Film Room with the Bulls: How the chaotic week came about vs. Hawks
Last Wednesday night was when it appeared the season was going to head for a crash landing for the Chicago Bulls after a humiliating loss to the Atlanta Hawks. How did it happen?
The Chicago Bulls have played two games since this past Wednesday’s debacle against Atlanta Hawks and looked like two different teams in both games.
In the Atlanta game, the Bulls looked like a mix of those versions in a horrific 119-114 loss at the home that sounded the alarms of the sky falling on this season.
Through three quarters, the Bulls led the Hawks by five points, and then pushed the lead out to as much as 10 points with just three minutes left.
For those final three minutes, the Hawks outscored the Bulls, 19-4, won the game, which led Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade starting this whole mess that was last week.
How did it happen? Let’s take a look at the film and figure out where the Bulls went wrong.
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Good offense beats good defense
After the Hawks took a timeout with 3:01 left and Dwyane Wade hit what would be his final bucket of the night to give him 33 points, Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer appeared to draw up a nice ATO (“after the timeout”) play for his team in the half-court.
It looked like a simple side pick-and-roll with Dennis Schroder and Paul Millsap that turn into some “screen the screener” action with Millsap setting a screen on Butler, which led to Millsap to rolling out to the top with Taj Gibson staying on Schroder with a switch. Dwight Howard set another screen on Butler to free up Millsap and the All-Star drained the triple to trim the lead to seven with Butler trying to close out.
The switch for Gibson was fine. If there’s no switch, Schroder most likely speeds past the flat-footed Robin Lopez for an easy bucket anyway. There’s not much Butler can do with two good screens from two good players in this set. You can chalk this up as a case of good defense, but better offense.
Take the shot, Robin
Jimmy Butler made a fantastic read to avoid the attempt at a double team trap by Schroder and Kent Bazemore and took a screen from Paul Zipser up top to get into the lane. As is the case with the Bulls with no shooting on the floor, the space in the lane closed quickly.
With basically nowhere to go, Butler kicked back to Lopez — who had a look at the basket from the left elbow — for what could’ve been an open shot attempt. Instead, Lopez put the ball on the deck and was stripped by Millsap to cause a turnover.
How do you allow the shooter to get his own rebound?
After Millsap stripped Lopez on one end, he brought the ball back the other way to start a transition break for the Hawks, which led to an open look from the corner for Bazemore from deep.
What happens next is the problem:
Bazemore misses the shot attempt with Zipser closing out hard on the shot attempt. Zipser basically flew into the Hawks bench, so he’s seemingly out of the play. Howard and Millsap had beaten Lopez down the floor with the wings trailing the action, so he couldn’t get near the ball.
Unfortunately for the Bulls, the ball didn’t bounce their way, but letting Schroder get a wide-open look from the other corner from long range (that he did make) to cut the lead to four didn’t help matters either.
Hot hand or not, this is a bad shot
Dwyane Wade was feeling it all night long, but with the shot clock winding down and virtually no space to go anywhere, this wasn’t the most ideal shot.
Sure, the starting five personnel doesn’t help spacing, but dribbling towards the middle and not taking a Lopez screen (with a sagging defender in Schroder waiting) doesn’t help either. Wade takes a contested fallaway jumper that hit off the back of the iron.
Off Wade’s miss, Atlanta capitalizes
After Wade’s miss, the Hawks looked to push once more. Tim Hardaway Jr. took the ball down the left wing, kicked back to the trailing Millsap, which led to two straight wonderful passes from Millsap and then Bazemore kicking back to Hardaway Jr. off a touch pass in the corner with Butler caught in no man’s land to trim the lead all the way down to just a point.
This is (partly) why Butler and Wade were so upset
Remember the double team trap Schroder and Bazemore tried to run earlier against Butler as the primary ball-handler? Well, they tried it again.
Butler made the right read to swing the ball to Zipser, who popped out to the wing after trying to set Butler another screen up top. Zipser had a great look at the basket, but in a one-point game with your opponent on a tear, this is a shot that has to go through the rim if you’re going to take it.
It doesn’t, the Hawks pull down the rebound and run a similar set than the one that started this furious rally with the Millsap 3. Schroder gets Gibson isolated one-on-one and blows right past him for the bucket and Atlanta’s first lead of the night.
Butler misses, but redeems himself
After the Hawks took the lead for the first time in the contest, Butler came back down — still the primary ball-handler — and took a Robin Lopez screen up top to try and get the lead back with a jumper. He tried to sell contact on the shot, the ball rimmed out, and Howard was fouled by Lopez on the miss.
It’s Dwight Howard. Free-throwing shooting for him is like three-point shooting for Dennis Rodman. It’s not good. Howard split a pair on the other end to leave the door open for the Bulls to tie the game.
Atlanta tries to throw yet another double team at Butler, but with Zipser’s fly-by screen on Bazemore, Butler got around Schroder (who ran back to the open Zipser again) and got another one-on-one chance with Bazemore guarding him. He drove, crossed over, got Bazemore in the air and hit the bank shot to knot the game up.
Guard penetration kills the Bulls late
After this alley-oop dunk from Howard, the Bulls never regained the lead.
Schroder got another switch onto Gibson and blew past him once more. This penetration caused three Bulls defenders to collapse on the drive, leading to a kick-out from Schroder to an open Bazemore. With Wade caught in no man’s land like Butler earlier, Bazemore drove and found Howard for an easy dunk.
Bulls take timeout, bring on shooters, but miss their chance
Similarly to Zipser’s miss earlier, if you’re going to take shots late in ballgames, you have to step up and make them if you’re the young Bulls on the roster. Nikola Mirotic didn’t do that after a timeout that saw him and Doug McDermott enter the game.
The whole ATO set was about utilizing screens and ball penetration. Wade drove down the left wing and into the lane. While Wade drove, Mirotic tried to set an off-ball screen for McDermott to free him up in the corner. With Howard stepping up and Millsap lurking with his eyes on the ball, Wade had nowhere to make the pass until Mirotic freed himself up for a 3-pointer.
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Millsap closed out on Mirotic hard, but he got a great look at the rim like Zipser did earlier. The Hawks rebounded the miss, Schroder hit two free throws, Bazemore partially blocked a Butler 3-point attempt and that was basically all she wrote.