Bulls: Picking Up the Pieces After a Devastating Game 4 Loss

May 6, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose (1) drives on Cleveland Cavaliers forward James Jones (1) during the second quarter in game two of the second round of the NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

The irony in all of this is the Bulls biggest advantage in the series is lack of rest. Even though the guys on TV who pretend to watch the NBA but don’t actually watch the NBA’s generic point on the Bulls is “they can’t win in the playoffs without extensive rest”, the Bulls actually may be better off as this series goes on. The teams will have one day of rest before Game 5 and Game 6, and two days before a possible Game 7.

Rose has basically shattered the notion that he doesn’t play well coming off of one day of rest after back to back 30 and 31-point games on one day of rest. And as the series goes on, won’t it be the Cavaliers who are going to start hurting by not getting rest?

The team is nothing without LeBron at his very best, and James, who is on a depleting streak of four straight seasons of going to the Finals, is averaging nearly 41 minutes per game. And this isn’t cyborg 26 year-old LeBron. James has logged over 40,000 NBA minutes. I think sometime last season he peaked and is officially on the decline. And when the starters get tired more quickly as the series goes on, the Bulls will look towards bench options like Nikola Mirotic and Aaron Brooks.

Who are the Cavs bench options? The player’s association treasurer and an undrafted second-year player? The Bulls bench advantage will be huge as the series goes on.

If you watched the game on Sunday you may have noticed that all the starters were in zombie mode during the first couple of quarters. The teams definitely picked it up in the fourth quarter, but gave off a weird “We just played 40 hours ago and this is only Game 4 in probably a seven game series. If we don’t go balls to the wall in the first couple of quarters it won’t be the worst thing in the world” vibe. The games are going to have the same feeling during the first half of at least Game 5 and Game 6, and that’s when the Bulls bench can really make their mark.

Tony Snell—yeah, the same player who sat behind Doug “DNP” McDermott at the beginning of the season can really flip this series on its head. When Snell came in during the third quarter of Game 4, he seemed almost surprised by how fatigued all of the other players looked. Snell has always had issues with his confidence and emotion during games. In fact, there is a 35% chance he is an Ex Machina robot with his ability to perform at such a high level without ever changing his demeanor.

But we have seen an aggressive Snell play successful on offense. And whenever he comes in during this series he will not only have an energy advantage, but any player matched up on him defensively won’t be very good at defense. Snell will always be the third perimeter option when he is in the floor. That means defensive matchups against guys who collect checks for the NBPA. And if Snell isn’t good, the Bulls can just sit him like they have been doing. There is really no downside of trying to run your offense through Snell for a couple of minutes to see if has it going that night. And a completely rested Snell can play almost to the level of a fatigued Jimmy Butler when guarding LeBron.

I have a good feeling about Snell during these next couple of games.