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Bulls turn up the 'D,' turn tables on Jazz
Posted: Thursday June 11, 1998 02:22 PM
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SAN ANTONIO (CNN/SI) -- In one week, the Utah Jazz went from near
world beaters to nearly just another bump in the road in the Chicago Bulls’ march to
one more championship.
What happened? How could the Jazz, winners of Game 1 in the NBA Finals,
suddenly find themselves down 3-1 and facing elimination in Game 5 in
Chicago on Friday night?
The fact is, not much has changed.
The Bulls did switch up their defense a little bit on the pick-and-roll,
Utah’s bread-and-butter play. And Utah has changed some of the
pick-and-rolls it runs.
But these are not wholesale changes.
The Jazz run the pick-and-roll from virtually every spot on the floor, and
they can move the angle of the play any time. They run it left-to-right the
majority of times, but they can run it in the middle, or right-to-left,
they can run it high or low. It’s not that they’re changing their offense.
They’re just picking different ways to run the plays in their offense.
After their Game 3 blowout, the Jazz decided -- smartly -- not to abandon
what they do. They just had to come up with enough mental toughness to
handle the Chicago defense. And they did, for the most part.
In the end, though, when it’s time to be accountable, it was Chicago coming
up with the big plays and the clutch free throws.
What has happened in this series is that the Bulls are simply working
really hard on defense, and it’s paying off. Their hands are up, they’re
active, they’re helping out ... and they’re frustrating the heck out of the
Jazz.
Utah’s superstar, Karl Malone,
knows when he drives into the lane it’s going to be like diving into a pool
of piranhas. I think it’s gotten him a little tentative. The Bulls’ defense
has the whole Utah team a little tentative.
Nowhere to hide: The Bulls have forced the Jazz into an average of 18.7 turnovers a game in the past three losses (AP) | |
There’s an important difference between these two teams, and it’s been
evident in these Finals.
Utah is a lot like the San Antonio team I coached. Neither has a lot of
guys who can get their own shots. The Jazz need to execute their plays on
offense, and they do. Few teams do it better.
On the other hand, you can play great defense on Chicago’s triangle offense
and get the Bulls down to 8 on the shot clock, and they get the ball to Michael Jordan
or Scottie
Pippen. Then they can create and get a good shot, or get fouled, or get
a teammate a good shot.
That makes it awfully difficult on Utah.
If there’s an MVP of this series so far, it has to be Jordan. He’s taken a
lot of shots and he really hasn’t shot that well (he’s hitting 44.7 percent
of his shots, averaging almost 26 shots a game). But if Jordan isn’t making
his jump shots, he can find other ways of shooting that will hurt you.
He’ll figure out some way to beat you.
One of the reasons Chicago is Chicago is because of Jordan’s leadership.
He’s an animal. He’s like a hungry shark. He’s going to do what he needs to
do to win.
When you take that edge and couple it with so much experience ... it’s
really what separates Jordan from Malone.
And, when all is said and done, it’s what separates the Bulls from the
Jazz.
Bob Hill, a former head coach for the Indiana Pacers and the
San Antonio Spurs, is
the NBA analyst for CNNSI, the 24-hour sports news network from CNN and
Sports Illustrated. His column appears weekly throughout the playoffs
exclusively on CNNSI.com.
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NBA Finals
