Game 3 - Buzzer-Beating Win for Bulls, but Issues Remain

Let's be real here. Game 3 was an exciting buzzer-beating win for the Bulls. They won 99-96 on a Derrick Rose 3-pointer with no time remaining. Derrick Rose, intending to get the ball in the corner, was covered, so he ad libbed and went back up top. Dunleavy inbounded it to him (at around 4.5 seconds out of 5 for the inbounds clock) at the top of the arc. He circled right over a high Gibson screen that removed Shumpert from the play. But then Tristan Thompson switched on the screen, which is a great move when there are less than 2 seconds left. So Rose stopped and pulled up from about 27 feet away. Noting that the longer, taller Thompson was on him now, he had to change the trajectory of his shot to get it over him. And it went in off glass. The bank was open, but Derrick probably didn't know it was. Here's the play:

Here it is in Slowmo:

This shot comes 26 years and one day (!!!) after another one of the most famous buzzer-beating shots of the NBA playoffs. It just so happened that that one was taken by a Michael Jordan against the Cavs as well. Here's a nice mashup of the two plays.

So this is all good and fun, until we see what happened during the game and how the Bulls won. Derrick Rose had a very passive first half, but had a great, and more importantly, aggressive,, second half. He scored 14 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter alone. Jimmy Butler also had a good second half. He started 1-8, but ended up with 20 points on 7-17 shooting. He also had an amazing bucket close-in near the end of the game, which included a brilliant stop-and-pivot move under the basket against Earl Smith, Jr. In fact, in the fourth quarter, all but two of the Bulls's points came from Butler or Rose. The game-winning shot was also Rose's first three made of the game.

LeBron had a good game, numbers-wise, but he looked pretty off of his game again this time. He shot only 8-25, but had a 27-8-14 statline. What was most important, was that he had 7 turnovers, and down the stretch had to take some badly contested jumpers. That's all we want: a chance. He also missed a point-blank layup in traffic with 24 seconds left, which is very uncharacteristic for him. He did find people for big assists, most notably Earl Smith for two game-tying threes in the fourth quarter. Both were over Hinrich, who normally plays very good defense. The first three was successful on James's driving action. Hinrich had no choice but to stay at home, anticipating a James drive. Instead, Smith created some separation and James found him for an open three. The second of came around 10 seconds left off of a pass-psuedo-screen. James gave it up to Smith at the top of the arc, and in the process was able to get in the way of a pursuing Hinrich for James's 14th assist of the night, on Smiths' 14th point, which came on the Cavs's 14th three-pointer.

Other stats of note: The Bulls outrebounded the Cavs 54-39, including an 18-9 edge on the offensive glass. They were able to neutralize Tristan Thompson to only four offensive rebounds. The Bulls dominated the paint, and had less turnovers and more fastbreak points. Kyrie Irving, in particular, didn't have a good game. He had the Cavs's worst +/- (that's a flawed stat if there ever was one) most likely due to a reaggravated foot injury. He just didn't look the same after tweaking that early in the game. If he's not healthy, man the Cavs are in for a tough time.

On the topic of injuries, Pau Gasol strained his hamstring and is questionable for Game 4, on Sunday. He reaggravated an injury he suffered during Game 2, so we'll see how he progresses. He only played 22 minutes. Luckily, the Bulls are extremely deep all over, so we were able to see Gibson and Mirotic come in and absorb those minutes. Mirotic was especially successful, as his supposed three-point shooting prowess was able to pull Cavs defenders out of the paint for Rose and Butler to attack. He had a good game, with 12 points (but only 1-6 on threes) and 8 rebounds. He was also a +19 (!!!) when he was on the floor. Noah looked more active, but again was very poor shooting from the field. He finally hit some free throws. He went 2-2 to bring his FT% up to 19%... Anyways, without Gasol, lowpost offense will be harder to come by, and Mozgov will be able to roam more freely. Let's hope he gets better soon.

So Derrick and Jimmy played well in the second half. Dunleavy and Mirotic made their mark, and Gibson was solid. And save for Noah's offensive rebounding, there was very little offensive contribution from the other players. Aaron Brooks was pretty cold, but hopefully he can turn that around as we know how hot he can get at times. Kirk Hinrich didn't take a shot of any type in 20 minutes of play. He also had two assists, probably having more hockey assists than normal. As for the Cavs, Tristan Thompson was normal again, but with less impact on the offensive glass. Shumpert and Irving had off games, and James did as well depending on how you grade him. Mozgov didn't play much for some reason, so he didn't make a huge impact. Interestingly, James Jones and Matthew Dellavadova, America's most-hated Australian, came in and made some big threes. They'll need to continue playing well if the Cavs want to win. And finally, Earl Smith made his presence felt, particularly with those big threes in the fourth quarter. Let's hope his continued presence does not haunt the Bulls too much. Anyways, here are the game highlights:

Game 4 is on Mother's Day. For those of you who are not learned in standard American holidays, it's Sunday, May 10th. It will be on at 3:30 PM ET (for those of you who still live in the Chicago area and for those who are not good at subtracting 1 from 3, it's 2:30 PM ET) on ABC. Tune in and see if the Bulls can go up 3-1, or if the Cavs will even up the series. At worst, the series will be returning to Chicago, so at least the hometown fans can see the team again.