Chicago Bulls at Los Angeles Lakers Game Outlook
Offensive Rebounds
I talked about C.R.E.A.M. in the takeaways from Saturday’s game against the Clippers. The Bulls are outrebounding their opponents on the offensive end by a significant margin, 184-139. Getting all those second change opportunities has been significant. It was their edge in second chance points that played a major role in Chicago hanging around with LA in that game.
The offensive rebound battle will be intriguing in Sunday’s matchup with the other LA team, too. The Lakers are also a plus margin offensive rebounding team. They’ve outrebounded opponents on the offensive end, 141-126, this season. They don’t have the same significant margin that the Bulls have developed, but both teams are winners on that end of the floor.
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On Saturday, the Bulls had the same number of offensive boards as the Clippers in the final quarter – five. Worth noting is that they allowed four more defensive rebounds by LA than they grabbed. It’ll be important that Chicago’s board dominance, evident against the Clippers, stays strong late in games. Grabbing one or two of those extra four defensive board LA had might have been enough to push the Bulls ahead, regardless of calls for Blake Griffin.
Lopez is a much better player than player than Timofey Mozgov, in my most humble opinion, and should have an all-around advantage on the Lakers center who plays a limited role in LA already. He played just under 14 minutes on Friday with no points and four rebounds. Who else could match up with Lopez – Randle, Tarik Black, or Ivica Zubac, if healthy – doesn’t shift the advantage away from Chicago.