post up someone, Ben will be there to block the shot. There are mismatches for us all over the floor.

We should wear down Ben playing a host of bigs. We should play this team going 10 deep even.

In my opinion you forgot the most important ingredient to stopping Chicago. Stop Deng. If you stop Deng and pressure their guards starting at mid court you beat Chicago. You can do this with an effective three man zone press and double teaming Deng. You don't have to worry about Ben as long as he isn't getting layups.

Minus Deng's scoring Chicago has absolutely no inside threat. So if you stop Deng down low then you force Chicago to become a jump shooting team. That means it is basically up to Gordon and Henrich. Henrich can be stopped if you pressure him up high and not allow him to get set for face up jumpers. That leaves Gorden. That is fine. If you shut down Deng and Henrich you really don't have to worry too much if Gorden goes off for 30 as long as he doesn't go for 40 plus.

Absolutely!

Focus on the defense and the offense will take care of itself. Hold Chicago to under 85 and we should have no trouble winning.

Actually I heard that the PIstons are 11-2 this year when Prince scores more than 20 points. I really like that percentage.

It's inevitable Max. If it isn't over today, it will end next game.

The only way Orlando beats Detroit is if they immediately add a guy named Jesus to their roster. Additionally, they better make sure his last name is Jordan.

It Orlando it ain't over until Roger Rabbit stuffs Mickey in Toons Town.

Indeed.

Also, don`t forget Nocioni. In three of the Bulls/Pistons matchups this season, Nocioni had a DNP. He is physical, and gives us problems.