Bulls In Danger Of Elimination Following Game 4 Loss
By Tim Bearden in News on May 6, 2012 8:30PM
Carlos Boozer's and Taj Gibson's double-doubles weren't enough to keep the Chicago Bulls from falling behind 3-1 in the series against the Sixers as Chicago lost Sunday 89-82 in Philadelphia.
Boozer had a strong showing leading the Bulls with 23 points and 11 rebounds, doing his part to step up after big injury losses this postseason. Too bad we can't say the same for the Bulls' guards. Combined they had 8 points at the half. Gibson pretty much carried the team in the beginning with 12 points and 5 rebounds in 11 minutes, but had to leave with three fouls before the break.
Watson couldn't hit anything and as K.C. Johnson of the Tribune put it on Twitter, "It would take a week for [Sixers] Jrue Holiday and C.J. Watson to finish a game of H-O-R-S-E." Watson had no points in Game 3 and continued to struggle in the first half. It wasn't until he sank a three midway through the third that he started to heat up, but still went 5-for-18 in field goals and 1-for-5 in three point attempts.
The Sixers took a two-point advantage into halftime and the Bulls stayed close in a seesaw scoring match, but the Sixers were too physical and too fast for the Bulls. Transition offense has been Philly's bread and butter this series and Andre Iguodala led the charge despite a sore Achilles.
But all those points are moot as the Bulls continued to get called for fouls in what could have been a referee whistling contest. The Sixers went to the line for 31 attempts and got 22 points out of it, which was one of the contributing factors in the loss on Friday as well.
With Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah out, the Bulls need stronger showings from Rip Hamilton, who only had seven points on nine field goal attempts, and Watson, who has continued to struggle in the first half in place of the injured Rose. John Lucas III went 2 for 5 today and still hasn't quite figured out ball movement. He's been dribbling too long and wasting precious seconds off the shot clock trying to create shots, seemingly forgetting he has teammates.
The Sixers look to be the fifth team to be a number eight seed to beat a one seed and the Bulls are making it too easy. Game 5 comes back to Chicago, so maybe a little home court advantage is just the prescription for the injured, battered and otherwise struggling Bulls.