Rose ready for another rough series against the Hawks
Now that the Bulls have gotten past the Indiana Pacers into the second round of the playoffs, equipment manager John Ligmanowski can pack away the body armor and extra band-aids.
No opponent will try to rough things up the way the Pacers did, right?
Well, the players don't see it that way. Many are expecting more of the same when they host Game 1 against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday at the United Center.
“I think it's going to be tougher,” Derrick Rose said Saturday at the Berto Center. “They've got guys who can really jump and contest my shot. Really big guys, (Zaza) Pachulia; (Al) Horford, he's a tough player. If anything, I'm hoping for the worst, because it's going to be tough this series.”
Anyone familiar with the Hawks would figure their rough play begins and ends with Pachulia. He's the 6-foot-11 center from Georgia — the former Soviet Republic, not the United States.
The statistics support that observation. Atlanta delivered 6 flagrant fouls this season, 3 by Pachulia, according to nba.com.
“It was real physical the first game we played them,” Bulls forward Taj Gibson said of the Hawks. “They have the talent, a lot of bodies. So I'm looking forward to seeing a real physical game.”
“I don't know what they're going to do,” added Luol Deng. “They could do what Indiana did and we won that series. We've just got to be ready for a lot of different things.”
Rose is trying to keep the same game plan no matter how rough the fouls. He shot 60 free throws in five games against Indiana.
During the regular season, Rose went 14-for-15 at the foul line when he scored 34 points in a 94-76 win over the Hawks at the United Center. In the two games the Bulls played at Philips Arena, Rose shot just 6 free throws.
“The whole series, I've just got to keep taking it the hole,” Rose said. “I've got to make them foul me. It's going to be a tough series.”
Rose felt disappointed for former teammate Kirk Hinrich, who suffered a hamstring injury in Atlanta's Game 6 victory over Orlando on Thursday, and is listed a doubtful for the series.
Hinrich was Rose's designated mentor during the past two season. The Bulls traded Hinrich to Washington on draft night last June to free more cap space and the Wizards passed him along to Atlanta on Feb. 23.
“Knowing that he was my veteran and I was his rook one time, yeah, I feel bad about the injury,” Rose said. “I'm just worried about what's going on over here.”
The Bulls are trying not to look at the season series against the Hawks for guidance on how to predict the second round. In the first meeting, the Bulls squandered a 17-point halftime lead. In the next two, the Bulls blew out Atlanta and led by an astonishing 47 points in the fourth quarter of the March 22 game at Philips Arena.
“You have to judge it more by how a team is playing right now,” Thibodeau said. “That's what we've got to be ready for and they're playing at a very high level right now.”
Rose piled up 30 points and 10 assists in the third contest, hitting 6-of-8 shots from 3-point range. Deng also played well against Atlanta, outscoring counterpart Marvin Williams 60-21.
“They're playing with a lot of confidence,” Rose said. “They believe in each other and they believe they can win. When everybody on a team believes that, it's tough to slow a team down.”