It’s hard not to feel for the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers came into the series as heavy underdogs, each one of their games against the mighty Chicago Bulls has come down to the last few possessions, and they still find themselves on the verge of being swept after another heartbreaking loss.
The Pacers needed to do two things in order to turn the series around — make shots and contain Derrick Rose. To their credit, they were able to do the latter extremely well. The Pacers trapped Rose aggressively and used a number of larger defenders on him, and were able to wall off the paint against him. They ended up forcing Rose into five turnovers and a 4-18 shooting night, and only one of Rose’s field goals came from inside of 19 feet.
The Bulls weren’t able to get much offense outside of Rose, either. Carlos Boozer had another terrible game, managing only four points on 2-1o shooting from the field, and Luol Deng required 19 shots to get his 21 points. If it wasn’t for the dead-eye shooting of three-point specialists Keith Bogans and Kyle Korver, who went 5-6 from beyond the arc, the Bulls would have been completely dead in the water offensively in Game 3.
Unfortunately for the Pacers, they completely failed to generate any offense of their own against the league’s top defense. The only thing that really worked offensively for the Pacers was Danny Granger shooting contested two-point jumpers, both in the half-court and in transition, and that is not a formula for sustainable offensive success. Darren Collison and A.J. Price dribbled aimlessly and tossed up shots. Roy Hibbert struggled to get comfortable in the post. The 18-foot jumper Tyler Hansborough had in Game 1 has completely abandoned him. Paul George struggled. Dahntay Jones was able to get to the hoop a few times, but that was about all the Pacers were able to muster on offense.
With the game tied and 55 seconds left to play, the Pacers called a time out to set up a play, but Darren Collison ignored what appeared to be an open Danny Granger and tried a tough floater in the lane, which he missed. On the ensuing Bulls possession, Derrick Rose let the clock run all the way down to five before exploding to the basket and making a left-handed layup over three Pacer defenders to put the Bulls up by two. It was Rose’s first layup of the game. Before Rose’s layup, Kyle Korver was instrumental for Chicago — he scored or assisted on 12 straight Chicago points during one stretch in the fourth-quarter, and kept a key offensive rebound alive that eventually turned into a pair of Rose free throws with 2:31 remaining.
After Rose’s layup, Danny Granger’s contested three missed on the Pacers’ final possession, and the Pacers are now in a 3-0 hole. Indiana should be proud of their effort in all three losses, and clearly has something to build on for next season if they don’t pull of a miracle and come back, but ultimately they didn’t have enough offensive firepower to crack Chicago’s dominant defense.
Chicago has some things to worry about, but ultimately a win is a win in the playoffs, and Chicago has taken three in a row. The Pacers have shown that the Bulls’ offense can be slowed to a crawl if you can trap Derrick Rose effectively and force the rest of the Bulls to beat you, but the next team that Chicago faces may not be able to trap Rose nearly as well as the Pacers have, and there’s a very good chance Carlos Boozer will be a lot more effective than he has been against the Pacers. The Bulls have shown some cracks in their armor, but they’ve yet to give up a game. Until somebody actually beats them, they shouldn’t be taken any less seriously than they were at the end of the regular season.
